Release Planner Department for Work & Pensions
Manchester
Reference
1632914
Number of vacancies
2
Location
Manchester
Salary
Up to £34,506
Work hours
37
Employment type
Permanent
Job benefits
A brilliant Civil Service pension with employer contributions circa 20%, generous annual leave, flexible working, great work life balance and lots more.
Closing date
10 June 2019
Job description
Are you a superb Project Planner or Project Co-ordinator? Are you interested in a stepstone into Project Management ?
If you’re creative with a passion for learning new things, want to be empowered to make decisions and challenge the norm, and want to bring your ideas to a MASSIVE digital transformation challenge then you’ll love it here. And we’d love to hear from you.
We’re looking for talented Release Planner for this exciting new role in our Service Management team, join DWP’s Digital Workplace project and become a key part of one of the UK’s biggest and most high-profile digital transformation programmes, a once-in-a-generation tech-driven reform of government products and services, improving the lives of over 22 million people.
What is Digital Workplace?
It’s big. Over the last two years diverse DWP Digital teams have established Digital Workplace, an agile and multi-disciplinary service that supports over 84,000 employees, using more than 150 distributed cloud applications and operating out of more than 800 UK sites.
And we’re powering an even bigger digital transformation with a portfolio of digital products and services used by more than 20 million people across the UK.
It’s evolving. So far we’ve moved all of our systems to hybrid hosting, removing the constraints of previous large outsourced IT contracts, modernising our legacy infrastructure and stabilising service performance.
We are improving communication and collaboration, with a mixture of new hardware including mini-PCs, Surface Pro laptops and a growing mobile phone network. By upgrading our software with the latest versions of Office 365, Skype for Business and our rebooted staff intranet we’re making sure our people have the right tools and the latest professional digital skills. And we’ll keep evolving to meet the needs of our teams.
It’s really important we get it right. DWP deliver world-class digital solutions which touch the lives of millions of people, including our friends, neighbours and some of the most vulnerable people in our society. We’re creating a better working environment and experience for the people behind those solutions to ensure they stay equipped, motivated, informed and engaged.
You and your role
As a Release Planner in the Service Delivery team you will manage the successful and safe introduction of a new service or product into a new or existing environment with minimal disruption to production services and operations. You will provide overall planning for service transitions events and coordinate the resources that they require. You will also control the lifecycle of all changes, enabling beneficial changes to be made with minimum disruption to IT services.
You will be involved in project support and co-ordination for the Release Management team and will be key in reviewing information and pulling release planner reports together and owning the process to ensure changes are released smoothly into a live environment.
What is it like to work at DWP Digital?
What are we looking for?
- You are a Pro at Excel or ideally you are familiar or have worked in an environment with Project Planning/Project Management, Release Co-ordination, Release Planning and Sprint Releases or have used service tools like Release Forward Plan, Tech Now or Release Now.
- You are process driven and structured in approach and pay attention to detail
- You are a confident communicator and are comfortable co-ordinating across teams
- Ideally you’ll have an IT Service Management/ Project Management/ PMO/ IT governance experience in an Agile environment but don’t let this put you off. It’s nice to have but not essential.
What will I be doing?
- You’ll perform agreed line management activities for your team
- You’ll make sure your team is working as effectively as possible, deciding on the best route for the team and their work.
- You will gather, agree and manage acceptance criteria for support and operations planning
- You’ll be responsible for transition scheduling, planning, prioritisation, risk management and dependencies to ensure effective transition across multiple projects and divisions.
- You will ensure the new or updated services/products are supported with the right level of knowledge and documentation and own any issues until resolved or picked up by the right person
- You’ll be responsible for ensuring service transition, and quality assurance checks are carried out.
- You will ensure development functions within a project produce the required transition deliverables, so that new Services have a fully developed end-to-end support structure.
Where will you work?
DWP Digital is a community of digital professionals within DWP, the largest government department. Our digital services are delivered from 6 modern, open and flexible hubs in Blackpool, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield.We provide the latest tech and tooling and foster a collaborative culture to help our agile, multidisciplinary teams think big and try new things. You will work alongside people who care passionately about public service, making a difference and delivering for our customers.
You’ll join our team in our brilliant new Manchester hub we have the best of the city on our doorstep, with loads of great places nearby to meet, eat or to soak up a bit of culture. We have brilliant views over St Peter’s Square, looking out over Central Library and the Town Hall. We’re really handy for the train and the tram, and we have a basement level lock up (with showers) for your bike.
In Digital Workplace we believe in giving you a working experience that meets your needs and expectations and that means a focus on work-life balance, flexible hours, team-based working and the ability to work from multiple locations.
We are an equal opportunity employer and we welcome applications regardless of age, disability, gender, race or sexuality.
Our Offer
In return for your skills we offer competitive salary up to £43,506 per annum, a brilliant civil service pension, and a generous leave package. We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:
- Flexible working
- Family friendly policies
- Volunteering and charitable giving
- Discounts and savings on shopping, fun days out and more
- Interest-free loans to buy a bike or a season ticket, so it’s even easier for you to get to work and start making a difference
- Sports and social activities
- Learning and development, including coaching, mentoring, progression opportunities and guaranteed 5-days formal learning per year and lots more!
CLICK APPLY for further information and to start an application on Civil Service Jobs.
If you have any questions of you want to discuss the role before you apply get in touch with me via tia.nicholas@dwp.gov.uk
* Please note the advert you’ll be taken to on Civil Service Jobs refers to this role as a Service Transition Manager.