Senior programme delivery manager

Band 8c · Programme delivery manager · 634 job evaluation points

UK GDaD PCF level: Programme delivery manager

Most often performed at Civil Service grade G7 or G6.

A programme delivery manager is accountable for the delivery of complex products and services that are delivered by multiple teams or have high technical or political risk.
At this role level, you will:
manage dependencies of varying complexity, potentially planning and feeding into larger programmes and portfolios
remove blockers and manage risks, commercials, budgets and people
balance objectives and redeploy people and resources as priorities change
have an in-depth knowledge of Agile and other methodologies
be responsible for understanding, managing and communicating to complex stakeholder groups, balancing priorities
be the initial escalation point for the programme
have an awareness of the bigger picture
support the programme director by overseeing the delivery of their vision for the programme
support and coach delivery managers

Contains public sector information from the UK Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (https://understand-digital-data-roles-skills.service.gov.uk/), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.

Responsibilities

Lead the delivery of the organisation's largest or highest-risk programmes, such as replacing the core electronic patient record or a system-wide shared care record.
Coordinate delivery across several organisations in a care system, aligning their plans, governance, and go-live decisions.
Lead commercial strategy and negotiation with major suppliers, and manage programme budgets across several years.
Make sure clinical safety, information governance, and business continuity are assured at programme level before major go-lives.
Lead and develop programme and delivery managers, and set delivery standards across the portfolio.
Advise executive leaders on programme risk, options, and recovery.

Skills

Skill	Expected level	What this level means
Agile and Lean practicesUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean good practices create and tailor the right approach for a team, challenging, evaluating and iterating the approach through the life cycle experiment with new and innovative ways of working to improve delivery across the organisation act as a recognised expert and advocate for Agile and Lean approaches
Commercial managementUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: act as the escalation point and resolve large or high risk commercial management issues coach others in appropriate commercial management
Communicating between the technical and non-technicalUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: mediate between people and strengthen relationships, adopting the appropriate communication method with stakeholders at all levels manage stakeholder expectations and moderate difficult discussions about high risk and complex topics, even within constrained timescales speak on behalf of, and represent the community to, large audiences inside and outside the organisation
Community collaborationUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: solve and unblock issues between teams or departments at the highest level coach the organisation on team dynamics and conflict resolution, while also building and growing the community
Financial managementUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: influence or create complex budgets across an organisation, programme or product view manage the budget you are given and make it work
Life cycle managementUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: lead and coach teams through different phases of the life cycle ensure effective support for the product or service and its users predict, prevent, mitigate and manage potential risks at different phases of the life cycle contribute to the assessment of other teams, providing guidance and support
Maintaining delivery momentumUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: optimise the delivery flow of teams actively address the most complicated risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team or no clear ownership exists identify innovative ways to unblock issues
Making a process workUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: identify and challenge organisational processes of increasing complexity and those processes that are unnecessarily complicated add value and can coach the organisation to inspect and adapt processes guide teams through the implementation of a new process
PlanningUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: lead a continual planning process in a very complex environment plan beyond product delivery identify dependencies in plans across services and co-ordinate delivery coach other teams as the central point of expertise
Understanding health and care servicesThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: shape organisational strategy using a deep understanding of the health and care system represent the organisation with health and care partners and leaders anticipate how policy and service changes will affect digital services and care
Clinical risk managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: lead hazard identification and risk assessment for a product or change write and maintain hazard logs and clinical safety case reports agree risk controls with product teams and check that they work advise teams on applying clinical risk management standards
Information governance and data protectionThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: lead data protection impact assessments and information sharing agreements advise teams on lawful basis, consent, confidentiality, and retention investigate incidents and recommend improvements
Organisational risk managementThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: design the organisation's risk management framework and appetite advise the board on strategic risks
Budget managementThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: manage large or multiple budgets and set financial plans make funding trade-offs across services
People managementThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: lead managers and shape the culture of a large area design workforce plans and organisational change coach leaders and resolve complex people issues
Project managementThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: manage large, complex, or high-risk projects set project management standards and coach project managers recover failing projects
Corporate governance and complianceThis reference	Working (2)	You can: support committee meetings, papers, and minutes keep governance registers up to date

Typical qualifications and experience

Extensive experience of leading large, high-risk programmes across organisations.

Band 8c outline

Knowledge: Expert knowledge, and wide organisational and sector understanding.
Autonomy: Sets strategy for a function; accountable to a director.
Scope: A function or department.
Leadership: Leads a function through several management layers.
Accountability: A function's performance, workforce, and budget.

Job evaluation (illustrative)

Factor	Level	Level summary	Points
Communication and relationship skills	6	Gives highly complex, highly contentious information where there are significant barriers to acceptance, using the highest level of communication skills.	60
Knowledge, training, and experience	7	Highly developed specialist knowledge across the range of the specialism (master's level or equivalent).	196
Analytical and judgemental skills	5	Judgements on highly complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.	60
Planning and organisational skills	5	Forms long-term strategic plans, with uncertainty and effects across the organisation.	60
Physical skills	2	Skills gained through practice, such as standard keyboard use or driving.	15
Responsibility for patient and client care	1	Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.	4
Responsibility for policy and service development	5	Implements and develops a range of policies or services for a directorate.	45
Responsibility for financial and physical resources	5	Holds or sets budgets, or manages assets, for several services.	45
Responsibility for people	4	Line manages a function or department, designs training programmes as a main duty, or delivers a full range of HR services.	32
Responsibility for information resources	5	Designs and develops major information systems, or runs information systems for several services as the main duty.	34
Responsibility for research and development	1	Carries out surveys or audits for own work; occasionally takes part in research or testing.	5
Freedom to act	5	Works within general policies, and in most cases decides how to interpret them.	45
Physical effort	1	Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.	3
Mental effort	4	Frequent prolonged concentration, or occasional intense concentration.	18
Emotional effort	1	Rare exposure, or occasional indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.	5
Working conditions	2	Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.	7
Total (Band 8c: 630 to 674)			634

The UK GDaD PCF has one programme delivery manager level, at G7 or G6. This reference adds a senior level at Band 8c for the largest, multi-organisation programmes, with larger budgets (financial resources level 5) and more contentious communication (level 6).