AMS PSR

On behalf of The Ministry of Justice, we are looking for an Assistant Portfolio Planner - Tech (Inside IR35) for a 12 month contract. This is a hybrid working role (one day per week office based - London).

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) priorities include improving public safety and reducing reoffending by reforming prisons, probation and youth justice, and building a justice system which makes access to justice swifter and more certain for all citizens whatever their background. Project professionals in the MoJ help to improve the government’s ability to protect the public and reduce reoffending, and to provide a more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public.

Job Purpose:

You’ll be an active part of Technology Services Delivery (TSD), supporting portfolios such as Evolve, which is a composed of multiple projects, with supporting workstreams:

• Voice & Video (inc. Contact Centre)
• LAN & WAN
• EUCS (inc. Converge & Accelerate, In- Housing)

As an Assistant Portfolio Planner - Tech, your main responsibilities will be to:

• Maintain the project and portfolio plans, ensuring consolidation of milestones
• Ensure planning hierarchy is applied correctly so lower-level plans roll up accurately to portfolio level milestones level plans.
• Work with portfolio workstream leads to validate sequencing, duration, dependencies and assumptions as the plan evolves over time.
• Supports regular structured sessions (e.g., Walk the Plan) where plan owners surface dependencies, risks, and assumptions, ensuring issues are addressed early and not discovered late
• Identify and map cross portfolio dependencies, including those affecting multiple workstreams, shared services and external partners.
• Surface interconnected risks arising from assumptions, capacity constraints, external deadlines and policy decisions.
• Coordinate with PMO and initiative leads to ensure dependencies are logged, owned and escalated appropriately via governance channels.
• Highlight where large numbers of dependencies on a single team create bottlenecks or delivery risk.

Essential:

• Experience of programme or portfolio planning in complex, multi-team environments.
• Good understanding of dependencies, assumptions and risk structures across digital, policy and operational delivery.
• Experience of creating and maintaining integrated cross-programme plans.
• Ability to turn complex information into clear, decision-ready insights.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and facilitation skills, with the ability to work collaboratively across teams with competing priorities.
• Understanding of critical path analysis and scenario modelling.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of MoJ or wider government planning and governance standards.
• Experience of supporting recovery or transformation delivery portfolios.
• Understanding of policy implementation cycles and how they shape technical and operational plans.
• Digital skills, including experience of using tools such as AI, Power BI and MS Project.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident 

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, MOJ guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

Armed Forces Covenant

The Ministry of Justice guarantees to interview veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".