Senior Delivery Manager

05/03/2026, 23:55

447 

£67,609

£4,218

G2
Permanent
Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT), Transformation, Across Commands
Across Business Areas
Architecture and Data
Full time, Part time, Flexible Working
3
Disability Committed
Disability Leader
Civil Service Commission logo

Senior Delivery Manager 

Location(s)

Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Leicester, London, Normanton (Calder), Warrington

About the Role

Information about the Command

The National Crime Agency’s Mission is to protect the public from serious and organised crime by targeting and pursuing those criminals who pose the greatest risk to the UK.
The NCA has a wide remit and we are looking for committed individuals to join us and to provide vital professional expertise across the NCA. There are roles within our operational and capabilities functions.
Our constantly evolving and expanding capabilities means that we need people with experience of project management to policing, crime analysis to commercial procurement.

Information about the Business Area

Placement in a business area will be dependant upon the command chosen.
Please view our Home page to see more detailed information on our various commands and business areas.

The Agency has recently launched an ambitious strategy around how it will deliver its mission over the next 5-years. In order to deliver against this strategy, we need people who can help us to manage and deliver a wide range of projects.  The pace of change within the digital and tech world means we need to be agile and innovative in how we respond to threats while exploiting the opportunities these present. 

As a Senior Delivery Manager you will manage specific technical projects on a day-to-day basis. You will be responsible for driving and overseeing the delivery of the Project to ensure the objectives are clearly defined and achieved within the agreed time, cost and quality constraints. 

You will have a key role in working with stakeholders to ensure the agreed project outputs are delivered to enable benefits to be realised. You will be working with internal and external senior stakeholders, partners, business leads and colleagues across the Agency. 

The breadth and complexity of our work means that we are looking for talented and motivated individuals to join us, using the skills and experiences you bring to be part of multi-disciplinary teams to build, operate and sustain our world leading capabilities.  It's a demanding but rewarding job with opportunities to develop your skills and career whilst doing work that makes an impact to the UK and the communities we serve.

Please note:

1) The Digital Data and Technology, and Transformation Commands are recruiting for this position. If successful, you will be allocated to one of these areas.

2) This role sit within the Delivery manager - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

We are looking for effective technical delivery project management professionals who have proven experience of managing multi-disciplinary project teams to deliver change across medium to large complex projects. You will be instrumental in ensuring delivery of the agreed outputs, ensuring appropriate Benefits Realisation Strategy is in place to monitor long term delivery of benefits. 

Your responsibilities will encompass the day-to-day management and leadership of technical project teams and line management of project managers. You will provide effective leadership and management controls, set project controls, design the project structure and organisation appropriate to stage and set appropriate delivery methodologies while managing effective transition between project phases. 

You will be responsible for driving and overseeing the delivery of projects including budget management to ensure the objectives are clearly defined and achieved within the agreed time, cost and quality constraints. You will have a key role in project governance and working with stakeholders, to ensure the agreed project outputs are delivered to enable benefits to be realised. Moreover, you will be a driving force in fostering a culture of efficiency, effectiveness, and ambition within the directorate and beyond, challenging conventional thinking, and stimulating innovative solutions.

  • Delivery - Create and lead the project to optimise delivery of agreed outcomes within time, cost and quality constraints and enabling benefit realisation.
  • Project Management and Team Leadership - Day-to-day management and leadership of the project and the multi-disciplinary project teams. Provide effective leadership and management controls. Set project controls. Design the project structure and organisation appropriate to stage. Set appropriate delivery methodologies. Manage effective transition between project phases. 
  • Project Performance and Controls - Cascade vision and translate into delivery objectives for the team. Develop and maintain Project Plans. Identify and set appropriate Project Controls. Manage performance and report progress to sponsors. Performance manage cross-functional teams and suppliers to deliver to time cost and performance. Deliver projects in line with established government and Agency standards.
  • Supply Change Management - Knowledge and experience of securing contracts and management. To ensure effective, fit for purpose, supply change arrangements. Experience of managing supplier performance.  
  • Business Case - Review business cases with input from specialists as necessary.
  • Budget - Develop and manage complex budgets and track delivery. Good understanding of financial controls, procurement processes and techniques.
  • Resources - Identify skill requirements; and deploy and develop resources. Manage medium sized team. Ensure/negotiate resource commitment from different business areas.
  • Benefits Realisation - Deliver the agreed business case benefits and outcomes. Ensure appropriate Benefits Realisation Strategy is in place, and monitor longer term delivery of benefits against the business case. 
  • Stakeholder Management - Identify and manage stakeholder relationships and need for senior level support. Manage internal and external relationships as appropriate. 
  • Risks & Issues - Identify and manage complex business and technology risks and issues. Develop mitigating actions to unblock and escalate as appropriate. Identify and work with related projects to manage inter-dependencies.
  • Governance - Support effective governance and decision making. Provide reporting and engage in mechanisms that hold you, as Project Manager, to account for delivery. 
  • Assurance - Engage with assurance reviews and support action on recommendations. Organise assurance processes such as gateway reviews, as required. 
  • Change Management - Ensure effective Change Management processes are in place to agree and document changes to deliverables as agreed with stakeholders. 
  • Guidance & Support - Provide support, guidance and coaching for the project team. Show commitment to personal development. Promote effective individual and team performance.
  • Contribution to the Profession - Commit to contribute to events and initiatives that improve the project and programme delivery profession capabilities and standards within the Agency.
  • Project management of technical projects - Hands on experience of leading the project management and performance of medium to large complexity technical projects, using a range of project management tools to deliver successful outcomes. Breadth of experience of managing multiple platform and infrastructure projects under one or more of these areas: Applications (e.g. Software as a Service, Hardware as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, Platforms as a Service, Cloud, low code/no code, and on-premises); Software; End User Systems; Data Centres; Network Technology; or Radio Systems
  • Knowledge and experience of contract management and performance - Knowledge and experience of contract management, including contractor performance management. Experience of acting as an escalation point and resolving large and high-risk commercial management issues.
  • Experience of working with stakeholders - Substantial experience of working with internal and external stakeholders at all levels of seniority and delivering cross-agency initiatives within project delivery; this includes listening to and interpreting the needs of technical and non-technical stakeholders. Co-ordination of migration of data, applications and services such as data centres which involves working with IT contracts suppliers, migrating services, quality control, commercial frameworks and understanding and adhering to project and architecture gates.
  • Leadership skills - A proven team leader with strong communication skills and the ability to motivate high performing teams aligned to organisational values. 

