Planning, Insight and Evaluation Manager

Job summary

Would you thrive in a fast-paced environment, where you get to play a pivotal and highly visible role coordinating planning, insight and evaluation across government communications?

DfT is a high-profile department at the heart of UK government. We work with agencies and partners to support the transport network that helps businesses and gets people and goods travelling around the country. We plan and invest to make journeys better.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at DFT Central – Home , Civil Service Careers

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Department for Transport (DfT) communications team, in a role supporting the planning, insight and evaluation function, which sits at the heart of everything we do.

Your role as a Planning, Insight and Evaluation Manager will be interesting and varied, with responsibility for coordinating the department’s communications activity across our low and no cost priority campaigns and our wider business as usual work.

You will lead on short and long-term planning, working with teams across DfT and beyond to ensure our communications land at the right time, with the right audience and with maximum impact, and align with the Government’s overall communications strategy.

You will also support colleagues to ensure our communications are insight-led and properly evaluated as part of a continuous cycle of learning, managing audience research, social listening and evaluating communications activity.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Leading the implementation and continuous improvement of the department’s communications planning and evaluation cycle, ensuring plans for announcements and campaigns are grounded in insight and learnings from the outset and that impact is consistently measured.
• Supporting the coordination of departmental communications activity, commissioning colleagues for input across products and attending regular planning meetings as well as tracking developments in Parliament, cross-government activity and emerging issues, to ensure our announcements are reflected within wider government plans.
• Generating communications insight from a wide range of sources, including by commissioning bespoke research projects (quantitative and qualitative) and using online news and social media monitoring tools to build real-time audience insight to inform live activity and future planning.
• Supporting innovation across the communications function, including automating planning and evaluation products and using AI to improve agility in monitoring breaking news, ensuring innovations are themselves evaluated so learnings can be scaled or discarded.

For further information on the role, please read the attached role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Person specification

As the successful candidate, you will have:

• E xperience in coordinating a full communications planning cycle, using insight and lessons learnt to inform strategy, setting measurable objectives and evaluating impact;
• Excellent spoken, written and visual communications skills, including the ability to visualise data in clear and impactful ways and adapt your style for different audiences;
• Strong analytical skills, the ability to scrutinise qualitative and quantitative data and identify key findings that can help improve communications, and knowledge of qualitative and quantitative methods of generating insight;
• Experience and skills to confidently influence communications strategies and campaigns, providing insight, advice and challenge, and training;
• A proven track record of managing complex schedules and competing priorities, coordinating multiple teams and delivering to tight deadlines across multiple projects;
• A good understanding of the media landscape including digital channels;
• Experience/confidence to work with a range of stakeholders, including senior leaders, and experience of managing research suppliers;
• Strong knowledge of Excel, PowerBI, PowerPoint and other tools relevant to analysing data/research, developing evaluation dashboards and presenting findings in an accessible and engaging way;
• Experience of evaluating a rang e of communication methods and market activity – including digital research.

Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week.

Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part-time basis, there is a business requirement, for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 30 hours per week.

This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.

The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another DfTc office/work location. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

If you have a question about hybrid working, part time/job share hours, flexible working, travelling for work, or require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Vacancy Holder during the recruitment process to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role (see below for contact details).

Visa Sponsorship

Sponsorship is not offered for this role. Successful applicants must ensure they have and maintain the legal right to live and work in the United Kingdom.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,241, Department for Transport contributes

£12,816 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave).
• 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King’s birthday.
• Access to the staff discount portal.
• Excellent career development opportunities and the potential to undertake professional qualifications relevant to your role paid for by the department, such as CIPD, Prince2, apprenticeships, etc.
• Joining a diverse and inclusive workforce with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues.
• 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff.
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

You can find out more about the benefits of working at DfT and its agencies (opens in a new window).

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

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 (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Sift of CV and personal statement

Stage 2: Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

Stage 1: Sift

At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

Experience – you will be asked to provide a CV (unlimited word count) and personal statement (maximum 750-word count). Please provide evidence of your experience of the following:

• Coordinating a full communications planning cycle, using insight and lessons learnt to inform strategy, setting measurable objectives and evaluating impact.
• Strong analytical skills, and the ability to scrutinise qualitative and quantitative data and identify key findings that can help improve communications.
• Managing complex schedules and competing priorities, coordinating multiple teams and delivering to tight deadlines across multiple projects.
• Strong knowledge of Excel, PowerBI, PowerPoint and other tools relevant to analysing data/research, developing evaluation dashboards and presenting findings in an accessible and engaging way.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

The sift will take place from week commencing 5th October 2026.

Stage 2: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours – (Communicating and Influencing, Seeing the Big Picture, Working Together, Delivering at Pace)
• Experience – (See role profile)

The interviews will take place from week commencing 19th October 2026.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

This interview will be conducted online via Microsoft Teams. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site (opens in a new window) .

Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change.

Further information on the selection process

We will also hold a 12 -month reserve list for this role, which may lead to potential opportunities beyond the role you applied for. You can read more about our reserve lists here .

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website .