Head of Service Architecture & Tooling

Job summary

The Home Office is here to make our country safer. As well as working to reduce crime and enforce the law. We also work to protect the most vulnerable and have a proud history of providing refuge to those who have been displaced or are seeking asylum. Whether it is fighting crime, protecting our borders or combating slavery, the Home Office is at the cutting edge of public policy in this country, and our work is some of the most challenging and rewarding in government.

The Public Safety Group’s role is to keep the public safe by cutting crime, disrupting the highest harm criminals, protecting the vulnerable and ensuring that our police service is as efficient and effective as it can be in delivering front line public services. We work with our partners in other government departments, local government and the voluntary sector to develop and implement policy, provide funding, and deliver legislation.

The people in our Group develop and implement policy, provide funding, and deliver legislation. We make the most of innovation, data, and partnerships to prevent crime, protect the vulnerable, and tackle the highest harm crimes. We work with our partners in law enforcement, establishing governance arrangements at a national, regional and local level.

Job description

This role offers you the opportunity to join an exciting, fast-paced environment working hard to deliver ministerial commitments for the benefit of the public.

As Head of Service Architecture and Tooling, you will be a key decision maker and liaise with the most senior internal and third party, stakeholders who are involved in some of the most cutting-edge skills and topics within information technology.

You will lead a matrix team of civil service and contract Service Design and Transition managers.

You will design and deliver services that support business needs reusing existing service components where appropriate; that are proportionate and affordable; and span multiple suppliers, components, and support levels. You will lead on the production of comprehensive service designs, incorporating the entire end-to-end eco-system that includes business requirements, wider standards, enterprise services capabilities, and external suppliers and consumers.

You will also lead on programmes and projects of work, acting as a subject matter expert and ensuring the design meets user and wider Home Office needs.

Whilst working within the Service Design and Tooling team, you will work closely with Live Services, ESN Service Operations, and the wider ESMCP programme workstreams as well as our suppliers and representatives from the Emergency Services organisations. You will promote a team culture that embodies the Civil Service values and rewards teamwork, client-orientation, delivery focus and technical excellence.

Key Responsibilities:

• Leading the development of end-to-end service design for new and evolving services, ensuring alignment with organisational strategy and the wider service ecosystem.
• Providing strategic oversight of service design and transition activity, ensuring services are supportable, sustainable, and deliver value.
• Engaging senior stakeholders across ESMCP, suppliers, and partner organisations to shape requirements, influence decisions, and resolve complex delivery challenges.
• Overseeing the production and quality of key service artefacts, including Service Design Packages, ensuring consistency with best practice and governance standards.
• Leading service readiness and transition planning for new services, ensuring effective integration into live operations and alignment with existing capabilities.
• Driving continuous improvement across service management, identifying opportunities to modernise processes, improve tooling, and increase automation.
• Establishing and promoting best practice within the IT Operations and service management community, building organisational capability.
• Maintaining oversight of the transition pipeline, forecasting demand and ensuring effective resource planning.
• Leading, developing and managing a multi-disciplinary team, fostering a high-performing and inclusive culture, supporting professional development and succession planning.

You may be required to undertake other duties within the scope of the grade and their skills, competence, and training. The role will transition over time from hands-on delivery to a predominantly assurance-focused function, with greater emphasis on oversight and performance.

Working Pattern

Due to the business requirements of this role, it is only available on a full-time basis. However, job-share and compressed hours are available.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Providing strategic and technical leadership, driving high-quality, innovative service solutions and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Navigating complex delivery environments, working across supplier networks, internal teams, and wider government stakeholders to achieve outcomes.
• Delivering robust, resilient services within time, cost and quality constraints, ensuring effective implementation, testing and documentation.
• Shaping and defining standards, contributing to service strategies and technical roadmaps aligned to organisational priorities.
• Anticipating future technology developments and advising on opportunities to enhance services and capability.
• Communicating clearly and influencing senior stakeholders, adapting style and approach to meet diverse needs and manage expectations.
• Applying a flexible, pragmatic approach to delivery, operating across agile, DevOps and traditional methodologies where appropriate.

Desirable Criteria

• Drive process improvement, establish best practice, promoting consistency, innovation and continuous improvement across teams, with strong knowledge of Lean, Agile and DevOps in product-centric delivery environments.
• Manage end-to-end employee lifecycle while applying solid understanding of ITIL functions and core service management methodologies.

Qualifications

1 - ITIL foundation.

2 - Relevant project/programme management qualifications (Agile/Prince 2/DevOps/SIAM/Lean) or a willingness to acquire them.

3 - Strategy and Architecture:
• Advice and Guidance - Methods and Tools (METL) – level 4

4 - Change and Transformation:
• Change Implementation - Project Management (PRMG) – level 4
• Change Analysis - Business Situation Analysis (BUSA) – level 5

5 - Delivery and Operation:
• Service Management - Service Acceptance (SEAC) – level 4
• Technology Management - Technology Service Management (ITMG) – level 5

6 - Relationships and Engagement:
• Stakeholder Management - Stakeholder Relationship Management (RLMT) – level 4

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Seeing the Big Picture

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Service Design and Transition
• Service Management
• Tooling and Asset Management

Benefits

In addition to your salary, a career with the Home Office offers a range of benefits, including:

• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• In-year reward scheme for one-off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements.
• 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service t