Senior Delivery Manager

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:

1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. 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

Job description

The GOV.UK One Login and Attributes programme is full of talented and passionate people who are consistently delivering high quality products for services and users. The right person will join a well motivated and dynamic multi-disciplined delivery organisation working at pace to deliver on our commitments and roadmap.

As a Senior Delivery Manager you’ll be working in a cross-functional team that delivers and supports software features. You’ll also be working with stakeholders both internal and across government to understand needs and to deliver new capability.

You’ll be core to making decisions that build a high performing team or teams, and you’ll be adept at breaking down barriers for your team. You’ll be highly skilled at higher level planning and also capable of getting into the details to make things happen when needed.

As a Senior Delivery Manager on GOV.UK One Login and Attributes you’ll:

• lead, coach, and motivate multi-disciplinary development teams, drawing on a blend of embedded and shared specialist expertise according to the needs of the work, and helping them organise and plan their work to deliver timely products and services that meet users’ and business 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 and reporting
• facilitate an inclusive team environment where innovation and challenge are welcomed from all colleagues. Use empathy and interpersonal skills to inspire trust and build a high performance culture
• deliver to the agreed goals, proactively tackling impediments, risks, issues and blockers. Collaborate across the programme to manage dependencies and challenges, communicating and escalating where necessary
• continually improve the effectiveness, efficiency and cohesion of teams
• work in partnership with product, technical and UCD counterparts on high profile work in ambiguous, complex and/or uncertain domains
• promote good communication and collaboration across the organisation using the principles of agile at scale and actively contribute to the delivery management community. Be co-responsible for the success of our delivery management community
• take responsibility for solving complex delivery challenges
• develop, guide and coach your delivery manager line reports and provide mentorship to more junior members of the DM community
• 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

Person specification

We’re interested in people with strong, demonstrable experience of:

• planning and iteratively delivering complex digital products and services that serve real user, stakeholder and business needs
• using lean/agile practices to lead, enable and improve high functioning, multidisciplinary delivery teams
• taking accountability for complex deliveries. Proactively tackling impediments, dependencies, risks and blockers, and communicating and escalating where necessary
• working effectively with team stakeholders and other teams. Managing differences of viewpoints to achieve constructive working relationships and overarching goals

Benefits

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 average 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
• 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 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

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

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).

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate g