Project Support Officer

Government Recruitment Service; Chelmsford; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A government agency in Chelmsford is looking for a Project Support Officer to play a crucial role in transforming services for civil servants. The position involves supporting project management processes, managing resources, and producing essential reports. Candidates should have strong skills in project management and financial monitoring. This role allows contributions to a significant program aimed at enhancing service delivery across departments. Travel may be needed for meetings or training events.

Qualifications

• Strong skills in project management and process support.
• Experience in monitoring resources and reporting.
• Ability to manage risks and support project delivery.

Responsibilities

• Monitor project resources and support recruitment activities.
• Produce reports and project plans for senior management.
• Manage risks and issues while supporting financial controls.

Skills

Project management

Resource management

Report production

Financial monitoring

Relationship building

Tools

MS Planner

Job description

Are you ready to play a key role in transforming services for over 250,000 civil servants?

This role offers the chance to contribute to a programme that will provide the essential tools to more than 250,000 civil servants in HR, Finance, and Commercial.

The Synergy programme will develop a Common Operating Model, replace the Single Operating Platform (SOP) with a new technology platform, introduce a new Business Process Service contract, and establish a new shared service organisation at the cluster level.

The Project Support Officers will enable the smooth running of the programme by supporting the PMO or project managers and programme managers in one of the wider Synergy Team areas through the operation of project management processes and the coordination of business management actions and activities on their behalf.

This role is aligned to the Project Support Officer 2 standard in the Project Delivery Capability Framework (pages 202-203), 6.7775_IPA_Project Delivery Capability Framework 2021. This framework provides guidance on the skills and behaviours we value.

If joining the PMO Team, the post holder will:

• Lead resourcing for the programme team, monitor resources and support recruitment activities.
• Roll out timesheet recording across Synergy@Defra, drive compliance, and develop relationships with Finance teams.
• Line manage the programme team Executive Officer, supervise administrative tasks and coordinate workshops.
• Produce reports, project plans and secure updates on risks, issues and commissions.
• Support financial controls, monitor project spend and contribute to budgets and the business case.
• Coordinate governance forum actions and support other emerging team needs.

If joining one of the wider teams – Finance & Commercial, Digital & Data, HR, or Change – the post holder will:

• Track and manage functional programme actions using MS Planner and remove blockers.
• Monitor and report on programme performance with statistics and key information.
• Manage risks, issues, assumptions and dependencies and escalates as appropriate.
• Plan and schedule activities to route to green and support governance forums.
• Support project delivery activities such as business readiness.

This role can be based at any Defra office where there is capacity. Travel to other sites and overnight stays may be required for meetings or training events.