Smart City Project Officer City of Westminster, England
Job description
About Us:
THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF ANAKHA’S FRESH THINKING
Creativity isn’t something that only senior managers do. In Digital and Innovation at Westminster City Council, we expect it from everyone, including our newest recruits.
Enter Anakha, a graduate trainee, full of energy and fresh ideas. We welcomed her input to our ‘Smart City’ initiatives, especially our Innovation Hub – a newly created space where staff, residents and businesses can meet, experiment and exchange ideas. But it was what happened next that really made a difference. Anakha’s innovation space project was used to invite young people to help them find work through the 'Kickstart' programme as well as to recruit young people to our 'Tech Lions' initiative and is regularly occupied by the Apprentice Community.
We are also inviting residents aged 11-19 from the Westminster Youth Council to the Hub to attend a fun ‘speed dating’ event, where they hear from different digital teams. We will continue to meet with them every week to keep them directly involved in our plans to ensure young people have a regular voice at the heart of the council. From the importance of electric vehicle charging points to new uses for tech, their insights about the kind of city they want to live in are central to our plans.
As for Anakha, she’s now moved into a permanent Project Manager role in the Digital and Innovation Smart City team. Supported by ongoing mentoring from colleagues, she’s already developing even bigger and better ideas.
The Role:
As a Smart City Project Officer you can make your own powerful contribution as you deliver a range of projects that support the delivery of our Smart City Programme. This programme is committed to building a city that works for its residents, its businesses and its visitors. A city that opens up opportunities and empowers all its people to take advantage of them. Developing key documentation for a range of projects and agreeing them with the Smart City Project Manager and other stakeholders, you’ll ensure their delivery follows best practice, and provide regular progress updates.
But your work won’t stop here – you’ll also be responsible for maintaining productive and effective relationships with stakeholders, provide specialist advice and support, and escalate any issues that arise. Committed to ensuring that all project data is comprehensive, high quality and up to date, you’ll use your knowledge of projects, external partners and internal stakeholders to support strategy and decision making across the Council, and offer detailed analysis where required.
Additional responsibilities will include providing ad hoc project management expertise, work that will include producing project initiation documents, plans, stage assessments and progress reports. Supporting the development of business cases will be another key task, as will the identification of business and project risks, and the development of relevant contingency plans. We’ll also expect you to liaise and negotiate with external suppliers and partners to secure services or products, and agree appropriate costings.
Please refer to the Job Description for more information.
About You:
With a relevant professional programme or project management qualification such as Agile, MSP, Prince2 and APM, or equivalent practical experience, you’ll have a track record of building excellent relationships with colleagues and stakeholders. Some knowledge of local government or a similar public sector environment would be a plus, and in addition to superb analytical and problem-solving skills, you should be a great communicator with well developed listening and interpersonal skills.
Self-motivated and capable of prioritising and performing your work in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment, you’ll possess strong monitoring and reporting skills, and be comfortable managing a wide range of stakeholders. With the ability to coach and mentor other members of the team in professional project management techniques, and capable of managing the impact of uncertainties, you’ll also understand complex organisational designs and structures, and how to relate these to projects.
In addition to these skills, you’ll be committed to investing time in your own learning and development, and be ready to encourage your colleagues to do the same. You’ll also have an excellent understanding of the principles and regulations relating to equality and inclusion, and how they relate to pubic sector procurement.
What We Offer:
Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to over 250,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.
At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties
As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.
The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.
