Leeds ODA Improvement Programme

Tender description

Summary of the work The programme manager is required to oversee these improvement projects, to ensure priority activity moves at the required pace, progress is appropriately tracked, and to provide additional coordination capacity for the leadership team. Specialist role Programme manager Expected Contract Length 3 months, with the potential to extend. Latest start date Monday 5 December 2022 Maximum Day Rate £650 Early Market Engagement Assessed market, considered and drafted requirements. Who Speclialist Work With The individual will be mainly working with personnel from the Leeds Office of Data Analytics (~60 indiviuals), but may also require interraction with key customers and partners. The team will have a mix of data specialists - each focused on curating high quality data products and creating powerful and actionable insights. What Specialists Work On The Office of Data Analytics (ODA) for Leeds has several improvement projects as we seek to organise the service, transfer our data to Azure, and to automate priority dataflows. A programme manager is required to oversee these improvement projects, to ensure priority activity moves at the required pace, progress is appropriately tracked, and to provide additional coordination capacity for the leadership team. There are 3 distinct projects: 1. Cloud data migration, transition to BAU - plan and execution 2. Governance 3. Coordinating delivery across the ODA meeting organisation and forward planning. Skills & Experience • Have specialised knowledge, ideally within a digital environment, of project, programme, portfolio or benefit management frameworks and practices. • Have an understanding of knowledge management principles and approaches, including communities of practice/special interest groups. • Hold advanced working knowledge of task management, workflow, or collaboration tools. • Have an understanding of information management & reporting techniques and approaches either within a project/programme, e.g. reporting formats, filing and archiving processes, and document control procedures. • Have working knowledge of Benefits Management theory, principles, and application. • Have knowledge of business change / service transition management in a digital environment acquired over numerous projects, programmes and phases of delivery. • Hold advanced knowledge of project management software e.g. Microsoft Project. • Have good working knowledge of finance, budgeting and cost control, or advising on governance, ensuring clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities, that align with organisational standards. • Have good working knowledge of requirements management. • Be able to undertake negotiations within and across teams and stakeholders to resolve differences of opinion and conflict. • Ensure that the purpose, scope and critical success factors are fully defined and agreed with stakeholders for all new projects within the programme. • Have the ability to cope under pressure and manage conflicting priorities. • Be able to adapt communication style depending on audience and has an ability to influence for positive results. • Be able to identify constraints within the programme and/or project and takes corrective actions as required. Nice to Haves • Apply knowledge of GDPR, data protection legislation, and its relevance to project delivery. • Apply knowledge of the Agile manifesto and agile principles, and how they can be used to help deliver products and services. • Apply working knowledge of procurement, contract and supplier management. • Apply longer term goal and objective oriented. Thrives in planning and predictability to meet programme expectations and milestones, whilst also adapting to changing priorities as required. Work Location Leeds City Council, Merrion House, Merrion Way, Leeds. LS2 8LX. Note that LCC operates a flexible/ hybrid working arrangement and the requirement to be present on site can be negotiated. Working Arrangments LCC operates a flexible/ hybrid working arrangement and the requirement to be present on site can be negotiated, but the individual should consider 1 day per week as a minimum. Expenses will be within your daily rate for your regular work location. Additional travel expenses will be available should you need to travel to other sites. Security Clearance SC clearance is not essential but is preferred. Additional T&Cs Not applicable No. of Specialists to Evaluate 3 Cultural Fit Criteria • Adapt communication style depending on audience and has an ability to influence for positive results. • Undertake to create an environment for success, encouraging equality, diversity and an inclusive culture, allowing people to be authentic. • Proactively looks for opportunities to celebrate and share success • Lead by example, visible to the team, professional and strives for excellence. Demonstrates core values in every aspect of work • Thrive working with diverse groups of stakeholders solving their problems and adding value to their operating environment. • Enjoy leading diverse groups of people to tackle business challenges. Assessment Method Interview Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 65% Cultural fit 15% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Would LCC accept transfer in order for the person with SC clearance to maintain clearance? Yes, LCC would accept the transfer. 2. These roles have been advertised previously via another route.Can you confirm why this previous method failed? This is correct. All 4 roles have been advertised previously, but without success.We have unfortunately lost a couple of candidates who have accepted alternative roles. In addition, we have had other candidates who have come close but lacked either some of the essential skills or did not quite provide the correct cultural fit. 3. Is there an incumbent supplier for any of the 4 roles? No. All 4 advertised/ published posts are new requirements that we have not been able to source up to this point. The intention is to ultimately fill the gaps through permanent recruitment, but the recruitment campaign is on hold at present. 4. It states, “Expected contract length 3 months, with the potential to extend”. Will extensions be allowed up to the normal 2-years permitted in DOS contracts? If not, what is the maximum extension period? The intention is to ultimately fill the gaps through permanent recruitment, but the recruitment campaign is on hold at present.Therefore, whilst the contract length is initially for 3 months, there is scope to extend up to the point where we are able to fill these roles permanently.It is probable that the requirement will be in place until at least 31st March 2022. 5. “SC clearance is not essential but is preferred.”If a specialist does not have SC, will you sponsor or is BPSS satisfactory?At interview stage, will a specialist without SC be scored lower than than a specialist with it? BPSS is satisfactory. A specialist without a SC will not be scored lower at interview stage, but it would be good to have a plan in place to resolve this. 6. Is 5 December 2022 a target/preferred start date, or is it absolutely essential the specialist starts by then? In other words, is there any flexibility with the start date? This is the target/ preferred date. As ever, we have priority work that we are seeking to address, but ensuring we get the right candidate is more important to us, therefore we are happy to offer flexibility. 7. The criteria “Apply longer term goal and objective oriented”. Can you clarify this one please? What are the longer-term goals? What is meant by “objective-orientated”? A really good question. This refers to applying a vision that we want to establish standard practices and processes that have longevity. So, for movement of data pipelines into Azure, or challenges of system pressures in the NHS in Leeds, we need to implement systems that are automated and repeatable rather than manual and tactical - i.e. the end goal will be to reduce the required human effort to a minimum in the longer term.Hopefully this helps to expain! 8. I can see that one of the data engineer adverts has been withdrawn. Is this correct? Yes, one of the roles has been filled through an alternative route, but it is not anticipated that any further roles will be filled outside of this framework.