Manchester Digital Campus, Risk Manager

GPA

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 governments 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. And we are looking for innovative, solutions-focused people to join our team.

Representing the best covenant in the UK His Majestys Government we are leading significant transformational programmes. We are also delivering cost-effective property services such as asset management, lifecycle replacement and workplace services.

Innovation and progress underpin our behaviours. We foster a culture of lifelong learning, where curiosity and self-improvement are encouraged. 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.

Join our dynamic and diverse team that leads with purpose, improving sustainability, nurturing social value, driving inclusivity and flexibility, and kickstarting economic growth. We are driven by purpose, and you can be part of it too: where you make a meaningful impact; where you influence; where your voice really matters; where you help to shape our future direction.

Manchester Digital Campus

The Manchester Digital Campus (MDC) is part of the Governments Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP), and is an exciting transformation across multiple Government departments, with significant Ministerial, public, industrial and media interest.

A central Manchester brownfield development

site will become the vibrant workplace for well over 8,000 people (including Ministers) from the digitally focused departments. The new, bespoke buildings will be designed to support the transformation objectives, collaborative working across government and with industry, academia and the community. MDC will strengthen HMGs 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.

MDC is overseen by its policy sponsors (including Places for Growth and Government Digital/Data in CO and DSIT), together with the Departmental Partners transforming to use the new site. Having completed our Outline Business Case approval, and approaching our RIBA3 milestone (design complete), we are expanding the dedicated MDC team to match the growing workload. The MDC team is multi-disciplinary, matrix-managed from the GPA Directorates, and wider Government, but all dedicated to and passionate about our amazing programme. We pride ourselves on our inclusivity, curiosity to explore and solve problems, our openness to challenge and our commitment to delivering what's needed for the Civil Services future. MDC is GPAs biggest delivery programme yet.

Specific security requirements have been set for MDC, and will be discussed with you during the recruitment process. SC is the minimum vetting requirement to start in MDC posts. MDC may subsequently offer the opportunity to sponsor your DV application in specific roles.

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, especially London and occasionally Birmingham. The role involves hybrid working with an expectation of office/meeting attendance on three days a week or more as the project demands.

All MDC roles are being offered on a choice of permanent or initial 2 year loan basis to allow you to retain an initial link with your home department if preferable. The programme completes in 2032.

If you are interested at all in this role, but have a question, do please reach out.

Effective risk, issue and opportunity management is central to delivery. Only by really understanding the uncertainty, threats and opportunities within and around the programme can we manage cost, meet timelines and maximise benefit to the UK. As such this is a pivotal role in the centre of our Programme Management Office.

You will be working across all the Lines of Development (and across Government) looking at the physical infrastructure through to the transformative change, to understand, co-ordinate and drive action on the programme risks, issues and opportunities, driving forward the Manchester Digital Campus. You will own and champion the risk management strategy and its implementation in the risk, opportunity and issue log working collaboratively right across the MDC enterprise, including with the specialist client side support.

You will deliver a cross-cutting, complex and wide-ranging workstream in a stretching but rewarding environment, working across organisational and thematic boundaries and with senior stakeholders to drive forward progress on MDC3 community priorities and ensure regional investment achieves its potential.

As part of the leadership team the successful candidate will help create the culture for everyone to thrive; its a matrixed, multi-disciplinary team. The MDC ways of working have been set out as:

• SRO and programme deliver for the whole system, part of all the departments involved;
• Collective, transparent delivery;
• Maximise HMG and UK Benefit;
• Digital and innovative by default;
• Psychological safety in all we do; and
• Robust, proportionate foundations.

Key Responsibilities

• Issue management strategy, ensuring all parts of the enterprise actively engage to collectively manage the uncertainty. Develop the risk culture, learning and uncertainty tolerance across the team.
• Develop a regular cadence of risk, opportunity and issue reviews with each Line of Development, client side support and external partners, ensuring the central risk, opportunities and issue register is robust and that the programme cost, time and benefit estimates appropriately factor in uncertainty.
• Conduct adhoc deep dives into specific risks, opportunities or issues as necessary developing, with the wider team, effective strategies to best manage the concern and/or accept the uncertainty.
• Collect and share the data, ensuring learning from MDC supports wider GPA, Cabinet Office and NISTA delivery and using the wider data sources, and AI tools available to best understand the risks MDC faces.
• Actively scan the horizon for opportunity, change and risk and ensure these are reflected in programme activity and briefed at the appropriate Governance Boards.
• Work closely with the SRO, MDC Programme Directors and HMT to ensure risks, issues and opportunities are subject to appropriate assurance, scrutiny and quantification within the Full Business Case and wider whole Programme delivery.

We are looking for a highly motivated, organised, collaborative and analytical individual committed to delivery of this exciting programme. Positivity, resilience and strong stakeholder management skills are highly desirable.

You will be an experienced risk or project delivery professional, ideally with experience on an infrastructure (or capital build) ...