Deputy Director for Portfolio and Project Delivery

£76,000- £90,000

London, Birmingham, Belfast, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh or Salford.

Deputy Director for Portfolio and Project Delivery

About Us, We bring together business leaders and trade experts to make the UK a thriving business hub. Our network of 19 partner organisations, from the British Business Bank to the Pubs Code Adjudicator, supports businesses domestically and internationally. We connect businesses to government, attract investors, and unlock exports through trade deals. Our UK-based staff empowers colleagues in over 100 countries.

With offices in London, Darlington, and across the UK, we're here to help businesses succeed.

We have a clear mission - to grow the economy. Our role is to help businesses invest, grow and export to create jobs and opportunities right across the country.

About the Role The Deputy Director (DD) for Portfolio and Project Delivery is a critically important role in DBT's Project and Change Directorate, sitting at the heart of the Department in Corporate Services. Our goal is to drive excellence in project delivery and to deliver outcomes that support our economic growth agenda and make DBT a great place to work.

The DD for Portfolio and Project Delivery oversees DBT's Major Projects Portfolio, providing vital scrutiny, assurance, and performance reporting for our Investment Committee. As Head of the Project Delivery Profession in DBT, the role will set strategies and standards for how we best deliver our programmes and play an integral role in leading capability development for our Project Delivery Professionals.

This will be a crucial time for this role, as we mobilise our planning capability for the upcoming Spending Review and recalibrate our Major Projects Portfolio to ensure it delivers on our strategic priorities.

Key Responsibilities

• Leadership: Cohering and assuring a large and complex portfolio of critical projects and programmes to ensure we can deliver on our strategic priorities. Provide insight and advice to help inform investment decisions and prioritisation.
• Standards and Vision: Set standards for Project Delivery in DBT and define the strategic vision for the Function. Drive capacity and capability among our community of Project Delivery Professionals.
• Expert Oversight: Oversee all facets of the Function in DBT, ensuring robust policies, practices, and frameworks are in place to manage our portfolio and deliver our programmes. Ensure appropriate recruitment, learning, and career development for our cadre of PD professionals.
• Trusted Advisor: Partner with Senior Programme Leaders, acting as a trusted advisor to provide insight and informed challenge throughout the lifecycle of programmes. Build links with the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA) and with your peer network across Whitehall to share best practices and drive innovative ways of working.
• Strategic Support: Use your subject matter expertise in portfolio management and project delivery to support the Department as we implement our Spending Review settlement and design delivery plans for the years ahead.
• Team Leadership: Lead a team of Project, Programme, and Portfolio subject matter experts and be an integral member of the Project Delivery and Change senior leadership team.

About you

For this critically important role, we are looking for a proven expert in Project Delivery, experienced in project management principes and methodologies with a proven track record of managing portfolios at scale, and using influencing skills to ensure alignment with organisational priorities. Other criteria we will be looking for in candidates include the ability to deliver successfully through others, with the flexibility to respond to emerging challenges, make decisions in an ambiguous operating environment and prioritise accordingly.

Underpinning this experience would be well-developed communication and interpersonal skills.

Experience building relationships with a wide range of stakeholders and generating and presenting briefings and reports at C-suite level, to challenge and inform decision-making.

Join us and play a key role in driving excellence in project delivery to support economic growth.

For any further information, you can contact our recruitment partners via the details below.

Andrew Timlin or Owen Quant -