Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
DD Defra Major Projects Portfolio and Project Delivery
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Bristol, London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York
Job Summary
The Portfolio Directorate acts as the central hub for delivery across the Defra Group, fulfilling the responsibilities of the Chief Project Delivery Officer. It provides strategic leadership, oversight, and coordination of major projects and programmes, with deputy and cross Government representation requirements at key departmental and governmental forums.
The Deputy Director for Portfolio and Project Delivery is responsible for ensuring the Defra Portfolio delivers against the Department’s Outcome Delivery Framework. This includes providing assurance to ExCo on delivery performance, analysing delivery data and producing clear reporting, and escalating risks or issues where necessary. The role also plays a leading role in the Project Delivery Profession, ensuring teams are set up for success and supported with strong professional standards and capability development.
This is a critical and highly influential role, spanning significant responsibility. It requires exceptional leadership and stakeholder engagement skills, operating across a complex system of senior officials and delivery partners.
The postholder also contributes as a senior leader within the Project Delivery profession, both within Defra (c.800 project delivery professionals) and across government, helping shape future capability, optimise resourcing models, and support delivery of Defra and the government’s long term ambitions.
Job Description
General Overview
Defra’s work lies at the heart of the Government’s mission to grow the economy and raise living standards. From reforming the water system to ensuring food security, showing how economic development and nature restoration work hand in hand, supporting farming profitability, resetting our trading relationship with the EU, Defra’s work is foundational to our economic way of life and to our national security and resilience. Our major programmes deliver much of this work. Defra is a ministerial department that is supported by and works collaboratively across a large number of agencies and public bodies, other government departments and external partners.
DD Defra Major Projects Portfolio and Project Delivery
This role sits at the heart of all our major programmes and the outcomes they seek to achieve. You will manage teams directly supporting major programmes, from set up, to tracking and assuring delivery, getting involved in the full breadth of Defra's policy areas. Your remit encompasses leadership of the Project Delivery Centre of Expertise, which delivers three core services: Portfolio Management, Enabling Successful Delivery, and Project Delivery People and Profession.
The Directorate acts as the central hub for delivery across the Defra Group. It provides strategic leadership, oversight, and coordination of major projects and programmes, with deputy and cross Government representation requirements at key departmental and governmental forums. It influences and is highly visible, leading Defra’s overarching delivery governance, which reports in at Senior Executive level and to the Permanent Secretary.
The position leads Defra’s Major Projects Portfolio. You will have oversight of a large and complex major delivery portfolio, with a whole life cost of c£55bn. A significant number are included in the GMPP, along with the extended portfolio and pipeline of major delivery across the Defra Group.
Key responsibilities include establishing and conducting effective second and third-line assurance for programmes within the portfolio, helping them to course correct and keep delivery on track. The Setting Up for Success service recognises that initiating programmes requires wide participation and engagement, and has received excellent feedback. It ensures new programmes and projects receive early support, strong foundations, and the right conditions to deliver.
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The postholder holds the title of Deputy Head of Project Delivery Profession, leading our profession with c800 members in core Defra, strong cross government connections and significant opportunities to influence and support the project delivery profession across the whole of Whitehall.
This is a critical, visible and highly influential role, spanning significant responsibility. It requires exceptional leadership and stakeholder engagement skills, operating across a complex system of senior officials and delivery partners.
Person Specification
Essential Criteria
- Significant experience leading complex major projects or portfolios, including GMPP, and experience of assurance, including independent reviews and implementation of recommendations.
- Demonstrated ability to lead Executive-level engagement, providing strategic insight to senior boards and influencing a wide range of senior stakeholders to support effective decision-making and delivery.
- Ability to generate high quality portfolio, programme (or equivalent) insight and analysis to drive prioritisation, decision making, escalation, and reporting.
- Investing in people. Demonstrable experience building and leading people, including capability development, workforce planning, interacting with professional standards and pride in your profession.
- Knowledge and experience of government delivery. May include knowledge of frameworks, working with NISTA delegations, HMT controls, and delivery standards and/or other external partners.
- Excellent leadership, communication, and judgement, with the ability to operate at pace, manage complexity, and set strategic direction for delivery across a system.
- Professional Qualification: Must hold relevant professional qualifications in project, programme, portfolio, or change management, such as Project Management, MSP, PRINCE2, Change Management, Portfolio Management, PLP, MPLA, or equivalent.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
- Leadership
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £86,000, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £24,914 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).
Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career with the Department and wider Civil Service. It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead. You’ll benefit from a wide range of training and development opportunities, regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing. As a Civil Service employee, you’ll be entitled to a large range of benefits.
This Includes
- 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service. This is in addition to 8 public holidays and one privilege day to mark the King's birthday.
- A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire;
- Flexible working patterns including part-time or term working and access to Flexible Working Schemes allowing you to vary your working day as long as you work your total hours;
- Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers;
- Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket or a new bicycle;
- The opportunity to use onsite facilities including fitness centres and staff canteens (where applicable); and
- Occupational sick pay.
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Application Process
As part of the application process, candidates are asked to complete a CV and Personal Statement (no more than 1250 words) on how your relevant skills and experience meet the essential criteria. Completed applications must be submitted no later than the closing date of 23:55, Sunday 16th August 2026.
Selection Process Details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
You will be assessed on the following behaviours throughout the selection process: Empowering & inspiring leadership, Seeing the big picture, Communicating & Influencing and Delivery
Assessment - Staff Engagement Exercise
This assessment will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, it is designed to support the panel’s decision-making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.
Full details of the assessment process will be provided to shortlisted candidates at the earliest opportunity. For further information regarding the assessments please visit - https://scs-assessments.co.uk/
Interviews
You will be asked to attend a panel interview, in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the essential criteria for the role. As part of the interview, we may ask you to prepare and present a short presentation or undertake a practical desktop exercise. This will be confirmed in the interview invitation. We will also ask some strengths-based questions.
Interviews will be held face to face in London.
Timeline
Please Note That This Timeline Is Indicative At This Stage And Could Be Subject To Change. The Anticipated Timetable Is As Follows
- Application Closing Date: 23:55, Sunday 16th August 2026
- Shortlisting Outcomes: W/C 31st August 2026
- Assessments: W/C 7th September 2026
- Interview: W/C 21st September 2026
- Final Outcomes: W/C 5th October 2026
Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process as it may not be possible to offer any alternative dates for assessments or Interviews.
Office Attendance
Successful applicants currently employed by the hiring Defra organisation for this post may choose to remain in their current contractual location or may choose to change contractual location to one of those listed above. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.
The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60
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