Job title: Project Manager Ref. 3450
Department: Technology Roles
Location(s): Central London
Salary: Salary and allowances £49,128 - £52,815 dependent on skills and experience Plus a non-pensionable skills payment of £4,198.
Job description
Flexible Working: Due to the nature of our work this role is office-based only. We do however support full-time (36 hours), part-time, compressed and flexible working patterns.
About Us
We’re MI6 also known as the Secret Intelligence Service, or SIS. Our mission is to protect the security and economic wellbeing of the UK from overseas threats such as regional instability, terrorism, and cyber-attacks. Working across the globe and in close partnership with MI5 and GCHQ we help the Government to counter these threats through the provision of secret intelligence. A role in MI6 will see you providing vital support to this work, within a supportive and encouraging environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.
The Role
As a Project Manager, you will be working in a unique and challenging environment as part of an innovative team - often delivering your own projects that’ll help us to protect the UK, often as part of a wider portfolio or programme. From managing projects across science, tech and finance, to driving business change and reporting progress to stakeholders, you’ll be working closely with highly skilled teams to deliver projects from start to finish.
Risk management will also be part of your role, as you’ll identify, handle, and mitigate risk, working with stakeholders and external partners on short and medium-term projects across programs such as digital transformation. You don’t need to be a subject matter expert; your knowledge and application of different methodologies will be sufficient and allow you to focus on a tech or non-tech Portfolio. Whilst this role is uniquely complex and requires a level of sensitivity due to the nature of the work, your work will always be rewarding.
About You
As a Project Manager at MI6, it’s important that you have experience applying project management methodologies and approaches such as the Association for Project Management’s PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge), and Agile, SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework).
A skilled communicator you’ll influence a range of customers and stakeholders, collaborating with staff at all levels and mentoring junior members of the team.
A resilient problem-solver with innate curiosity, you’ll be comfortable thinking strategically, bringing innovation to the team, and collaborating on cultural change initiatives. Crucially, you’ll be able to show competence across requirements and resource management, planning, assurance, budgeting, cost management, and governance.
You’ll have experience working with Agile methodologies, communicating with stakeholders, and articulating detailed requirements clearly.
Training and Development
We’re committed to developing our staff and recognise this will look different for everyone. We have an expert skills community dedicated to supporting you. You’ll have a full induction to the organisation, which will help you understand how we operate. You’ll then have a team induction to give you a rounded understanding of your role, followed by on-the-job training to help you settle in.
You’ll be supported with planning your own development and be proactive in seeking out opportunities to learn as you progress. There’ll be plenty of tailored training, coaching, and mentoring, alongside opportunities to pursue specialised career pathways within organisational change. As a commitment to developing and applying core project delivery skills, we follow the Government Project Delivery Capability Framework (PDCF) to guide and nurture talent at all levels.
We’ll also support you to work towards professional qualifications if you choose, including SAFe certification in Agile, Certificated SAFe for Government. We’ll even help you qualify for full membership of the Association for Project Management (APM) or the Chartered Project Professional Programme (ChPP). Depending on your experience and skills, you’ll have access to training opportunities and support mechanisms to progress towards APM certification within 12 months of joining the team.
Whatever your professional goals, we’ll work with you to build the skills you need to excel at your role and throughout your career.
Rewards and Benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary for a Project Manager of £49,128 - £52,815 dependent on skills and experience, plus a skills payment once in role of £4,198.
25 days Annual Leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional
10.5 days public and privilege holidays
Employee Recognition Schemes
Interest-free season ticket loan (parking and travel)
Excellent pension scheme
Bikes 2 Work scheme
Facilities such as a gym and restaurant, and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
Paid parental and adoption leave
Equal Opportunities
At MI6, 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 websites:
https://www.MI6.gov.uk/explore-careers.html
There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, see our website for information on the reasonable adjustments we can offer.
We’re Disability Confident
MI6 are proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP’s 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 person-to-person interview 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 (to be assessed at application form sift) are:
Demonstrate the ability to use Project Management methodologies
Demonstrate the ability to communicate with stakeholders at all levels and adapt your approach to changing circumstances
You will be required to meet the minimum pass mark in the questions about your motivation for the role and the organisation
What to Expect
Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:
Application sift – you are advised to make full use of the word allowance for each question
In person, competency and technical- based interview
Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take between six to nine 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 MI6 you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. You can read our full eligibility criteria here.
This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. You can find out more about the vetting process here.
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/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more securely.
This 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. An interest-free loan via our benevolent fund is available to assist with relocating into privately rented accommodation to take up the offer of employment.
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 withhold 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.