Resource Manager

Job summary

Are you an organised project delivery professional with an eye for resource management who can balance competing priorities, build strong stakeholder relationships, and ensure the right people are in the right roles to deliver successful outcomes?

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.

Census 2031 represents our most ambitious data collection project yet – a once-in-a-decade opportunity to capture a complete picture of everyone living in England and Wales. Building on the digital success of 2021, we're pioneering new ways to reach every household and community, ensuring no one is left uncounted. This vital work will provide the foundation for policy decisions, resource allocation, and community planning for the next decade.

Your work will support delivery of this transformational project that will shape how we understand and support our nation's future. You’ll be part of a team that ensures everyone is counted—and every voice is heard. We're building a culture that values collaboration, fresh thinking, and respect for diverse expertise. Whether you're a seasoned professional or bringing new perspectives, you'll be part of a team that welcomes bold ideas, works transparently, and thrives on solving complex challenges together.

Job description

As a Resource Manager you will define the resources needed for a project at various stages. You will be responsible for identifying, recruiting, deploying, adjusting, and developing these resources to ensure successful delivery. You will work closely with the Project Manager to meet resource requirements, which may include people or physical resources like equipment.

As a Resource Manager you may operate in a Portfolio or Programme Management Office (PMO) in any Directorate across the organisation delivering projects/programmes/portfolio to help realise our organisational strategy. These PMO's will vary in size, scope, complexity and delivery methodology.

This role is suitable for individuals with experience in resource-related activities as part of a small, low complexity project or in supporting resource activities within a larger project. This is also suitable for individuals with relevant skills gained in a non-project environment, such as HR professionals. Basic resourcing knowledge is also required.

Responsibilities

Resource Strategy and Planning:

• Collaborates with the project manager to implement resource strategies that align with project requirements and standards, focusing primarily on recruiting and allocating internal resources.

Stakeholder Management:

• Engages with stakeholders alongside the project manager to address resource management requirements

Reporting:

• Gathers timely and accurate data to report on resource and capability activities regularly to local or departmental teams. Highlights key resourcing and capability risks and supports the use of resource management tools in projects.

Capability Management:

• Partners with the project manager to identify necessary skills and competencies and analyses skill gaps for both new and existing staff.

Digital and Data:

• Uses digital tools to analyse data to predict resource requirements and identify skill gaps. Uses digital tools for resource allocation and management.

These qualifications would be advantageous alongside proven experience delivering projects, however training will be available for the successful candidate.

• APM Project Fundamentals
• APM Project Management Qualification
• PRINCE 2 Foundation
• PRINCE 2 Practitioner
• Managing Successful Programmes Foundation
• Managing Successful Programmes Practitioner
• PMI Certificate in Associate Project Management

Person specification

Essential Criteria - You will need to demonstrate experience of:

Supporting resource planning and capacity management activities, including maintaining accurate resource information and monitoring resource allocation.
Maintaining plans, tracking priorities, dependencies and timescales to support effective delivery.
Producing accurate management information, reporting or data analysis to support planning and decision-making.
Building effective working relationships and collaborating with stakeholders across teams to support delivery outcomes.
Identifying and implementing configuration process improvements to improve efficiency, consistency and ways of working.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Resource management (Working Level) - Project Delivery Capability Framework
• Stakeholder engagement (Awareness Level) - Project Delivery Capability Framework

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,587, Office for National Statistics contributes £10,019 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our 5400 valued colleagues across the business.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that the benefits pack attached (bottom of page) will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a member of the Business Disability Forum and a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

ONS are committed to flexible ways of working that support a healthy work-life balance. ONS has already considered how this job could be right sized for applicants working flexibly and we are happy to explore options with you about working part time, in a job share or flexibly, in line with our hybrid working polic