Manchester Digital Campus, Programme Director transformation in Leeds

The Government Property Agency is the largest property holder in government, with more than £2.1 billion in property assets and over 55% of the government’s office estate. We are transforming the way the Civil Service works by creating great places to work, leading the largest commercial office programme in the UK, working towards halving carbon emissions from government offices, and achieving greater value for taxpayers. We are looking for innovative, solutions-focused people to join our team.

Our four core values are at the heart of everything we do. They shape our culture and guide how we work, lead and grow together:

• Striving for excellence - We always aim to deliver great results.
• Empowering through respect - We insist on fair treatment for all, always.
• Acting with integrity - We consistently do the right thing.
• Succeeding together - We rely on each other to achieve success.

We are committed to representing the communities we serve by making Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) part of everything we do. Our strong emphasis on EDI is not just about driving inclusion across our organisation, it is also about ensuring our services meet the needs of government departments and the civil servants who use our spaces. To ensure that we are always recruiting and retaining a diverse mix of talent, we are particularly inviting applications from candidates who are disabled, ethnically or gender diverse, and people who identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

The MDC team are all expected to have a significant presence in Manchester (averaging at least 2 days a week). Regular travel is expected to attend GPA offices and partner locations. The Manchester Digital Campus (MDC) is part of the Government’s Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP), and is an exciting transformation across multiple Government departments, with significant ministerial, public, industrial and media interest.

MDC will strengthen HMG’s skills, innovation and enable multi-department careers, whilst learning from and contributing to the exciting digital/AI sector in Manchester and the North West. It will directly support economic growth, skills, Civil Service reform (PAS) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

As the Transformation Programme Director for the Manchester Digital Campus (MDC) you will be working with all the departments involved to change the way Government works, removing the barriers to collaboration and creating career pathways to address the systemic challenges that the MDC departments face. You’ll focus on ensuring we maximise benefit to the UK from MDC, and supporting the journey for each individual involved; that spans everything from social value to interoperability through to transition into service.

You will oversee stakeholder management and communication, ensuring the very broad set of people and organisations involved have the information and connection they need, when they need it. You will oversee and develop a central view of MDC’s risks, issues, opportunities and dependencies, using the Programme board to ensure action is taken to treat, terminate or an active choice to tolerate.

You will maintain focus on maximising system benefits to the UK as a whole, ensuring the whole programme is aligned around benefit realisation; that will include following through on the Ministerial/Perm Sec set strategic priorities for MDC. With your PMO, you will support the SRO in putting appropriate delegations and programme controls in place, ensuring accountability for performance and aligned incentives.

You will be instrumental in developing the Full Business Case (Summer 2027), with the GPA CIO team, obtaining agreement through the Programme Board, SRO, cross-government ministers and HMT.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• You will oversee the programme, setting up the Lines of Development, ensuring coherent and appropriately timely action to collectively deliver in 2032.
• You will focus on benefit realisation, and specifically the Ministerial/Perm Sec set priorities for the programme, ensuring the strategy is matured, opportunity maximised and concepts proven before Full Business Case.
• You will mature and oversee central governance, both that which is bespoke to MDC, and its connection into the wider business across multiple departments.
• You will support the SRO with NISTA, NAO and GIA audits, and drive the FBC approval through.
• You will develop the single source of truth across Risk, Opportunities, Issues, Dependencies and Stakeholder mapping, using the Programme Board to ensure timely action is taken.
• You will work closely with finance and commercial colleagues ensuring appropriate delegation, spend controls and that the financial contributions to MDC from across government materialise.