Senior Project Management Officer

Job summary

Do you have experience supporting the delivery of a complex project or programme, ensuring that governance and controls were in place to achieve successful outcomes?

Can you work effectively with government, industry, and local authority stakeholders to deliver complex and high-profile projects?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) is a joint DfT and DESNZ unit leading the UK’s transition to zero emission transport. This role offers the opportunity to contribute to the delivery of ambitious policies and programmes that support the rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the UK. Working with government, local authorities, and industry stakeholders, you will help deliver significant investment programmes that increase access to charge points, support the transition to net zero, and give drivers the confidence to switch to electric vehicles.

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:

DfTc roles: Department for Transport Central - Department for Transport Careers

Job description

Provide PMO support across the Charging Infrastructure Deployment (CID) and Strategic Charging Infrastructure (SCI) programmes, helping to deliver key government priorities for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Working across multiple workstreams, you will lead project management activities, monitor progress, manage governance and reporting, and support effective delivery. Reporting to the CID PMO Manager , you will play a key role in ensuring projects are delivered on time, within budget, and aligned to agreed objectives.

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

• Governance and assurance – Develop and maintain effective project governance and assurance, including planning and coordination of assurance activities. Ensure escalation routes, roles and responsibilities are well defined.
• Project reporting - Produce regular reporting to senior officials and other government departments where relevant. This includes advising Project Director and SRO where escalation is necessary.
• Benefits management – Develop and maintain benefits management and realisation tools, ensuring alignment with monitoring and evaluation activities.
• RAID management – Manage risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies. Provide first line of defence in assurance on risk management across the project

team.

• Lesson learning – Capture lessons learned regularly and ensure these are shared with wider teams where applicable.

For further information on the role, please read the 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

Required experience:

To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:

• Project and Programme Management (PPM) experience gained through working in a major projects environment and an awareness of project delivery best practice, as well as knowledge of project approvals and assurance processes within government.
• Excellent communication skills – both orally and in writing - providing confident explanations and challenge to colleagues and stakeholders at a variety of levels.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build and maintain positive working relationships across functional and organisational boundaries, including building the trust of senior leaders.

The successful candidate should hold, or be willing to work towards, a project management qualification, such as PRINCE2 Practitioner, Managing Successful Programmes Practitioner, APM Project Management Qualification or an equivalent.

Additional Information

The successful candidate must either hold or be willing to work towards the Government Project Delivery Accreditation once in role.

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 office/work location/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

Occasional travel to other offices will be required, which may involve overnight stays.

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

DfTc does not offer Visa Sponsorship for this role.

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Changing and Improving
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• Risk Management (Working)
• Benefits Management (Working)

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.
• DfT prioritises investing in our project delivery professionals, because successful projects begin with skilled people. We offer funding for industry recognised qualifications e.g. APM PMQ, PRINCE2, and MSP, alongside leadership programmes. You will have access to targeted technical training, support for project delivery accreditation, and potential funding toward Chartered Project Professional (ChPP). From day one, mentoring, coaching, and the Government Online Skills Tool (GOST) are available to support your learning and development throughout your career in DfT.

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, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

How to apply:

Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's skills, and potential fit within our organisation.

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 wordcount) and personal statement (1000-word count). Please provide evidence of your Experience of the following:

• Project and Programme Management (PPM) experience gained through working in a major projects environment and an awareness of project delivery best practice, as well as knowledge of project approvals and assurance processes within government.
• Excellent communication skills – both orally and in writing - providing confident explanations and challenge to colleagues and stakeholders at a variety of levels.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build and maintain positive working relationships across functional and organisational boundaries, including building the trust of senior leaders.

The sift will take place from 12/10/2026

Stage 2: Interview

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

• Behaviours – (Working Together, Changing and Improving, Delivering at Pace)
• Technical – ( Risk Management (Working), Benefits Management (Working)
• Strengths

The Technical framework can be found here: https://projectdelivery.gov.uk/government-projects-academy/project-delivery-capability-framework/

The interviews will take place from 29/10/2026

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@cabinetof