The Matrix Programme is a transformation initiative involving the Cabinet Office, the Department for Science, Technology and Innovation, the Department for Business and Trade, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Department for Culture Media and Sport, the Department for Education, Department for Health and Social Care, Department for International Trade, Attorney’s General Office and HM Treasury.

The programme is a cross-government collaboration, that will bring together core functions of a business into a single simplified centre to save time, cut back-office red tape and offer taxpayers better value for money.

The Programme is part of the Shared Services Team, a fantastic team passionate about improving the existing shared services experience for our partners, whilst working to deliver the strategic objectives of the new Government Shared Services Strategy and Vision of the Centre of Excellence.

We will deliver the Government’s three overarching objectives for shared services:

Better experience for all users – intuitive systems that are easy to use and mobile-enabled.

Efficiency and value for money – better systems and services which support productivity and seek to reduce costs.

Standardised processes and data – support interoperability, making it easier to understand and compare corporate data.

At the heart of the Matrix programme, is the implementation of a single Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for the cluster. The Functional Design Team have the overall responsibility to design and configure this future system and are seeking Product Owners to lead on specific functional design areas within this implementation – both HR and Finance.

The post holders will lead on specific core functional areas within the Matrix Programme, ensuring that best practice for policies, processes and operational convergence are embedded into the designed cross departmental system and service model. The specific areas of responsibility will vary depending on the expertise of the candidates applying for these roles.

The roles have no direct line management responsibility and are expected to work collaboratively across the team to achieve common goals.

As Product Owner/Business Change Manager, you will work within the Functional Design Team to help define, explain, and iterate product visions that are compelling to your users, team and stakeholders and you will plan the work for multi-disciplinary teams, helping to build and deliver ambitious product road maps.

You will be responsible for collaborating with prospective and current users to understand and anticipate their needs; identify, prioritise and communicate changes in their requirements; pitch ideas for product features; feed into the development of user stories and be a primary contact between the product development teams and stakeholders.

A large ERP implementation such as this, is not ground-up software development and is instead focused on configuring a single solution to meet our user needs; balancing system capability, user needs and central government direction is key to the success of the role.

This role will report to the Matrix Programme Functional Design Lead, and will work collaboratively across programme work streams and cluster design teams. You will work with a mixed team of civil servants and contractors that collaborate in a blend of agile service teams and traditional project management environments, working on the functional design of our future ERP in an established programme.

We are looking for someone who is personable and can fit into the team; someone who is enthusiastic, proactive, adaptable and keen to engage across the business and effectively represent our products. You will be able to successfully work in a project delivery environment and be able to hit the ground running.

You will provide visible and effective leadership, lead the business change management activity, working with the programme team and seniors to develop a clear vision and standards and champion the use of best practice business change management standards, tools and processes. You will build strong networks both internally and externally to support and facilitate the change. You will assess and understand the impact on stakeholders to improve the likelihood of their adoption of the change.

You must be a confident communicator, with the ability to inspire, influence and cultivate culture change both with HMG wide seniors and cross functional teams.

Please note: we expect this role to be somewhat hybrid between Product Owner and Product Manager when, in the future, the design nears completion and the design team move into the business as usual activities, including ongoing iterative transformation post go-live.

This role has been mapped against a Product Owner role within the DDaT Capability Framework and Business Change Manager within the Project Delivery Capability Framework

Product Owner / Change Manager Responsibilities:

