Risk and Issues Manager

Risk and Issues Manager (G7 equivalent)

The Risk & Issues Manager provides expert leadership, strategic oversight, and assurance across complex programmes, ensuring that all risks, issues, assumptions, and interdependencies are effectively identified, analysed, monitored, and managed. This role directly supports senior leaders, SROs, Programme Directors, and governance bodies to maintain delivery confidence, uphold standards, and ensure risks remain.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Risk & Issue Leadership

• Provide strategiclevel advice to senior leaders on risk and issue management

• Act as the expert point of professional knowledge for risk and issue management within the department or programme.

• Lead development of a programmewide risk and issue review cycle, ensuring regular structured engagement with owners and stakeholders.

Risk & Issue Management Execution

• Facilitate endtoend identification, analysis, evaluation, prioritisation, and monitoring of risks and issues

• Support risk and issue owners in developing effective mitigation plans, contingency actions, and resolution activity, escalating as appropriate.

• Maintain and continuously assure the quality of the Risk, Issue and Assumptions (RIA) registers and RAID datasets.

Governance, Reporting & Assurance

• Direct the creation and format of periodic and adhoc risk and issue reports for programme boards, governance bodies, and external oversight, including qualitative and quantitative risk analysis

• Provide expert input and evidence into assurance reviews (including IPA/Gateway), internal audit, and performance reporting.

• Liaise with departmental centres of excellence and corporate reporting bodies to ensure compliance with standards and timely upward reporting.

Programme & Portfolio Integration

• Integrate risk and issue data with programme plans, critical path, dependencies, and benefits profiles

• Ensure risk and issue insights feed into design, sequencing, capability planning, and exit criteria at each stage of the Government EndtoEnd Change Lifecycle.

Stakeholder Engagement & Capability Building

• Build strong relationships with PMO, planners, delivery managers, commercial partners, and operational teams.

• Facilitate risk and issue workshops, deep dives, scenario analysis, and lessonslearned sessions

• Coach and mentor colleagues in risk and issue management methods, behaviours, tooling, and standards.

Tools, Systems & Standards

• Use HMRC’s Programme & Project Management (PPM) Tool as the single source of truth, ensuring highquality entries and data integrity

• Ensure alignment to Project Delivery Standards including Risk & Issue Management, Lessons Learned, Dependency Management, and Project Management Standards.

Essential Criteria

• Significant experience leading risk and issue management for complex government programmes
  
• UK government experience in a similar role in a complex programme environment of significant scale and size, with multiple stakeholders including suppliers.
• Demonstrable expertise in applying risk methodologies (threats, opportunities, quantitative and qualitative analysis

• Ability to synthesise complex information and provide strategic advice to senior leaders, influencing decisions in highrisk delivery environments.

• Strong capability in developing mitigation strategies, contingency responses, and structured escalation pathways.

• Excellent communication and stakeholderengagement skills, with the ability to challenge, guide, and negotiate with senior and crossgovernment partners

• Proven experience maintaining RAID artefacts, data integrity, and highquality reporting for governance bodies.

• Strong understanding of government project delivery, assurance, and change lifecycle frameworks

• Experience coaching and developing staff in risk and issue practices
  

• Must be able to travel regularly.