Essential Criteria

You must meet the essential criteria and evidence this within your application to be considered for the role.

1) Experience of leading complex technical IT projects 

And

2) It is essential that candidates hold One of the qualifications below:

  • Relevant Project Management qualification such as Associated Project Management  (APM)
  • BSc Engineering
  • Managing Successful Programmes Practitioner
  • Managing Successful Programmes Advanced Practitioner
  • Prince 2 practitioner
  • Agile Project Management Qualification 
Any applications from candidates not meeting this eligibility criteria will not progress.

Desirable Criteria

Desirable criteria are only used for assessment in the event of a tie break.
Knowledge of relevant legislation relating to Government/Public Sector IT.

Salary

Allowances are reviewed annually and may be increased, decreased or removed.
All salary offers will be made in line with Remuneration Policy. 
  • Roles based in London will receive an additional London Weighting (Per Annum) of £4,218

Benefits

All NCA employees are members of the UK Civil Service and eligible for the Civil Service pension scheme, alongside your salary the NCA contributes £19,586. Further information on the benefits of the scheme is available on the Civil Service Pension Website.

New entrants to the NCA receive 26 days annual leave, rising to 31 on completion of 5 years continuous service, plus 8 bank holidays.  

If qualifying criteria is met new joiners from UK Police Forces or the UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) will have service with those employers taken into account for continuous service purposes for annual leave entitlement only, this will be up to a maximum of 31 days leave (including 1 privilege day).

Other benefits include:

  • Flexible working, including flexi-time, compressed hours and job sharing (in line with business requirements) 
  • Family friendly policies, notably above the statutory minimum
  • Learning and Development opportunities
  • Interest free loans and advances, including season tickets, childcare and rental deposits
  • Housing schemes - Key Worker status
  • Discounts and Savings with a wide variety of services including Cycle to Work, Smart Tech schemes, dental insurance, gym discounts and savings on everyday spending, available through the Reward Gateway | Edenred and Blue Light Card schemes.
  • Staff support groups/networks
  • Sports and social activities, including membership to the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC) 

Further information is available on the NCA Website.

Selection Process Details

This vacancy is using the Success Profiles framework and will assess using the following criteria: Behaviours, Experience 
Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.  Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

How we will assess you

Your application will be assessed against the following:
Experience - This will be assessed:

CV

Please include your full career history, training, qualifications, key responsibilities, and achievements. Explain any employment gaps in the last two years. Ensure all accreditation dates are accurate.

Details of what is expected within you CV are as follows: Your CV will be scored against the following:
- Essential Criteria - 'You must have experience of leading complex technical IT projects.'
- Criteria set out in the person specification. 

Experience Criteria - will be assessed by 500 word examples on:
  • Leading and delivering complex digital/technical projects 
  • Project leadership experience 
A panel will assess how well your application demonstrates the requirements outlined above.

Longlist

In the event of a high number of applications, we may operate a longlist. Applicants will need to meet the minimum pass mark for the lead criteria.

 - Leading and delivering complex digital/technical projects .

Candidates who do not meet the minimum pass mark for the lead criteria will not progress to having their other criteria assessed. Applications must meet the minimum criteria to be progressed to the assessment stage.

You will receive an acknowledgement once your application is submitted.

We aim to have sift completed and scores released within 10 working days of the closing date of the advert. For high volume campaigns this timeframe may be extended.

Scores will be provided but further feedback will not be available at this stage.

