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

What you’ll do

The Service Transformation team aims to help the public sector improve services across government that people depend on every day. By leveraging the power of digital and data, we can transform how citizens interact with the government, making services faster, simpler, and fairer. We focus on helping and ensuring the public sector is designing services around the needs of users, whether they are individuals or businesses, saving people time and money, often when they’re needed most.

Job description

Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.

As a Senior Delivery Manager, you’ll:

Delivery & execution

• lead and support one or more multidisciplinary agile teams to design and deliver user-centred digital products or services
• plan, track, and manage delivery using agile methods (e.g. Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid approaches) and digital tools (e.g. Jira, Mural, etc.)
• ensure work is prioritised, visible, and flowing efficiently through the delivery pipeline
• monitor progress against delivery goals, milestones, and outcomes, adapting plans as needed

Team enablement

• facilitate agile ceremonies (e.g. sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives, reviews)
• foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high‑performing team culture
• work closely with Product Managers, Designers, User Researchers and Service Owners, and other roles as required
• protect teams from unnecessary disruption and help resolve blockers and dependencies
• coach teams and stakeholders on agile values, behaviours, and best practices

Stakeholder management

• act as a key point of contact between delivery teams and stakeholders where applicable
• communicate progress, risks, and issues clearly and transparently
• manage expectations and support decision-making by presenting data‑driven insights

Managing risks, dependencies and finances

• identify, manage, and escalate delivery risks and dependencies
• support forecasting, budgeting and supplier management, where applicable
• ensure delivery activity aligns with organisational governance and assurance standards

Continuous improvement

• use metrics (e.g. flow, throughput, predictability) to improve delivery performance
• encourage experimentation, learning, and iterative improvement
• contribute to the organisation’s wider delivery capability and community of practice

Person specification

We’re interested in people who

• have experience using agile practices to ensure the iterative and timely delivery of products and services in complex environments that serve real user needs
• communicates and influences confidently across user centred design, technical and non-technical stakeholders at all levels
• have experience leading successful high functioning multidisciplinary delivery teams and have strong organisational skills and experience identifying and rectifying any issues within your team
• experience leading significant pieces of work independently and can facilitate inclusive workshops and events with concrete outputs
• has experience planning beyond product delivery and delivering engaging virtual and in-person events
• experience identifying and challenging organisational processes of increasing complexity, taking the initiative to improve processes or tackle high-profile issues and actively tackle impediments, risks and blockers, communicating and escalating where necessary
• are passionate about delivering high quality, modern, user centred digital products and services across the public sector, including central and local government

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
• access to children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London

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.
DSI