Major Projects Review Group Lead, Infrastructure and Projects Authority

at  Cabinet Office

JOB SUMMARY

The IPA is the government’s centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects. We sit at the heart of government, reporting to the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. Our core teams include experts in infrastructure, project delivery and project finance who work with government departments and industry. We support the successful delivery of all types of infrastructure and major projects; ranging from railways, schools, hospitals and housing, to defence, IT and major transformation programmes. We lead the project delivery and project finance professions across government.
Our purpose is to continuously improve the way infrastructure and major projects are delivered, in order to support government priorities and improve people’s lives. We aspire to create the best-performing project system of any country in the world.
The IPA works with government and industry to ensure projects are delivered efficiently and effectively, and to improve performance over time. We work on the overall project delivery system, which includes the projects, people and processes that together create the right environment for successful delivery. We measure how well the system is performing, so we can learn important lessons and continuously improve project performance over time.

JOB DESCRIPTION

This is an influential and highly stretching Grade 7 role which combines regular senior engagement with the MPRG Chairs, including Permanent Secretaries and other senior officials at the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury.
Set within the Strategy and Policy Team, as Head of the MPRG you will influence a huge range of areas with your thinking. Projects like High Speed 2, Sizewell C, the New Hospitals Programme and the Future Farming and Countryside Programme are just some of the areas you can expect to cover in a typical week.
You can expect to be stretched and supported as you work with the MPRG Chairs and departments to achieve appropriate and proportionate scrutiny and support for government’s largest projects.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide high quality advice to the MPRG Co-Chairs (Chief Operating Officer of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office, Directors General for Public Spending and Growth and Innovation, HM Treasury and the IPA CEO) and other senior officials on all areas of MPRG including current projects and future strategic direction of the MPRG.
• Deliver an efficient and effective secretariat function for MPRG, managing panel meetings and keeping the process under review to ensure the panel is best placed to provide robust assurance of the Government’s most high risk, high value projects.
• Managing the MPRG forward schedule, including applying a strategic Missions lens to aid prioritisation.
• Building MPRG’s capacity including recruiting new panel members, reputation management and identifying risks or areas of under-delivery and intervening swiftly to mitigate them.
• Develop and maintain excellent working relationships with HM Treasury and panel members, who are senior level executives in industry and other government departments.
• Focus on deploying data and expert insight to ensure decisions are evidence driven.
• Run and directly manage a team, support team members to deliver stretching objectives, role model and promote the IPA’s values and leadership behaviours.
• Work to promote a “one IPA” corporate culture through active collaboration across various workstreams, seeking to build effectiveness and make the IPA “greater than the sum of its parts”. A key element of this role is building excellent relationships across the IPA, synthesising data and insight from a variety of different teams and sources.