Do you want to be part of an energetic, innovative team and bring your skills to one of the biggest changes to the administration of the Civil Service in decades?

We’re looking for people who are flexible, intuitive and are comfortable taking high levels of volume, speed and complexity in their stride.

An exciting new role is available in the Synergy Programme, a cross-departmental group formed in response to Government Business Service’s request for individual departments to group together in ‘clusters’ to drive efficiencies, increase buying power and improve the quality of shared service to our end users – our people.

The Synergy Programme is the largest of five departmental clusters, comprising the Ministry of Justice, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Home Office. The Department for Work and Pensions hosts the Synergy Programme. Your work will impact Shared Services arrangements and support almost a quarter of a million officials and public servants across the four departments and arm’s length bodies who deliver some of the most vital public services in our country.

The success of the programme is crucial, as Civil Servants rely on shared services to provide business critical tools in human resources, finance, payroll and procurement. It affects everything we do, from joining a department as a new starter, the way we claim for expenses, how we buy goods and services such as our laptops and canteen provisions, to the way we receive our pensions when we retire.

Most importantly, we’re looking for applications from people who can also demonstrate a passion for our core ambition - delivering a once in a generation, transformed service that Civil Servants will use as a result of the Synergy Programme.

The role of the Project Planner is to collaborate with all internal and external stakeholders to ensure all aspects of the programme are clearly defined and controlled using the schedule.

You will provide clarity on key activities and milestones to define what, when and how work will be organised to ensure the outcomes of the programme can be achieved, with the resources available.

You will lead on all aspects of planning, which will include the development, updating and monitoring of plans and schedules.

You will identify activities, milestones, interdependencies, risks and outputs for the programme and work with the project management teams to track and monitor progress against the plan throughout the lifecycle of the programme.

You are able to understand and explain the impact of change to the schedules and work with the project teams to mitigate any delays.

Successful candidates can be expected to:

• Support the Synergy Programme by conducting effective internal and external stakeholder engagement at all levels to deliver and maintain integrated plans for the programme.
• Support capability building and the use of best practice in planning and reporting.
• Project performance and controls – Monitor and analyse information, reporting progress, slippage and highlighting areas of risk and opportunity.
• Plan, schedule and run planning meetings ensuring appropriate methods are used, and align to team and programme priorities.
• Support secretariat duties as required delivering meaningful outputs, auditable logs, and records for Synergy governance boards.
• Develop and generate planning reports and data to align with governance reporting processes to support effective decision making.
• Support updates and development of the Synergy Dashboard for the Leadership Teams.
• Ensure Change Management processes are followed to agree and document changes to deliverables as agreed with stakeholders.
• Work to unify competing programmes and workstreams, spot opportunities and break down silos, manage interdependencies to ensure an end-to-end programme view. Including the tracking and oversight of supporting supplier schedules, ensuring they are correctly integrated into our work management schedules.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas. Relocation costs will not be reimbursed.

Hybrid Working

This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.