Office for National Statistics
Business Case Manager
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The locations for this role are Newport and Titchfield (Fareham).
This role is aligned to ONS hybrid working principles, which focus on attending the office with purpose. The postholder will be expected to contribute to the organisation’s overall 40% office attendance, in line with business and role requirements. This level of attendance will apply for most of the programme, although requirements may vary at different stages, with periods of increased or reduced on-site working in response to census priorities, delivery phases and business need.
The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.
Job Summary
Census 2031 represents our most ambitious data collection project yet – a once-in-a-decade opportunity to capture a complete picture of everyone living in England and Wales. Building on the digital success of 2021, we're pioneering new ways to reach every household and community, ensuring no one is left uncounted. This vital work will provide the foundation for policy decisions, resource allocation, and community planning for the next decade.
Job Description
The Business Case Manager creates and maintains a strong business case to justify the necessary investment in a project. This determines whether the project is, and remains, desirable, viable, and achievable. A Business Case Manager may operate in a Programme Management Office (PMO) in any Directorate across the organisation delivering projects/programmes/portfolio to help realise our organisational strategy. These PMO's will vary in size, scope, complexity and delivery methodology.
Key Responsibilities
- Leads the planning, development, drafting, and oversees the production of business cases. Is ready to challenge expert input and ensures compliance with organisational and Treasury requirements. Uses insights from similar projects to guide business case preparation.
- Creates and provides guidance and advice to project teams on business case requirements and development using organisational templates and the HMT 5 case model.
- Presents the business case rationale to senior managers and project governance forums. Collaborates with key stakeholders to anticipate and address issues and delays while engaging with senior management.
- Ensures that all relevant organisational factors for change are included within a comprehensive business case and provides a clear rationale for preferred options.
- Leads the adoption of configuration management techniques to maintain the business case's validity throughout the project life cycle and updates project sponsors as needed.
- Leads stakeholder engagement to identify, define, and quantify benefits, and negotiates with stakeholders to agree on key benefits.
- Manages and engages with key stakeholders to support business case production and ensure alignment with benefits realisation.
- Using digital tools applies data analytics to develop robust business cases, assess project viability and track benefits realisation.
Person Specification
Essential Criteria:
- Leading the development, review and assurance of complex business cases using HM Treasury's Green Book Five Case Model (or equivalent recognised methodology), ensuring proposals are strategically aligned, evidence-based and demonstrate value for money.
- Analysing complex information, data and evidence to evaluate options, assess affordability, benefits, risks and dependencies, and provide clear recommendations to support investment decisions and project or programme governance.
- Identifying, defining, quantifying and managing benefits throughout the project and programme lifecycle, ensuring intended outcomes are measurable, achievable and aligned to strategic and organisational objectives.
- Applying a strong understanding of the project and programme lifecycle to ensure business cases remain valid and deliverable, including the management of governance, assurance, risks, assumptions, dependencies, change control and ongoing business justification.
- Leading, directing and influencing multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders in a matrix-management environment, without direct line-management authority, whilst negotiating and influencing senior leaders and governance boards to secure agreement, resolve complex issues and achieve successful, valued outcomes.
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Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Making Effective Decisions
- Working Together
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Business Case Development - Practitioner: Project Delivery Capability Framework
- Benefits Management - Practitioner: Project Delivery Capability Framework
Alongside your salary of £56,861, Office for National Statistics contributes £16,472 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.
Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.
Inclusion & Accessibility
At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.
If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.
ONS are committed to flexible ways of working that support a healthy work-life balance. ONS has already considered how this job could be right sized for applicants working flexibly and we are happy to explore options with you about working part time, in a job share or flexibly, in line with our hybrid working policies.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
Security Clearance
For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.
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At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:
- Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
- UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
- Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
- Security Services records.
Visa Sponsorship
ONS can offer visa sponsorship as part of this recruitment campaign. However, applicants must still hold valid right to work in the UK at the point employment commences. To work at the ONS, candidates must meet both UK right to work and security clearance requirements.
If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.
Application Process
Number of Stages: 2 stage process
Stage 1: Application
Stage 2: Interview
Stage 1 – Application
The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, CV, skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.
A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1250, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result). You should provide specific examples from high-complexity projects and/or programmes, clearly evidencing your personal contribution, the complexity of the environment, the actions you took and the outcomes achieved.
Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.
When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass may be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.
Stage 2 – Interview
If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert.
Interviews will be carried out via Microsoft Teams.
You will be required to provide a 5 minute presentation at interview. The presentation topic will be emailed to candidates who have passed the initial online application stage, 1 week prior to interview. This presentation will assess candidates against the technical Business Case Management.
Our main locations are Newport (South Wales), Darlington and Titchfield.
A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.
Important Dates:
- The Sift will be conducted from Monday 17th August
- Interviews will be
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