Working Pattern
Full Time, Job Share
Job Summary
This is a pivotal role within the Major Decarbonisation Group providing strategic leadership and delivery accountability for projects within the UK’s Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) programme. The role requires decisive leadership and demands experience in major project delivery and commercial negotiation.
The role exists to lead major projects through lifecycle, beginning with feasibility and extending through to appraisal, delivery and operation. In practice, this means ensuring that each project has a clear scope, a robust business case, the right commercial and technical arrangements in place, and the governance and controls required to reach Final Investment Decision and their Commercial Operation Date.
The SRO provides the central leadership presence across the CCUS programme to ensure decisive progress at all stages. The postholder will have responsibility for the following clusters: East Coast Cluster (Teesside and Humber), Acorn and Viking. This is a delivery role, and the postholder must demonstrate experience in major project delivery and commercial negotiation.
The post-holder’s responsibilities are broad and critical: they set the strategic direction and expectations for the teams and ensure strong delivery capability. During periods of intense negotiation and delivery, the SRO will guide their team through challenges and maintain momentum. A central part of this role is dedicated to building skills, enhancing capability, and fostering resilience within the teams, as well as motivating and supporting staff who are often working in high-pressure delivery environments.
Job Description
Key Responsibilities
- Programme Leadership & Delivery: Lead the delivery of CCUS projects to Commercial Operation Date (COD), ensuring alignment with portfolio priorities and strategic direction.
- Cluster Management: Direct the delivery and negotiation of CCUS projects managing sequencing, readiness, infrastructure dependencies and commercial model development.
- Business Case Assurance: Secure Final Investment Decision (FID) through robust business cases (SOBC, OBC, FBC), ensuring compliance with governance expectations and value for money assessments. Provide assurance for Portfolio Board, InvestCo, and Cabinet Office approvals.
- Risk & Controls Management: Oversee programme risks, controls, assurance, and delivery confidence across CCUS clusters, ensuring time, cost, and quality parameters are met. Escalate key decisions and risks to senior governance bodies.
- Resource & Capability Deployment: Direct multidisciplinary teams comprising commercial specialists, engineers, delivery professionals, and policy colleagues, deployed from hubs and functions. Align capability with delivery stage and foster resilience and skills development.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Engage with cluster developers, industry partners, and cross-Whitehall colleagues. Represent MDPG at senior forums, influence major private sector partners and government departments, and secure agreement on delivery and commercial approaches.
- Reporting & Recommendations: Report to the DG, Portfolio Board, and Ministers, providing recommendations and escalating risks. Exercise delegated programme authority, including approval or rejection of project progress at key control points.
Person Specification
The successful candidate will demonstrate
- Proven experience leading large, multidisciplinary teams, building an inclusive, high-performing culture, and supporting capability development across delivery hubs.
- Deep knowledge of major project delivery, ideally in infrastructure, energy, or regulated markets. Skilled in programme controls, assurance, and risk management, with familiarity with business case processes in large multi-stakeholder organisations.
- Strong competence in commercial negotiation and managing complex commercial structures. Ability to balance cost, investor confidence, value for money, and deliverability.
- Excellent judgement in assessing commercial viability, sequencing clusters, and managing risks in uncertain environments. Experience advising senior stakeholders such as ministers or board members and navigating novel scenarios where policy, market conditions, and technical solutions are evolving.
- Authority and credibility to influence major private sector developers, investors, government departments, and industry partners. Collaborative approach to securing alignment of objectives and driving forward wider government goals.
- Must have or be willing to work towards achieving an MPLA.
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