For guidance on the application process, visit: 
NCA Applying and Onboarding 

Assessment 1

The format of this assessment will be Interview which will be tested on the criteria listed in the Success Profiles at Assessment section.

Success Profiles at Assessment

Behaviours
  • Making Effective Decisions 
  • Communicating and Influencing 
  • Working Together 
  • Leadership 
Experience
  • Leading and delivering complex digital/technical projects 
  • Communicating between the Technical and Non-Technical 
Assessment Outcome
Outcomes will be communicated via the NCA recruitment portal. 
If successful but no role is immediately available, you may be placed on a reserve list for 12 months. 
Reserve lists can be used to fill similar role types across the Agency where the assessment criteria is considered a match by the recruitment team and the business area.

In the event of a tie at the assessment stage, available roles will be offered in merit order using the following order: 

  1. Lead criteria (behaviours/technical/experience)
  2. If still tied, desirable criteria will be assessed (if advertised) 
  3. If still tied, application sift scores will be used
Feedback is provided only to those who attend an assessment.
You will be subject to vetting and pre-employment checks before appointment.
Once the vacancy closes, the advert will no longer be accessible. Please save a copy for your records. 
We encourage all candidates to visit the NCA Careers Page for more information.

Eligibility, Pre-Employment Check and Vetting

Please see the NCA T&Cs and Privacy Policy (pdf) for details on how your data is handled. 
If you are an internal candidate who has passed interview but is undergoing an internal investigation or have a written warning in place preventing a post move you may not be able to be posted until this investigation is concluded or restriction lifted.

Nationality Requirements

This role is broadly open to the following groups:
• UK nationals or dual nationals, where one component is British
• Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre- settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• Individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements
You will be required to participate in digital right to work and address checks as part of the recruitment process.

Security and Vetting

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is SC Enhanced. All security clearances will be managed by the NCA.
For more information on security vetting please visit: UK Security Vetting guidance for applicants and Demystifying Vetting and see our vetting charter at: The Vetting Charter.

Vetting requirements - SC Enhanced

Prior to commencing the role, you will need to successfully complete SC Enhanced clearance. 
The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.
Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.
For further information on National Security Vetting checks please visit the following page Demystifying Vetting
Individuals will be required to undertake and pass a substance misuse test as part of pre-employment checks.

Occupational Health

Successful candidates will be expected to undertake an occupational health assessment. Depending on the role an in-person medical may be required in either London or Warrington. Unfortunately, travel costs will not be reimbursed.

Things you need to know

Multi Location

Where multiple locations are advertised, appointments will be made in merit order for each location.

Please indicate up to three location preferences clearly. Only your first three preferences will be considered. You may be allocated to any of the locations you select. If you decline an offer for a location you have selected as a preference, a further offer may not be made.

If you choose to reject an offer and no alternative preferred location can be offered, you will not be able to return to the process or be placed on a reserve list.

Only the advertised locations are available; any additional notes added to the application will not be taken into account.

Near Miss

If you meet the criteria for a lower grade, you may be offered that role if not appointable at the advertised grade.

Conversely, if found appointable at a higher grade but no posts are available, you may be offered a lower-grade role.

All offers are made based on merit.

Hybrid Working

The NCA supports hybrid working. The extent of remote working will depend on the role and can be discussed at the offer stage.

Reasonable Adjustments

We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Leader and an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. 

We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone can be their authentic self. If you’re neurodiverse, have a disability, or live with a long-term health condition, we encourage you to let us know about any reasonable adjustments you may need during the recruitment process. 

If you experience accessibility issues with the advert or require reasonable adjustments, please contact our Recruitment Team at Central.Recruitment@nca.gov.uk before the advert closing date.

Please ensure you complete the ‘Equal opportunities’ and 'Reasonable Adjustments' sections in the application form to inform us on what support you may need in the recruitment process.

For more on our Disability Confident commitment, visit Disability Confident Scheme | Civil Service Careers.  

Visit NCA Benefits and Support for more details. 

Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

In order to monitor the effectiveness of the National Crime Agency's Diversity & Inclusion strategy, we require certain personal details about you on submission of your application for statistical and monitoring purposes only. Please note that this will be treated in confidence and will not impact your application.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit on merit through fair and open competition, in line with the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

If you believe your application has not been treated fairly, email: Central.Recruitment@nca.gov.uk (quoting the vacancy reference). 
If unresolved, you may escalate your complaint to the Civil Service Commission. 

Working for the NCA

The National Crime Agency is a 24/7 organisation, and working patterns must support business requirements. Some roles may require you to respond at short notice or outside of core hours.
If preferable, alternative contract types may be available. Please review the green bar of this advert to view all available contract types for this role. Where Loan or Secondment options are available, these would be for existing Civil Servants (Loan) and applicants from accredited Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) or any other employer (Secondment). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.
If you have any specific queries about the role that are not covered by the advert, please contact:

Name : Central Recruitment Team
Email : Central.Recruitment@nca.gov.uk

Attachments


NCA T&Cs and Privacy Policy (pdf)

This vacancy is closed to applications.