Senior Change Delivery Manager

We need your skills to run initiatives which embed transformative technology and effective use of it around the UK Public Sector. In this role you can help central and local government, the NHS, Police, as well as 400+ agencies and other bodies. By the promotion of strategies, principles, standards and identifying best practice, as well as supporting the adoption and embedding of these into the public sector, you’ll help your 26,000+ digital and data colleagues in these organisations deliver transformational change.

Our product teams are currently focussed on Artificial Intelligence, DevOps, Platforms and Digital Workplace, making these easier for organisations of all sizes, identifying opportunities and managing the aggregate risks of these technologies to UK Government.

You will be responsible for the adoption of your team’s products and services by stakeholders around the UK Public Sector. This includes:

1. Delivering key pieces of work or campaigns, including overseeing all aspects of the communications and community delivery including content, press, social media, events and audience analysis
2. Designing, delivering and continuously evaluating an evidence based cross-Government technology community strategy
3. Implementing mechanisms to ensure reporting on the success of activities to senior leaders
4. Developing and maintaining strong relationships with key stakeholders across government to agree and align on shared messaging for delivery as well as gain buy-in for key commitments 
5. Coaching organisations and people to adapt processes and policies to align with your team’s work
6. Triaging incoming requests for new or emerging engagement priorities
7. Working with vendors to maximise their offer to UK Public Sector, and with Crown Commercial Service in commercial engagements with vendors

The above list of job duties is not exclusive or exhaustive and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Person specification

The successful candidate will need to operate at pace, set high standards for the work they commission and have a keen eye for detail to ensure that all issues are dealt with appropriately. They will need to be organised, a self-starter and able to design processes that are simple but effective, and able to maintain and improve these processes in a fast paced environment.

This role requires skills including:

• Presenting to senior stakeholders, both technical (such as CTOs across Government) and non-technical (including ministers)
• Learning should be embedded in the way you approach your working week, and you should be keen to share your learning with those around you
• Coaching and leading teams in Agile and Lean practices
• Delivering projects on time dealing with complex relationships within multiple organisations
• Identifying and challenging organisational processes of increasing complexity and those processes that are unnecessarily complicated, as well as proven experience of guiding teams through new processes.
• Negotiating, influencing or setting budgets in complex environments and communicating business-value propositions
• Leading a continual planning process in a very complex environment

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

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and cover letter of up to 750 words. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above
• a 60 minute video interview

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.

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:

• Delivering projects on time dealing with complex relationships within multiple organisations

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
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework for the Senior Delivery Manager role:

• Team Dynamics and Collaboration
• Communicating with Technical and Non-Technical
• Planning
• Maintain Delivery momentum

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: Tuesday 18th March

Panel interviews: week commencing 25th March

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.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

Other information: Occasionally, business pressures, priorities or critical delivery may mean that we move you into a different team or work area within GDS. This will always be within the same grade and discipline within which you were hired, but does mean that your focus or objectives may shift in order to deliver GDS business.

You may be aware that there are plans for the Government Digital Service (GDS) to move into the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT). This move is to bring together the digital transformation of public services into one core department. The move itself will offer huge opportunities whilst allowing DSIT to lead the way and drive forward the new Government's digital agenda. 

As the announcement is relatively new, we are awaiting more detailed information. Therefore, we encourage you to apply for this role, and will keep you informed with updated information throughout the application process. 

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