Head of GOV.UK Content

Job description

As Head of GOV.UK Content, you will be working closely with the Head of Content Programme Delivery and Head of Content Development to ensure GOV.UK content is accurate, relevant, and usable. You’ll be responsible for content production, quality assurance, and lifecycle operations across the 10,000 most-visited, highest-value GOV.UK pages. 

Reporting to the Deputy Director for Content, you’ll be an integral member of the GOV.UK Content Leadership Group and the Heads of GOV.UK community, and will help set and assure direction and strategy for GOV.UK’s multi-disciplinary product feature teams.  You’ll be critical to enabling a step change in the GOV.UK Content operating model: transforming strategic partnerships with our stakeholders in other government departments and working closely with product, publishing and platform teams. And you’ll have oversight of the 70-strong team of GOV.UK content designers working to service the mainstream content estate. 

As a GOV.UK Head of Content you’ll:

• oversee production, distribution, management, and retirement of information across the GOV.UK domain
• define and communicate a clear vision and strategy for the GOV.UK content design service 
• work closely with leaders in other government departments to transform our strategic partnerships, in order to assure content quality and prioritise GOV.UK content design support across strategic government priorities
• work closely with the Head of Content Development to set and assure the GOV.UK content strategy, standards, and style guides for all GOV.UK owned and operated channels; and with the Head of Content Programme Delivery to increase the resilience and flexibility of our operating model
• work closely with multidisciplinary teams across GOV.UK to implement and assure improvements to the GOV.UK content publishing model and user experience
• use data and insight to measure the impact and target the work of GOV.UK content designers, identify and prioritise improvements that will innovate and scale the GOV.UK content publishing model
• provide functional leadership to the content designers that work across all GOV.UK functions, overseeing recruitment, retention and development of content design practice in GOV.UK.

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• have experience in leading large content design and/or publishing teams and operations to produce user-centred, data-informed and accessible content at scale
• have experience in transforming services, leading teams to develop innovative, impactful content strategies that deliver measurable benefit to user needs and business priorities
• have experience in establishing and embedding a data-driven culture, using data and insights to measure performance, target priorities, and identify improvements to content operations
• have experience in operating in and influencing direction of multi-disciplinary functional senior management teams, with proven ability to balance narrow interests with business needs and to reconcile tactical goals with strategic objectives
• have experience in building effective relationships with diverse and demanding stakeholders, influencing at senior levels, and monitoring and evaluating complex sets of interactions across multiple levels, teams and organisations

Benefits

The benefits of working at GDS

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for The King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• paid volunteering leave
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

GDS offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home and also spends some time in their local office. You’ll agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs.

Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This role is being advertised with Manchester or Bristol as a location. There is an exception to this, if a current London-based member of staff from Cabinet Office applies, and is successful, they would retain their London base for pay and allowance purposes.

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and for you to answer 2 knockout questions.
• a 75 minute video interview. Candidates invited to the interview will be asked to give a short presentation. Full details of the presentation will be made available to all shortlisted candidates at a later date.

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

In order to assist candidates with this role, we will be holding a virtual recruitment event on Monday 31st March at 2:30 to 4:00 to go through the role in more detail. If you are interested in joining this event please e-mail: gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk and a member of the team will send you an invitation to the event.

While we value the use of AI technology to enhance our daily work, we also value the personal touch and urge applicants to write cover letters without the use of AI to emphasise their own unique experiences.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is:

• have experience in leading large content design and/or publishing teams and operations to produce user-centred, data-informed and accessible content at scale.

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

• Changing and improving
• Leadership
• Seeing the bigger picture
• Managing a quality service
• Delivering at pace

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework for the Head of Content Design role:

• Agile working (content design)
• Content concepts and prototyping
• Stakeholder relationship management (content design)
• Strategic thinking (content design)
• User focus (content design)
• User-centred content design

Recruitment Timeline:

Virtual Session: Monday 31st March - 90 mins - 2:30 to 4:00

Role closes: Sunday 6th April

Sift completion: Thursday 17th April

Interviews: Week commencing 28th April

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Other information

In January 2025, it was announced that the Government Digital Service (GDS) will move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) as a part of a machinery of government change. This change aims to bring together the digital transformation of public services into one central department, presenting exciting opportunities and positioning DSIT to lead the government’s digital agenda.

This role is in scope to transfer to DSIT when the machinery of government change takes place.  As a result,  if you are successful and appointed by Cabinet Office to this role before 1st June 2025, your role will transfer from Cabinet Office to DSIT at the time of the relevant machinery of government change taking place. If your start date is after 1 June 2025, you will be appointed direct to DSIT and your appointment will be unaffected by the machinery of government change.  We are currently consulting with our Trade Unions on which policies, terms and conditions will apply on transfer.  The statement of changes applied to all other Cabinet Office staff will also apply to you if you are successful.

We encourage you to apply and look forward to reviewing your application. We will keep you updated throughout the process.

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home). 

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.