22720 - Prison Estate Strategy and Priority Project Lead - Prisons Directorate

This role would suit a confident and adaptable policy professional who enjoys working at pace, can quickly build expertise in new subject areas, and is comfortable operating in a highly visible environment with significant ministerial, parliamentary and cross-government interest.

Key responsibilities will likely include:

• Leading and coordinating the prison estates approach to future Spending Reviews.
• Overseeing policy development and departmental responses relating to the Independent Review into the Prison System.
• Delivering high-priority, time-bound strategic projects across the estates portfolio, including work on accommodation requirements for specific cohorts.
• Providing high-quality advice, submissions and briefing to senior leaders, Ministers and Parliament.
• Responding effectively to emerging issues, ministerial commissions and other time-critical priorities.
• Building and maintaining strong relationships across MoJ, HMPPS, other government departments and external stakeholders.
• Line managing at least one SEO, providing leadership, support and development opportunities.
• Playing an active role within the Estates Senior Management Team and contributing to an inclusive, supportive and high-performing team culture.

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• The ability to rapidly understand complex issues and develop high-quality, evidence-based policy at pace.
• Strong relationship-building skills and the ability to work effectively across organisational boundaries.
• Excellent drafting, briefing and presentation skills, with experience communicating complex issues to senior audiences.
• The ability to manage multiple competing priorities and deliver high-quality outcomes under pressure.
• Strategic thinking and the ability to set direction across teams and stakeholders.
• Experience of influencing and collaborating with senior leaders, operational partners, other government departments and external organisations.
• Strong leadership skills, with a commitment to delivering through others, developing individuals, empowering colleagues and fostering high performance.

Desirable:

• Experience working on prison and/or Criminal Justice System policy.
• Experience using analytical evidence to inform policy development and decision-making.

Additional Information

• If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.
• Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.
• The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.

You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application, including your CV, statement of suitability and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

Experience

You will be asked to provide a CV during the application process in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.

You will also be asked to upload a Statement of Suitability of no more than 1,000 words stating what you would bring to the role, with reference to the Skills and Experience listed above.

Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the Statement of Suitability. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths.

Interviews

Interviews will be carried out remotely.

At interview you will be assessed against behaviours where you will be asked to provide examples of how you have demonstrated them. In addition, you will also be asked strength-based questions.

Behaviours:

• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture

It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in and use the WHO or STAR model to explain:

• WHO - What it was? How you approached the work/situation? What the Outcomes were, what did you achieve? Or
• STAR - What was the Situation? What were the Tasks? What Action did you take? What were the Results of your actions?

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade: Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours

Strengths:

It is difficult to prepare for strength type questions. However, you can think through your answers, focus on your achievements and aspects you enjoy and decide how these can be applied in the organisation and role. While strengths questions are shorter and we do not expect a full STAR response, the panel is interested in your first reaction to the question and information or reasoning to support this. Further information on Civil Service Strengths can be found via this link: Success Profiles: Strengths

Interviews are expected to take place in October 2026.

Contact information

Please do get in touch with natasha.beebe1@justice.gov.uk if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team.

Working Arrangements & Further Information

The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity.

Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.

For nationally advertised roles: All successful candidates will be appointed to the nearest viable office nearest to their home postcode and on its respective pay scale. This will be at either a HQ building (subject to desk allocation, a Justice Collaboration Centre (JCC) or a Justice Satellite Office (JSO) – See Map. All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity).

For current