Project Manager

Do you have a talent for bringing structure, clarity and momentum to complex projects?

Are you keen to help transform how services work for residents and colleagues across the council?

Do you enjoy working collaboratively with teams to deliver high-impact innovation?

Our Digital, Data & Innovation service is driving major change through the Turbocharging Innovation Programme. Building on the achievements of pilot projects, we are supporting teams to further enhance services, adopt proven approaches, and secure measurable benefits for both residents and colleagues.

As a Project Manager, you’ll help turn successful pilot initiatives into deliverable projects and broader real-world impact. You’ll lead work from scoping and business case development through approval and implementation, collaborating closely with service areas, stakeholders and digital specialists. This hands-on role involves testing assumptions, driving progress, overcoming obstacles and providing teams with the guidance and framework needed to thrive.

You’ll bring robust project management expertise, outstanding communication skills, and the ability to navigate complex environments with empathy and assurance. Most importantly, you’ll demonstrate curiosity, relationship-building skills, and a genuine passion for advancing public services.

Fixed term: 31st March 2028 – with possibility of extension to 2030 in line with programme funding

For further information or an informal discussion, please contact Charlotte Bennett, Turbocharging Innovation Programme Manager: charlotte.bennett@brighton-hove.gov.uk

About the role

The successful candidate will play a central part in accelerating the council’s ability to design, test and scale innovative ways of working across services. As part of the Turbocharging Innovation Programme—which is driving significant change and building on successful pilot projects—this role focuses on enabling teams to adopt proven approaches, improve services for residents and colleagues, and realise measurable benefits at pace.

This hands-on role combines business case development, agile project management and service improvement. You’ll work with services and specialists to assess pilot evidence, appraise options and develop robust proposals for approval, then guide multidisciplinary teams through scoping, prototyping, testing and implementation. Throughout, you’ll bring clarity, structure and momentum to complex challenges through collaborative problem-solving.

You will work across the organisation—partnering with services, operational leaders, digital specialists and residents—to embed proven approaches that deliver meaningful impact.

You will shape and drive day-to-day delivery by:

• Developing and maintaining evidence-based business cases with service leads, Finance and digital specialists, setting out options, costs, benefits, savings assumptions, resource requirements, risks and delivery plans, and coordinating review and approval through the council’s governance arrangements.

• Facilitating agile ways of working such as iterative planning, rapid feedback cycles and continuous learning

• Helping services define problems, understand user needs and develop practical, testable solutions

• Developing and maintaining delivery plans with clear milestones, resource requirements, responsibilities and dependencies, and coordinating contributions from colleagues across service areas to ensure aligned, high-quality delivery.

• Identifying risks, removing blockers and ensuring teams have the frameworks, guidance and support they need to thrive

• Working with Procurement, Legal and technical specialists to support procurement and contracting where required, and collaborating with suppliers to manage agreed products, services, milestones and delivery commitments.

• Working with service leads and Finance to establish benefit baselines, test savings assumptions and agree how benefits will be realised, distinguishing cashable savings from released capacity and wider service improvements; then tracking results against agreed measures using data and feedback to evidence impact.

• Providing clear, regular reporting to stakeholders and leadership on progress, costs, benefits, outcomes and lessons learned, highlighting decisions required and escalating risks, issues or dependencies that threaten delivery.

• Coordinating implementation readiness with service owners and specialists, including technical and information governance reviews, testing, training, communications and changes to working practices, with clear ownership of outstanding actions and an agreed handover into day-to-day service delivery.

The role requires excellent communication, curiosity, and the ability to build strong relationships across diverse teams. You’ll work with empathy and assurance in fast-moving and sometimes ambiguous environments, supporting colleagues through change and helping to modernise services for the benefit of our communities.

Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

DBS statement options:

1) remove both if DBS not required

2) for Basic DBS - keep only:

Please note that this post is subject to a Basic Disclosure Criminal Records Check.

3) for Standard or Enhanced DBS - keep only:

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

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