Manager, Central Government

We are looking for an experienced Manager to join our Central Government team

Following the continued growth of Baringa, we are excited to be building our Central Government practice. We are looking for experienced managers who will thrive with us as we grow.

We work on the Government’s most complex changes across Central Government departments, helping departments deliver complex policy, operational and transformation priorities and better service citizens throughout the UK. Our Central Government team works at the heart of UK Government, partnering with HMRC, DWP, Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and many other central Whitehall departments.

 
The UK public sector faces major challenges over the coming years, as well as opportunities to drive the recently laid out missions. If you are excited about working alongside our clients to solve their challenges, then we could be what you are looking for.  
 
We are supporting the public sector’s most important programmes across Whitehall and the wider public sector, using our skills in Strategy and Business Cases, Project Delivery, Operational Delivery, DDaT and Government Commercial.

What you will be doing

As a Manager in our Central Government team, you will typically lead workstreams and teams on complex client engagements. 

While no two projects are the same, examples of the work you might be involved in include:

Leading project delivery

• Leading Baringa and blended client teams, setting direction and enabling high performance

• Shaping engagement objectives, deliverables and success measures with clients

• Translating complex challenges into clear delivery plans, workstreams and priorities

• Managing stakeholders, resolving ambiguity and helping clients navigate delivery challenges

• Ensuring the quality, coherence and impact of team outputs

Working with senior government stakeholders

• Building trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders

• Leading governance discussions and presenting recommendations to support decision-making

• Helping clients understand strategic, political, fiscal and operational implications of different options

• Identifying opportunities to create additional value beyond immediate project objectives

Delivering transformation and change

Depending on the engagement, you may help clients to:

• Develop business cases, funding submissions and options appraisals

• Analyse the impact of policy, operational or service changes

• Design operating models, services and delivery approaches

• Deliver large-scale transformation programmes

• Improve operational performance and resilience

• Lead commercial and procurement activities

• Deliver digital, data, technology and AI-enabled change

Developing people and teams

• Creating inclusive and collaborative team environments

• Coaching, mentoring and developing colleagues

• Providing constructive feedback and managing performance, wellbeing and capacity

• Acting as an Advisor and supporting career development where applicable

• Contributing to the development of our Central Government practice through knowledge sharing and communities of practice

Growing our business

• Managing engagement commercials including forecasting, resourcing, billing and scope management

• Leading or contributing to proposals, presentations and commercial models

• Developing thought leadership and propositions aligned to government priorities

• Building internal and external networks that support account and practice growth

Your skills and experience

• Experience leading projects for government or public sector organisations, ideally within a professional services / civil service / consulting environment

• A strong interest in working with Central Government departments (e.g. HMRC, DWP, Cabinet Office, HM Treasury, DBT, DfE, MHCLG) 

• Ability to shape responses for teams to work on complex, ambiguous problems, analyse data and information, and communicate clear, evidence-based insights 

• Confidence leading blended client / consulting teams and internal specialists in fast-paced, delivery-focused environments 

• Curiosity and interest in technology, digital, data and/or AI, and how these can be applied to improve public services

• Strong understanding of how to use digital and AI tools, responsibly and ethically in your day-to-day work.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor messages for different audiences 

• A genuine motivation to improve outcomes for citizens and public servants

• Experience leading, or understanding of how to lead business development activities within the public sector

• The ability to get UK Government Security Clearance

 Optional skills / experience based on specific technical skillset: 

Alongside an expectation of flexibility to respond to our clients greatest needs, we expect candidates to bring depth in one or more of the following areas:

Strategy, policy and business cases

• Leading policy analysis, options appraisal or strategic decision support

• Leading the development of public-sector business cases and funding submissions

• Applying relevant government appraisal and evaluation guidance proportionately

• Leading economic, financial, fiscal or cost modelling

• Defining benefits, outcomes and evaluation approaches

• Advising senior stakeholders on trade-offs and value for money

Programme and project delivery

• Mobilising and leading complex programmes, projects or PMO functions

• Designing proportionate governance and controls

• Managing interdependencies across organisations, suppliers or workstreams

• Leading assurance, delivery recovery or programme reset activity

• Establishing performance, benefits and outcome reporting

• Managing transition into business as usual

Operating model and operational excellence

• Leading target operating-model design

• Translating strategy and policy into implementable organisational change

• Leading service and process transformation

• Applying operational-excellence or systems-thinking approaches

• Improving productivity, performance and resilience

• Managing implementation and operational transition

Digital, data, technology and AI

• Leading multidisciplinary digital or data-enabled transformation

• Applying user-centred and service-standard principles

• Leading business analysis, service design or requirements definition

• Developing data strategies, governance arrangements or analytical solutions

• Identifying, prioritising and implementing responsible AI use cases

• Advising clients on adoption, controls, value and implementation risk

• Working effectively in legacy, security-sensitive or highly controlled environments

Commercial and procurement

• Developing commercial and sourcing strategies

• Leading market engagement and procurement activity

• Creating evaluation approaches and governance

• Mobilising contracts and managing strategic suppliers

• Advising on commercial risk, value for money and contractual performance

• Leading commercial operating-model or capability improvement

What a career at Baringa will give you 

Putting People First.

Baringa is a People First company and wellbeing is at the forefront of our culture. We recognise the importance of work-life balance and flexible working and provide our staff amazing benefits. Some of these benefits include:

• Generous Annual Leave Policy: We recognise everyone needs a well-deserved break. We provide our employees with 5 weeks of annual leave, fully available at the start of each year. In addition to this, we have introduced our 5-Year Recharge benefit which allows all employees an additional 2 weeks of paid leave after 5 years continuous service.

• Flexible Working: We know that the ‘ideal’ work-life balance will vary from person to person and change at different stages of our working lives. To accommodate this, we have implemented a hybrid working policy and introduced more flexibility around taking unpaid leave.

• Corporate Responsibility Days: Our world is important to us, so all our employees get 3 every year to help social and environmental causes and increase our impact on the communities that mean the most to us.

• Wellbeing Fund: We want to encourage all employees to take charge and prioritise their own wellbeing. We’ve introduced our annual People Fund to support this by offering every individual a fund to support and manage their wellbeing through an activity of their choice.

• Profit Share Scheme: All employees participate in the Baringa Group Profit Share Scheme so everyone has a stake in the company’s success.

Diversity and Inclusion

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe that creating an environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging is central to our culture and that diversity is paramount to driving creativity, innovation, and value for our clients and for our people. 

An award-winning workplace

You can be a part of our ‘Great Place to Work’ – with our commitment to women and well-being in the workplace for all. Click here to see some of our recent awards and how we’ve achieved this. 

Using business as a force for good. 

We maintain high standards of environmental performance and transparency, which can be seen through our commitment to Net Zero with our SBTI-verified Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions reduction targets and our support of the Better Business Act. We report our progress publicly and ensure that we are also externally assessed and scored through organisations like CDP and EcoVadis - helping us to continually identify where we can improve.

We have a long legacy of supporting the communities in which we work, and offer a variety of ways to contribute, by putting people first and creating impact that lasts. Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda is about giving back to the communities in which we live and work by sharing our skills, talent and time. In essence, we aim to empower and encourage everyone in the firm to contribute to the things we care about, and support registered charities and organisations with a clear social or environmental purpose to increase the positive impact they can have.