Child Maintenance Service - Programme Management Office Lead

Location: Falkirk; Brierley Hill; Leicester; Newcastle upon Tyne; Hastings; Birkenhead; Woolwell

Salary: 58,961 - 69,399 per year

Employment: Flexible

Category: Programme Manager

Posted: 2026-11-02

Valid to: 2026-11-16

Employer: Department for Work and Pensions

As the UK government’s largest public service provider, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policies. The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) supports parents who are unable to reach a private financial agreement by ensuring – and when necessary, enforcing – their legal responsibility to contribute to their child’s living costs. Our mission is simple: to get money to children, because it makes a real difference in their lives.

While we’ve made significant progress in transforming our service, we remain ambitious about what more we can achieve for the families who rely on us. CMS is a dynamic and rewarding place to work. Step into any of our service centres and you’ll find passionate, dedicated professionals committed to supporting our customers. We are proud to foster an inclusive and diverse workforce where everyone can thrive. If you're looking to make a difference, this could be the career for you.

This is a fantastic opportunity to start or grow a fulfilling career in the Civil Service. We offer a flexible work-life balance, along with opportunities for growth, challenge, and personal development.

The Project Management Office Leads’ main responsibilities are to lead and manage all project and programme planning and reporting activity that supports the delivery of the CMS Modernisation and CMS priorities agenda. The role includes line management responsibility for a small team of SEOs and HEOs who have their own responsibilities, however, will require clear direction and support.

The Project Management Office Lead will have accountability and responsibility to:

• Lead on the design, build and implementation activity required to embed new & refreshed change reporting & governance routes across CMS
• Lead planning activity across Child Maintenance Service ensuring governance is adhered to
• Lead the reporting of Project / Programme delivery across both Child Maintenance Service and DWP Service Modernisation Programme
• Lead on the development of Business Cases and ongoing management of the benefits articulated in the case
• Provide clear direction to Project Managers and Change Leads to ensure adherence to formal governance arrangements
• Ensure all change across CMS is clearly defined, governed and approved in accordance with the CMS Governance Model
• Lead on the benefits realisation of initiatives across Child Maintenance Service and DWP Service Modernisation Programme
• Engage effectively with project and digital leads to provide advice and support with changes that are going through the project lifecycle
• Line manages a small team of colleagues providing steers, coaching, advice, and support

Essential Criteria

Your personal statement will be assessed against the following essential criteria. Please ensure you provide specific, evidence-based examples that clearly demonstrate how you meet each one.

• Significant experience of leading a Project Management Office function within a complex programme or transformation environment.
• Experience of designing and embedding improvements and changes to governance and reporting across organisations.
• Strong experience of developing, integrating and maintaining project and programme plans, translating milestones, dependencies, risks and delivery information into coherent reports for senior decision-makers.
• Demonstrable experience of establishing and assuring effective governance, ensuring change is clearly defined, appropriately controlled and progressed through relevant approval routes.
• Experience of developing business cases and managing benefits, from defining measurable outcomes and ownership through to tracking and reporting benefits realisation.
• Strong stakeholder-management and communication experience, with the ability to build trusted relationships, explain complex issues clearly and influence senior leaders, delivery teams and multiple suppliers across business change and technology projects.
• Hold, or be willing to work towards, an APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ), P3O Practitioner, Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) Practitioner, Better Business Cases, or APMG Benefits Management qualification.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Changing and Improving
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of 58,961, Department for Work and Pensions contributes 17,081 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Working for DWP will include benefits such as learning and development tailored to your role, an environment with flexible working options, a culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.

Annual Leave

23 days annual leave rising with service to 30 days, plus public holidays.

Flexi Time

Access to flexible working hours scheme will be available.

Hybrid Working

This 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.

If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.

If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.

Working Hours

The Department’s contracted working hours are:

• Monday to Friday: 07:45 to 20:00
• Saturday: 08:45 to 17:00

Employees are contracted to work a set number of hours per week within these timeframes. For full-time employees, this is 37 net hours per week (equivalent to 42 gross hours, including meal breaks). For part-time employees, the number of hours will be proportionally less, based on their contract. Employees are expected to work the full number of hours for which they are contracted.

See the Candidate Pack for more of the benefits available to as a Civil Servant.