Finance Project Manager
SEO
Magistrate Uplift Division
Judicial & Legal Services Policy Directorate
Policy Group
The Policy Group within the Ministry of Justice is recruiting an SEO Finance Project Manager into its Magistrates Uplift Division situated within the Judicial & Legal Services Directorate.
This campaign is offered on Detached Duty for staff within the Ministry of Justice and Loan terms for staff within HMPPS or other government departments.
It is available on level transfer and temporary promotion.
Location:
Successful candidates will have the option to be based at one of the following locations:
- 102 Petty France, London
- 5 Wellington Place, Leeds
Occasional travel between locations may be required. We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your base location (102 Petty France, RCJ or 5 Wellington Place Leeds).
Ways of Working
At the MoJ we believe and promote alternative ways of working, these roles are available as:
- Full-time, part-time or the option to job share
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Flexible working patterns
If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.
We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity
Salary
Existing Civil Servants will have their salary calculated in accordance with the Department’s pay on transfer / pay on promotion rules.
Background
The Judicial and Legal Services Policy team (JLSP) is responsible for managing the relationship between the department, the government and the judiciary and legal services profession.
Magistrates are a vital part of the justice system and central to delivering the government’s reform priorities, including reducing the criminal court backlog. Following the Independent Review of Criminal Courts and measures set out in the Courts and Tribunals Bill strengthening the resilience and capacity of magistrates’ courts is a critical priority for Ministers and the MoJ Board.
Most criminal cases start and around 95% conclude in magistrates’ courts, making a sufficient, skilled and diverse magistracy essential. The Magistrates Uplift Division leads work to ensure we have the magistrates we need, working ly with the judiciary, Judicial Office, HMCTS, magistrates themselves and key partners such as the Magistrates Association.
Our high‑profile programme aims to increase magistrate numbers by 50% to reach 21,000 by 2028/29. It is ly overseen by Ministers and the judiciary, including fortnightly ministerial review meetings, and is structured around three strands:
- Recruitment – improving and accelerating the recruitment process.
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Retention, Leadership and Training – strengthening onboarding and ensuring the offer to magistrates supports long‑term retention.
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Governance and Business of State – aligning with cross‑government reforms, including those arising from the Independent Review of Criminal Courts, and delivering a cohesive communications and engagement strategy.
This fast‑paced programme attracts significant ministerial and judicial attention, with regular reporting to the Justice Board and Ministers. It offers the opportunity to work at the centre of a major criminal justice reform initiative and contribute directly to ministerial priorities.
The Team
We are a friendly, high-performing cross-functional, cross-organisational team bringing together colleagues and expertise from across MoJ, HMCTS and Judicial Office to deliver this ambitious agenda.
This role sits in the programme governance team, a team of seven responsible for governance, analysis, finance, comms and engagement functions for across the cross-cutting programme. The post holder will report directly to the G6 head of governance, and work ly with the DD SRO, who is responsible for programme spend as well as the central finance function.
The Role
The Finance Project Manager will establish and oversee systems and processes for profiling and overseeing budgets within the team and with operational teams in HMCTS, Judicial Office and MoJ Marketing. This might include agreeing annual profiles, dealing with new bids, seeking and signing off business cases as/when needed, and ensuring spend against profiles, and - if needed, evidence that spend is achieving objectives.
The Finance Project Manager will be responsible for building strong relationships with the cross-cutting teams (MoJ, HMCTS, Judicial Office), understanding the business and setting out finance information in a clear and consistent way. The programme has been allocated a substantial, multi-year budget to support work in all three organisations to uplift recruitment and make reforms.
This role will provide valuable financial support to the programme team.
The successful candidate will work ly with the central finance lead and report to the G6 Head of Governance, Magistrate Uplift Programme and will be responsible for:
- Stakeholder Engagement – develop and maintain strong partnerships with all cross-cutting teams.
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Budget management – work with budget holders to set up and maintain robust budget plans and monitor delivery.
- Finance related business administration, including but not limited to setting up POs, chasing & receipting invoices and managing the resource tracker.
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Risks and issues – identify and monitor budget risks and opportunities, supporting stakeholders to develop mitigating actions.
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Give advice to support decision making, encouraging options analysis and appropriate governance. Use your insight to add value.
- Coordinating the various financial leads from across the delivery agencies to contribute financial information to overall reports/ dashboards, ensure the figures and narrative are consistent and make overall sense.
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Support Board reporting and provide input into departmental allocations and spending review process.
Skills and Experience
Essential:
- Translating, owning, and adding insight to financial data to provide clear information and evidence to support business activities and requirements.
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Providing reporting and presentations to meet reporting and audit requirements and support business decisions, such as efficiency and cost reduction options.
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Providing guidance at appropriate level budget holder meetings and boards.
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Confident in delivering at pace and prioritising multiple competing priorities.
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Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, evidence of managing stakeholders at diverse levels and in different organisations. This includes an ability to keep leaders and decision makers informed and assured.
Working ly with the central Finance team and relevant Finance lead to ensure oversight and ad- nce to financial processes.
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Confidence in working independently to scope and develop work, drive activity forward and take initiative simultaneously across a range of priorities.
Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.
The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.
Application process
You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.
You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application, including your CV, statement of suitability and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.
Experience
You will be asked to provide your Work History during the application process in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.
You will also be asked to upload a Statement of Suitability of no more than 500 words stating what you would bring to the role, with reference to the Skills and Experience listed above.
Candidates invited to Interview
Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely.
During the panel interview, you will be asked behaviour-based questions to explore in detail what you are capable of, and strengths-based questions to also explore what you enjoy, and your motivations relevant to the job role.
Behaviours:
You will be assessed against the following behaviours at the interview stage and will be asked to provide examples of how you have demonstrated the behaviours.
- Making effective decisions
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Communicating and Influencing
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Leadership
It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in and use the WHO or STAR model to explain:
- WHO - What it was? How you approached the work/situation? What the Outcomes were, what did you achieve?Or
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STAR - What was the Situation? What were the Tasks? What Action did you take? What were the Results of your actions? (See Annex A)
Strengths:
It is difficult to prepare for strength type questions. However, you can think through your answers, focus on your achievements and aspects you enjoy and decide how these can be applied in the organisation and role. While strengths questions are shorter and we do not expect a full STAR response, the panel is interested in your first reaction to the question and information or reasoning to support this. Further information on Civil Service Strengths can be found .
T is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well (see Annex A for more information).
Interviews are expected to take place in June 2026.
At interview stage, if candidates do not score high enough to be appointed to an SEO role, but have passed the minimal requirements, they could be offered a Policy role at HEO Grade.
Contact information
Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team. Imke Djouadj: [email protected].
Annex A - The STAR method
Using the STAR method can help you give examples of relevant experience that you have. It allows you to set the scene, show what you did, and how you did it, and explain the overall outcome.
Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.
W
- are you?
Who was t- with you?
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What had happened?
Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.
- What was the task that you had to complete and why?
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What did you have to achieve?
Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information on what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I” rather than “we” to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit for something that you did not do.
Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures. Explain how the outcome benefitted the organisation or your area. Make the outcomes easily understandable.
- What results did the actions produce?
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What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?
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Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from the experience?
Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.
