Senior Business Consultant – Belfast.

Position: Programme and Project Management – Senior Business Consultant (SO)

Pay Rate: £19.59 per hour

Hours: Full time, 37 hours per week, Flexi time applicable with DfI core hours

Duration: up to 29th March 2026 with possibility of extension

Start Date: ASAP

Location: Department for Infrastructure, James House, 3rd Floor, Cromac Avenue, Belfast, BT7 2JA

Job Duties:

This is an opportunity to undertake a key role to assist the Head of PMO in the design, setup and ongoing management of TRAMs new Programme Management Office (PMO) for the Group’s transformation programme.

They will support the delivery of the branch objectives, working as required to undertake initial information gathering, analysis and reporting on areas of interest to the team.

They will provide high-quality advice, support and guidance to both existing and new projects on Project Management lifecycle and improve project and programme management within team and wider programme.

They should be comfortable engaging with senior leaders within the organisation and will be required to use discretion, as they will sometimes be dealing with sensitive issues in relation to the Group’s future strategic direction.
As part of a small team, the role requires an ability to work at times unsupervised with flexibility, effective communication skills, good organisational skills and the ability to forward plan.
This role will initially work to the Head of PMO but may also provide ad hoc support to the Programme Manager, the Head of Organisation Design and Improvement, and the wider Programme team once in post. Accordingly, line management may change as the role and remit of the team expands.

Daily you will balance a wide range of tasks, both reactive and proactive with duties and responsibilities including but not limited to:

• Programme Design & Planning –Assisting the Head of PMO to finalise and maintain an agreed programme strategy, business case, programme plan and detailed stage plans to support the ongoing delivery of the Programme’s objectives, within the programme timescale and scope.
• Governance and Reporting – Assisting the Head of PMO in the development, establishment and implementation of effective Programme governance structures, supporting successful delivery and quality outcomes,including organisation of meetings and events and production of reports, papers, minutes and updating risk registers, action and decision logs as required, ensuring the relevant team lead is briefed as appropriate recommending steps to strengthen governance where appropriate to ensure that we can track progress and ensure the delivery of the outcomes we’re seeking to achieve in the programme.
• Carrying out timely and accurate information analysis, including data gathering from internal stakeholders, on agreed areas of work and presenting findings in an agreed manner with the relevant senior manager.
• Risk & Issue Management – Working with project and workstream leads to identify and manage risks, issues and interdependencies in the delivery of the Programme.
• Programme Assurance – Assisting the Head of PMO in the development, maintenance and implementation of the Programme Assurance approach, ensuring that we bring an independent scrutiny and challenge to our approach and plans and engage with independent reviewers such as gateway at appropriate points.
• Undertaking project support functions as required, including supporting elements of projects as directed by the relevant lead; maintaining project plans; supporting the provision of management information; and participating in working groups as appropriate.
• Enabling the Business Review Project by assisting business areas to apply the structured business review processes consistently to:
  – Help each area understand and consistently articulate its current capacity, delivery structure, and delivery pressures.
  – Support the design of more efficient, adaptable, and realistic models based on a core set of organisational assumptions.
  – Provide a structured route for decisions to rebalance service expectations with the available resource base.
  – Align and bring momentum behind TRAM’s contribution to organisation-wide transformation goals (DfI People Strategy; DfI Digital Strategy etc).
• Engagement and Communication – engaging and communicating with a range of internal stakeholders in support of the programme objectives, preparing incisive briefing material on the current position of the Programme for internal and external consumption. as required as well as representing the Programme at key internal events.
• Supporting the communication and engagement manager in the development of communication products relating to the programme, including intranet articles, emails, videos and other relevant products.
• Staff Management – the team currently has line management responsibility for an EO1.
• Preparing/reviewing Machinery of Government/Correspondence cases as appropriate.
• Other ad hoc duties as required including some occasional administrative work in support of the Programme leadership team.

The list of responsibilities is intended to indicate the broad range within the posts, it is however not exhaustive, and the postholders may be required to carry out other duties as required to meet business needs.

Essential Criteria:

• 5 GCSE’s A*-C including Maths and English (must be able to show evidence)
• A degree (must be able to show evidence)
• Project/Programme Delivery Experience using PRINCE2/Managing Successful Programme methodology, as appropriate, within the last 4 years. It is essential that you bring experience of applying best practice programme/project management standards and processes to support the delivery of a significant programme or project.
• PRINCE 2 Foundation
• Knowledge of NICS governance and accountability requirements

Desired Experience: 

• Good organisational and planning skills.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Have good knowledge of using software packages e.g., Microsoft office
• Qualifications – PRINCE2 Practitioner and/or Managing Successful Programmes
• Experience – business case development, development and maintenance of Project/Programme Plans and MS Project software

*The successful applicant will be required to complete an Access NI during registration*

If interested, please send across your CV to anna.quinn@therecruitmentco.uk