JOB SUMMARY

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people’s day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink. The Geospatial (Land) Programme is looking for an experienced project manager to lead the delivery of Defra’s Land Model Workstreams.

The purpose of the Geospatial (Land) Programme is to support the delivery of Defra outcomes, improve efficiencies and support the public through reducing data debt across the Defra group that will ensure policy and delivery teams are using consistent data to drive decisions, thereby reducing the impact of conflicting policy interventions. The successful candidate will achieve this by:

• Delivering an authoritative source of land use and boundary map for England (common land base map) generated from Defra’s insights, which will support a real time view of land use change
• Providing a common map of land to facilitate collaboration with cross government departments, local authorities and land managers to support delivery of the land use framework and the planning reform
• Providing accurate data that can be exploited by innovative technology, for example drone surveillance and AI
• It will support streamlining of grants processes, by providing improved access to land use data for spatial targeting of subsidies, grants and financial incentives more efficiently and reducing the risk of fraud and error
• Integrate existing foundational land datasets for England derived from ALBs and 3rd parties into one data repository (Defra Land Model) to:
• Prevent duplication and maximize investment in licensing
• To support data sharing across Defra group for the effective delivery of outcomes
• Development and delivery of a common geospatial data standard framework in collaboration with DDTS, CDO and Geospatial Commission to enable sharing of data across Defra Group and externally
• Establishing a Centre of Excellence to equip teams with the skills to exploit the land model and support the use of geospatial capability to solve operational needs and policy development. This will be done in collaboration with the Government Geography Profession

QUALIFICATIONS

Knowledge and experience of Project Management Methodology supported by professional qualifications such as:
PRINCE2 Practitioner
Agile Project Management Practitioner
APM Project Management Qualification
APM Chartered Project Professional
Project Leadership Programme
PMI Project Management Professional
Leading and Managing Project Workstreams

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Project Management best practice and methodologies.

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)
• 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

AS A PROJECT MANAGER WITH DEFRA YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES WILL INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

• Delivery – Lead the Land model workstreams to deliver the agreed outcomes within time, cost and quality constraints, recognising delivery approach is Agile.
• Project Management – Day to day management and leadership of the project and the project team, ensuring the agile delivery team meet the required Defra project controls and assurance. Act as the key link between the Defra Programme team needs and the external Delivery team.
• Design and refine the project structure appropriate to stage.
• Business Case – Plan and coordinate development of the Business Case at all stages ensuring assurance route is mapped and resources committed.
• Ensure delivery of a quality case to agreed milestones.
• Procurement- work with Commercial leads to develop supplier tenders to agreed schedules.
• Resources – Schedule / manage resources to deliver the workstreams as aligned to key milestones.
• Benefits Realisation – Ensure benefits are identified, understood, measured, tracked and owned. Ensure appropriate Benefits Realisation Strategy is in place and monitor longer term delivery of benefits against the Business Case and engage Benefits specialists where needed for support.
• Stakeholder Management – ensure key stakeholders are identified and develop effective relationships.
• Support the Data Lead on the Communication plan.
• Governance – Ensuring robust Governance is in place to support the Programme lead, Director, and SRO in making effective decisions- review regularly.
• Assurance – Support or set appropriate project assurance as agreed with the Delivery Lead.
• Business Change- ensure the project manages Business change effectively throughout its lifecycle, calling on specialist Change management as needed.

The purpose of the Geospatial (Land) Programme is to support the delivery of Defra outcomes, improve efficiencies and support the public through reducing data debt across the Defra group that will ensure policy and delivery teams are using consistent data to drive decisions, thereby reducing the impact of conflicting policy interventions. The successful candidate will achieve this by:

• Delivering an authoritative source of land use and boundary map for England (common land base map) generated from Defra’s insights, which will support a real time view of land use change
• Providing a common map of land to facilitate collaboration with cross government departments, local authorities and land managers to support delivery of the land use framework and the planning reform
• Providing accurate data that can be exploited by innovative technology, for example drone surveillance and AI
• It will support streamlining of grants processes, by providing improved access to land use data for spatial targeting of subsidies, grants and financial incentives more efficiently and reducing the risk of fraud and error
• Integrate existing foundational land datasets for England derived from ALBs and 3rd parties into one data repository (Defra Land Model) to:
• Prevent duplication and maximize investment in licensing
• To support data sharing across Defra group for the effective delivery of outcomes
• Development and delivery of a common geospatial data standard framework in collaboration with DDTS, CDO and Geospatial Commission to enable sharing of data across Defra Group and externally
• Establishing a Centre of Excellence to equip teams with the skills to exploit the land model and support the use of geospatial capability to solve operational needs and policy development. This will be done in collaboration with the Government Geography Professio