AI Delivery and Oversight Lead

Can you design and implement a structured programme management framework, tailoring Agile/Lean practices to maintain delivery momentum across the product life cycle? Have you overseen complex programme delivery by managing inter-team dependencies, balancing budgets, suppliers and people to keep milestones on track? Do you excel at communicating across technical and non-technical audiences, aligning senior stakeholders to a clear roadmap, and influencing decisions under tight timescales? If so, we’d love to hear from you!

DfT is a high-profile department at the heart of UK government. We work with agencies and partners to support the transport network that helps businesses and gets people and goods travelling around the country. We plan and invest to make journeys better.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary.
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Find out more about what it’s like working at DFT. Join our Advanced Analytics Division (AAD) – a dynamic, multidisciplinary team driving innovation at the heart of the Department for Transport. We combine expertise from GORS, GSS, GSE, and DDaT professions across London, Hastings, Leeds, and Birmingham to tackle the most complex challenges. Using cutting-edge techniques, including AI, machine learning, modelling, and Digital Twins, we deliver impactful solutions to high‑profile problems. Our vision? To make DfT a leader in AI, shaping the future of transport and data science nationwide. Be part of something transformative!

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Develop a structured programme management framework tailored to the AI Programme’s goals, including milestones, timelines, and progress indicators.
• Monitor and report the team’s progress across individual projects and longer‑term pieces of work measuring them against deliverables, identifying risks and implementing measures to address them proactively.
• Ensuring that projects within the programme pass through the appropriate Governance and Assurance steps within the Department and GDS.
• Develop regular updates and progress reports for senior leadership, ensuring transparency and accountability.
• Collaborate with other teams and directorates to ensure coordinated efforts across the department.
• Line Management of AI Programme Co‑ordination Lead.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.