JOB SUMMARY

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government — we are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

• joining up public sector services
• harnessing the power of AI for the public good
• strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
• elevating leadership and investing in talent
• funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
• committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.
We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.
The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.
Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You’ll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need
This role is with our Products & Services AI team. This team is responsible for building and developing GOV.UK Chat. After a successful private beta of GOV.UK Chat in November, the team are responding to findings and iterating the product ready for the next phase of development.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As a senior delivery manager, you will be accountable for effective delivery of complex, high-risk products and services. You will be expected to have strong communication skills and engage with senior stakeholders both internally and across government.
You’ll be core to making decisions that build a high performing team, adept at breaking down barriers for your team and both planning at a higher level and getting into the detail to make things happen when needed. It is important you can facilitate an inclusive team environment where innovation and challenge are welcomed from all colleagues.

As a Senior Delivery Manager, you’ll:

• lead and motivate multi-disciplinary teams, helping them organise and plan their work, ensuring they deliver products and services that actually meet users’ needs
• co-create and co-own plans and progress using recognised lean/agile practices, and communicate status to more senior people and users appropriately
• provide useful and accurate delivery metrics to facilitate continual improvement, efficiency and effectiveness of teams delivery to the agreed goals, actively tackling impediments, risks and blockers, and communicating and escalating where necessary
• work with senior leaders and stakeholders in GDS to ensure all needs are understood and to influence strategic direction
• manage stakeholders to ensure strategic alignment and effective communication, taking into account organisational context and different needs and priorities, dealing constructively with conflicting views
• work in partnership with product and technical leads on high profile work in ambiguous, complex and/or uncertain domains
• promote continual improvement, good communication and collaboration across the organisation using the principles of agile at scale

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:

• using agile practices to ensure the iterative and timely delivery of products and services that serve real user needs

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
• making effective decisions
• leadership
• 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 Capability Framework for the Senior Delivery Manager role:

• Agile and Lean practices
• Life cycle management
• Maintaining delivery momentum
• Planning
• Team dynamics and collaboration

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and 2 role related questions - up to 750 words.
• a 60 minute video intervie

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

• changing and improving
• making effective decisions
• leadership
• delivering at pac

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

• Agile and Lean practices
• Life cycle management
• Maintaining delivery momentum
• Planning
• Team dynamics and collaboratio