Delivery Manager Ref. 3724

Job Description

Flexible working: we support full-time, part-time, compressed, and other flexible working patterns. Due to the nature of the role, opportunities for home or remote working are limited.

About us
MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing, and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners including MI6 and GCHQ to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you'll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.

The role
As a Delivery Manager, you’ll lead the delivery of complex digital, data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled products that contribute directly to protecting the UK. Working within multidisciplinary product teams, you’ll ensure tools, platforms and services are delivered securely, reliably and in line with operational need.

You’ll take ownership of delivery across one or more products, working closely with product leads, engineers and designers to plan work, manage priorities and maintain momentum. You’ll be accountable for delivery outcomes, delivery plans, managing risks and ensuring teams are set up to succeed in demanding and fast moving environments.

Much of the work sits within our mission and data landscape. You’ll oversee delivery of mission services, data platforms and decision support tools, where security, ethics and operational resilience are as important as pace and innovation.

Day to day, you’ll lead delivery methods, maintain delivery plans and Risk, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies Logs (RAID logs), and actively manage dependencies across teams and suppliers. You’ll engage with stakeholders at multiple levels, providing clear updates on progress, risks and options, and supporting informed decision making.

The scope of the role is deliberately broad. You’ll work across multiple teams and workstreams, engage with supplier partners and contribute to delivery oversight across the wider portfolio. You’ll also line manage Associate or Graduate Delivery Managers, supporting their development and helping build delivery capability across MI5. With strong organisational support and opportunities to develop further, this role offers the chance to play a key leadership role in some of the most important digital delivery work in government.

About you
You’re an experienced delivery professional who is confident leading teams, managing complexity and taking accountability for outcomes. You have experience delivering digital or technology enabled work in complex environments and are comfortable making decisions under pressure.

You work effectively with a wide range of people and communicate confidently with technical teams, product leads and senior stakeholders. You can manage expectations around scope, risks and timescales, planning rigorously while adapting delivery approaches when circumstances change.

You have a strong understanding of Agile and product centric delivery approaches and know how to apply them in practice. While you don’t need to be a deep technical specialist, you’re comfortable working in data or software intensive environments and understand the delivery considerations they bring.

You’re also a people leader. Supporting and developing others matters to you, and you create an environment where teams feel trusted, accountable and empowered. You’re motivated by improving ways of working, delivering meaningful outcomes and contributing to work that directly supports national security.

Training and development
We’re committed to supporting your continued development as a delivery leader. On joining, you’ll receive an induction to your portfolio, teams and delivery context, helping you understand how your role fits within the wider organisation and mission.

You’ll have access to development opportunities aligned with the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. This includes support to deepen your expertise in Agile delivery, product delivery and operational management, through a combination of formal training, coaching and peer learning.

Alongside formal learning, you’ll benefit from peer networks, delivery communities of practice and a culture that encourages reflection and continuous improvement. Development focuses on sustaining high quality delivery and supporting you to grow as a confident, effective leader over time.

Rewards and benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary of £73,222 plus other benefits including:

• 25 Days Annual Leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days public and privilege holidays
• opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
  dedicated development budget
• interest-free season ticket loan
• excellent pension scheme
• cycle to work scheme
• facilities such as a gym, restaurant, and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• paid parental and adoption leave

Equal opportunities
At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website.

We’re Disability Confident
MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain, and develop disabled people. Being Disability Confident, we aim to offer a fair and proportionate number of person-to-person interviews to any candidate who self-identifies as disabled and meets the essential criteria for the role. This is our ‘Offer of Interview’ (OOI). To secure an interview for this vacancy, the essential criteria (in order of application process) are:

• you'll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses your ability to problem-solve
• demonstrate the ability to be able to build positive working relationships and work effectively as part of a team
• demonstrates the ability to plan, prioritise and coordinate tasks
• an interest in technology, digital products or data driven work
• solid understanding of Agile or product centric ways of working, with transferable experience from product focused teams

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, visit our application process page for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to expect
Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

1. An initial online application form including pre-screening questions to ensure you meet our eligibility criteria
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) rating the appropriateness of your responses to a series of short scenarios. The
3. SJT tests criteria important for all roles in our organisation
4. In-person interview, assessing delivery experience, leadership capability and judgement aligned to the role
5. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 to 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before you apply
To work at MI5 you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Find out more about the vetting process.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practise and will help you manage your application with us more discretely.

The role is based in Central London so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application, as we do not offer relocation costs.

We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in person interviews or assessments during the recruitment and vetting process. Full details will be provided with your interview or assessment invitation.

Reimbursement is discretionary and will only be made in line with the Candidate Expenses Policy, as amended from time to time. Candidates must book their own travel, using the most economical option, and provide original hardcopy receipts for reimbursement.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.

Right to withdraw statement:
Please be aware that we reserve the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.