UKTMS S&I Head of Change Delivery

Aberdeen, Belfast, Cardiff, Colchester, Hull, Liverpool, Plymouth, Southampton. Internal MCA employees can remain at their current location., Can you lead complex programmes and drive delivery across scope, cost, time and quality to achieve strategic outcomes?

Are you able to influence senior stakeholders and make high-impact decisions that shape organisational change and deliver long-term benefits?

Have you delivered large-scale projects while balancing risk, governance and leading teams through transformation?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is seeking a UK Technical Maritime Services (UKTMS) S&I (Survey & Inspection) Head of Change Delivery. The MCA implements the government’s maritime safety policy in the United Kingdom and works to prevent the loss of life and occurrence of pollution on the coast and at sea.

UKTMS inspects and surveys ships to ensure that they meet both UK and international safety, security and anti-pollution standards. The directorate also provides certification to ships and seafarers, the registration of merchant vessels on the UK Flag; in collaboration with Coastguard colleagues, it responds to pollution from shipping and offshore installations.

Survey & Inspection’s objective is to enable the Government’s Maritime Strategy for ‘Safer lives, Safer Ships, Cleaner Seas’ by ensuring high standards of marine safety and marine environmental protection through the implementation of consistent survey and inspection operations.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it’s like working at: Maritime and Coastguard Agency - Department for Transport Careers, As the UKTMS S&I Head of Change Delivery, you will lead complex, multi-workstream projects and transformation initiatives, providing strategic direction across UKTMS. You will be accountable for delivering outcomes across scope, cost, time, quality, benefits and risk, ensuring alignment with MCA priorities and government policy. With significant delegated authority, you will make high-impact decisions, influence senior stakeholders, drive organisational change, and deliver long-term operational and strategic benefits.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Providing strategic leadership across complex, multi-workstream programmes, with full accountability for delivery, direction and outcomes across UKTMS.
• Acting as a senior decision-maker on investment, prioritisation and delivery approaches, balancing risk, value and organisational priorities.
• Leading the translation of strategic objectives into clear, compliant delivery plans aligned to MCA priorities, government policy and legislation.
• Overseeing and assuring all core project documentation, including business cases, delivery plans, benefits realisation, risks, issues and dependencies.
• Driving assurance activity and governance, confidently responding to audit, scrutiny and challenge while managing escalations and critical decision-making.
• Building and influencing senior stakeholder relationships, securing agreement across MCA, government departments and external partners on complex issues.
• Leading organisational change and benefits delivery, ensuring adoption of new ways of working and intervening where delivery is at risk.
• Managing teams, risks, interdependencies and digital delivery (including Product Owner responsibilities), while mentoring colleagues and promoting continuous improvement.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public., Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) is the largest and most diverse professional community across the Civil Service. Many of us will have an association with several professional communities or specialisms, ODP applies to all public facing roles / or a role that is primarily aligned to supporting the work of those with public facing roles. All critical to the delivery of UK public services.

This post is offered on a Fixed Term Appointment (FTA) basis to complete a finite piece of work, however this may be extended or made permanent.

Permanent Civil Servants will be appointed on an inward loan and subject to the terms of the agreed inward loan. You must have your home departments approval to return to them at the end of the loan before you apply. Internal candidates will return to their previous post at the end of the loan period, which will need to be agreed with your line manager in advance. If your home department cannot agree to release you on loan, there is the opportunity for you to move across to the department on a fixed term appointment. In this instance the Department for Transport would become your home department and if there is no role available for you at the end of this appointment, you would be subject to the redeployment and redundancy process.

If you’re employed by a non-departmental public body (NDPB) by moving jobs this will involve a change of employer and you may break the statutory rules on continuity of employment.

Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week.

Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 32 hours per week.

This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.

The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

Regular travel to other offices will be required, which may involve overnight stays.

If you have a question about hybrid working, part time/job share hours, flexible working, travelling for work, or require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Vacancy Holder during the recruitment process to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role (see below for contact details)., We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the Big Picture, At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:
• Experience – you will be asked to provide a CV (unlimited wordcount) and personal statement (750-word count). Please provide evidence of your Experience of the following:
• Leading programmes and/or project teams to successful deliver
• Working with multi-disciplinary teams in delivery of a high-profile project / programme
• Influencing and engaging stakeholders at senior level across an organisation and with externals.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead Success Profile element, experience – leading programmes and/or project teams to successfully deliver. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to interview.

Please note: the sift will be completed on a rolling basis whilst the campaign is still live, so you may receive your sift scores before the advert closing date.

The sift will take place week commencing 08/06/2026.

Stage 2: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours –
• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving Seeing the Bigger Picture, All external applicants and current employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will be required to undergo a Social Media Check. A Social Media Check is a review of your publicly available online activity, typically across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and others. The purpose is to identify any public posts or content that could raise concerns for employers, such as:
• Hate speech or discriminatory behaviour
• Threats or acts of violence
• Illegal activity or substance misuse
• Sexually explicit material
• Extremist views or affiliations

Importantly, this check does not involve hacking into your accounts or accessing private messages. It only considers content you have chosen to make public. Employers use this kind of screening to help ensure their workplace remains safe, inclusive, and aligned with company values. It’s not about judging your personality or lifestyle - it’s about checking for potential red flags that might affect the role or company culture. If you have questions or concerns about the social media check, we would be happy to explain in more detail what’s being looked at and how your data is handled securely and fairly.

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes., * 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)
• 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

Do you have experience in Presentation skills?, To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:

• Leading programmes and/or project teams to successful delivery.
• Working with multi-disciplinary teams in delivery of a high-profile project / programme.
• Influencing and engaging stakeholders at senior level across an organisation and with externals.
• PRINCE 2 or AGILE qualification or equivalent experience., You will also be required to create and deliver a presentation to assess the Behaviours Communicating and Influencing and Seeing the Big Picture. Guidance will be provided if you are invited to interview., Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Pulled from the full job description

• Annual leave
• Employee discount
• Employee assistance programme
• Company pension, Alongside your salary of £57,515, Maritime and Coastguard Agency contributes £16,662 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave).
• 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King’s birthday.
• Access to the staff discount portal.
• Excellent career development opportunities and the potential to undertake professional qualifications relevant to your role paid for by the department, such as CIPD, Prince2, apprenticeships, etc.
• Joining a diverse and inclusive workforce with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues.
• 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff.
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Find out more about the benefits of working at MCA .