Jon Kennedy

Senior Delivery Manager - Department of Work and Pensions (Contract) (September 2017 – Present)

Responsible for managing outbound and inbound integrations between Universal Credit Full Service (UCFS) and external DWP and third-party systems. Lead on Integration Delivery on critical projects, including the 'Move to UC' initiative, while ensuring secure data transfer, compliance with GDPR, and meeting high-profile project deadlines.

Integration Delivery Lead for 'Move to UC' Project: Since February 2022, managed all technical integrations for the high-profile 'Move to UC' project, successfully going live for HMRC Tax Credit claimants in April 2023, and for DWP Working Age benefit claimants in April 2024. This project will migrate 2.5 million households from legacy HMRC & DWP systems to Universal Credit by the end of 2025.

- Identified and agreed on the most reliable data sources from within the DWP estate, ensuring the accurate identification of citizens across Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

- Secured current claimant contact details and extracted legacy benefit award information to facilitate seamless migration.

- Negotiated and agreed on secure data transfer methods with HMRC for citizens receiving Tax Credits, ensuring compliance with all legal and regulatory frameworks.

- Delivered technical integrations on schedule, enabling essential data exchanges between internal DWP systems as well as DWP and HMRCsystems, ensuring key project milestones were met.

- Authored GDPR-compliant Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) and Data Governance documents, ensuring all data transfers adhered to security and privacy standards.

Additional Key Deliveries: Drove the successful completion of several high-impact projects that modernised UCFS infrastructure and enhanced service delivery.

- Lead on UC\HMRC Integrations: Oversaw all technical integrations between UCFS and HMRC systems, delivering key functionalities that enhanced operational efficiencies.

- Successfully implemented a secure pathway for UCFS to automatically transfer National Insurance Credits data to HMRC, improving the accuracy and timeliness of data exchanges.

- Led the creation of the NI Credits Data Sharing Agreement between UCFS and HMRC, ensuring full compliance with GDPR principles and government data-sharing laws.

- Established a secure integration route for HMRC to automatically transfer Child Tax Credit data to DWP, streamlining claim processes for Universal Credit claimants.

- Leda joint initiative with HMRC to resolve data issues that hindered the automated transfer of earnings data. Successfully proposed and implemented a solution that restored earnings data transfers for over 50,000 claimants monthly, significantly reducing errors.

- Managed the migration of key UCFS services from legacy network infrastructure to the new DWP API Gateway, a highly complex project that required careful planning and testing to avoid any service downtime.

- Collaborated with IBM to deliver a new self-service test environment for the DWP Customer Information Service (CIS), improving system testing capabilities and reducing operational delays.

- Delivered multiple projects that established live and test integration routes via the DWP API Gateway, ensuring secure and efficient connectivity with critical government services, including:

o Home Office Live Events Service

o Home Office EU Settled Status

o DWP Customer Information Service (CIS)

o Reach SMS service

- Played an instrumental role in UCFS Program Prioritisation and Roadmapping sessions, providing strategic direction and planning for future technical enhancements.

- Leadership & Stakeholder Management: Demonstrated strong leadership and collaboration skills by managing cross-functional teams and maintaining communication with both internal and external stakeholders.

- Acted as the single point of contact for all stakeholders involved in data transfers, managing relationships with DWP, HMRC, and third-party vendors.

- Planned, coordinated, and delivered complex projects in high-pressure environments, showcasing resilience, strategic planning, and a commitment to meeting tight deadlines.

Senior Project Manager - Hewlett Packard (later DXC) – Universal Credit Live Service (Contract) (June 2015 – September 2017)

Led the delivery of multiple high-profile projects for the DWP Universal Credit Live Service (UCLS), managing releases, infrastructure upgrades, and network changes, with a total project value exceeding £12 million. Responsibilities included overseeing the full project lifecycle, from development through testing to live implementation, while coordinating with internal teams, vendors, and DWP stakeholders.

- Managed multiple UCLS release projects over a 14-month period, ensuring successful transitions through each phase, including User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT), and finally into Production. Directed the end-to-end release process, managing all infrastructure and network changes required to support UCLS releases.

- Took sole responsibility for producing detailed implementation plans for each release, presenting these to DWP and vendor teams, and obtaining sign-off for execution. Pioneered the approach of a single project manager overseeing both development and production phases, streamlining the process that had previously been managed by two separate roles.

- Led the implementation of each live UC release, managing a team of approximately 15 people across various functions to ensure successful delivery. Coordinated all aspects of overnight implementations, providing regular updates to stakeholders and keeping all parties informed on progress against plans.

- Chaired DWP Field Acceptance Test (FAT) calls following each implementation, securing DWP approval before restoring the live service.

- Led the delivery of a new OpenShift Platform as a Service (iPaaS) environment for both live and test systems, deploying 22 servers with a total project value of over £2 million.

- Managed a recurring exercise to anonymise live data to support system testing by external suppliers, ensuring data security and compliance.

- Implemented a service to connect the Real Time Earnings system hosted in DWP Private Cloud to other government agencies via the Public Services Network (PSN), improving cross-government data sharing capabilities.

- Oversaw the upgrade of Universal Credit Oracle Grid and databases from v11.2.0.3 to v11.2.0.4, ensuring system stability and enhanced performance.

- Delivered a new Selenium Test Automation environment for use by the DWP Universal Credit UAT teams, improving test accuracy and efficiency.

- Managed the rollout of Red Hat Operating System security updates across all UC test and production environments, enhancing the platform's security posture.

Senior Project Manager - British Telecom – City of Edinburgh Council(2013 – 2015)

Project Manager - British Telecom – DWP Account (2007 – 2013)

IP Telephony Test Environment Manager - British Telecom – DWP Account (2004 – 2007)

VME Mainframe Support – DSS\Electronic Data systems (EDS) – 1991-2004

A Levels - St Cuthbert’s RC High School, Newcastle upon Tyne

PRINCE2 Practitioner

Managing Successful Programmes (MSP)

Security Clearance

BPSS