Secretary of State’s Delivery Unit – Senior Delivery Advisor in City of London

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people's day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.

Strategy Directorate Strategy is a fast-paced, dynamic, and challenging environment. Our purpose is to give a high quality and timely service to Ministers and the Permanent Secretary, and to ensure that Defra group is able to achieve the strategic objectives we set out in our Business Plan. We work in support of Defra’s strategic objectives, look at how we can join up with other initiatives across the organisation to get things done, support each other to deliver excellent work, help Defra to make good decisions and we identify and unblock barriers to change.

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups.

This role can be based at any Main Defra Policy Hub. We value flexible working; you will be expected to work 60% of your working week in your contractual office.

We are looking for a skilled and dynamic Senior Delivery Advisor to support Defra’s Secretary of State to deliver her top priorities. The Delivery Unit is a capable and high-performing team that drives forward the Secretary of State’s priorities, made up of a mix of analysts and delivery advisors. Sitting at the centre of Defra, we are positioned close to Secretary of State’s Private Office and other central teams. This role will be intellectually stimulating and extremely stretching. It will demand a blend of analytical acumen, strategic thinking and the ability to influence at the highest levels.

Your role will balance two main functions:

• A traditional Delivery Unit operating model where you will work to define and drive priorities, testing the strength of delivery plans, monitoring performance, assessing delivery confidence and supporting policy teams to tackle challenges. You will drive progress in the department through delivery routines and sharp, actionable advice.
• Delivering time-limited sprints commissioned by the political team, the Perm Sec or other senior officials. Recent examples of this have included red-teaming Defra’s reforms of its largest farming fund, a deep dive into the challenges of the flood insurance market and shaping a new taskforce to monitor infrastructure delivery by the water sector.

You will work closely with senior decision-makers across Defra and its ALBs to deliver the Secretary of State’s priorities. You will be given responsibility over your own portfolio, where you will be expected to build deep knowledge and relationships to unlock progress, whilst also remaining agile to emerging priorities. In this role you will benefit from the support of a fun, friendly and collaborative team that embraces diversity and respects individuality, and actively encourages learning and development.

Main responsibilities include:

• Developing strategic connections and trusted relationships, helping the Delivery Unit align departmental activity with the Secretary of State’s priorities. This may be at the divisional level, working between our strategy and analytical teams, or across the department and its ALBs, building credibility with Ministerial Private Offices, senior leaders and their teams.
• Providing clear, evidence-based advice for the Secretary of State, Ministers and senior leaders on delivery. Your advice should facilitate consensus, inform the prioritisation of action and ensure tangible benefits are realised.
• Independently bring challenge and lead change, being a partner to key areas, ensuring analytical rigour and critical thinking are used to achieve priority outcomes.
• Track and report on progress against the Secretary of State’s priorities, whilst being conscious of the bigger picture, wider departmental interests and the trade-offs that exist.