• Problem Ownership: understands and identifies problems, analysing and helping to identify the appropriate solution.
• System Analysis: lead on the work of systems analysis to ensure business needs are translated into solutions against identified timelines, and work with technical leads to ensure business needs are translated into the technical solutions.
• Product Ownership / Change Planning: Captures and translates user needs into deliverables. Establish and maintain change and transition plans.
• Leadership and Delivery: Provide visible and effective leadership; lead key business change management activity and work with the programme team to deliver the business case benefits and outcomes.
• User focus / Requirements gathering: Understands users and can identify who they are and what their needs are. Coordinate requirement activities, their validation and sign off, ensuring that the needs of stakeholders are articulated.
• Change identification and communication: Assess and understand the impact of changes on stakeholders to improve the likelihood of their adoption of the change. Collaborate on Business Change messaging, draft content, and work closely across the cluster to explain the change.
• Analysis: Lead on identifying potential consequences of a change; qualify, and update the business readiness criteria and ensure that stakeholders are aware and involved before implementation.
• Benefits: work across the programme to ensure that identified benefits analysis is developed and disseminated to key stakeholders; plan for benefits realisation as part of Business Change activities.
• Stakeholder Management and Engagement: Lead on engagement with key contacts, both within the cluster and across Government. Ensure that stakeholder management is an ongoing process. Cultivate stakeholder relationships needed to make the transition.
• Develop clear vision and standards and champion the use of best practice business change management standards, tools and processes.

Additional Functional Design Team Responsibilities:

• Input to the planning of Workstream activities within the parameters of the Integrated Programme Plan
• Input to the engagement of Process experts across the Cluster
• Day-to-day management of the design of a defined set of end-to-end functional processes in the new technology solution
• Coordinating Process SME inputs and contributions in working groups and workshops
• Primary point of contact to partner with Systems Integrator configuration leads
• Accountable for engagement across government with respect to their areas of the global design
• Raising delivery Risks as appropriate
• Responsible for interfacing with other work streams around dependencies, including Change and Comms
• Acting as an escalation point for Design Decisions
• Input to the entry and exits of phase gateways during the implementation life cycle
• Responsible for progress tracking and reporting for their respective functional areas against the Integrated Programme Plan
• Day-to-day responsible for RAID management.

The above list is not exhaustive, with the lead working alongside other functional, technology, data and people leads to deliver the end to end system and service model.

• Highly motivated, self-driven, passionate and experienced Civil Servants to join a fast paced and complex Programme.
• Experienced Government functional experts in either HR or Finance; preferably with a relevant functional qualification (eg. CIPD/CIMA)
• Ability to work with and lead others in a complex environment with a wide variety of stakeholders, business areas, Civil Servants and contractors.
• Capable to network across business areas, and influence counterparts, demonstrating excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Experience working on large transformation and/or change programmes, ideally for solutions which have undergone shared service transformation.
• Proven track record of defining aligned requirements within complex environments to tight timescales. This includes modern ways of working, keeping it simple & a keen eye to streamline wherever possible to save time.
• Experience of working with external delivery partners in a fast-paced programme environment. Relationship building skills with the ability to inspire/influence.

Essential Skills:

• Outstanding communication and listening skills, with the ability to clearly communicate to several different types of professionals at all levels.
• Experience working on IT/digital projects and/or delivery of digital services throughout a product life cycle.
• E xperience, skills and techniques to lead service teams and deliver results.
• Experience and passion for continuous and business improvement.
• Experience working with project delivery professionals, and understanding their needs.

Desirable skills:

• ERP implementation and back-office transformation experience is desirable; drawing upon experience of delivering within successful and highly complex cloud ERP implementation and transformation projects.
• Be a confident facilitator, taking onboard the views of a range of stakeholders and making decisions that align to a common goal.
• Be an innovative thinker able to help develop, and deliver against, a critical path to a strategic outcome
• Demonstrate knowledge of a range of project management techniques and use of project management tools such as MS Visio and MS Projects.
• Understanding of the Shared Service Strategy for Government and wider cross Government programmes within.
• Understanding and awareness of cloud technology products.
• It would be beneficial for the post holder to hold one of the following qualifications or demonstrate willingness to work towards it within their first year of employment:

APM Project Management (or equivalent), or APMG Change Management Practitioner (or equivalent)

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture

Technical Skills

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

• Business change and implementation

Nationality Requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)