Associate Director for Solutions

Job summary

DBS was established under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 on 1 December 2012, working
from two sites, which are Liverpool and Darlington. We operate on behalf of government
delivering Disclosure functions in England, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and
Barring functions for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We function within a framework of
legal and regulatory requirements and that includes work with a range of external organisations
including other government departments, regulators, and trade bodies.

We provide a service that enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to
make better informed, safer recruitment and other decisions. We do this by providing information
to enable them to determine whether individuals are unsuitable or unable to undertake certain
work, particularly with occupations involving regular contact with vulnerable groups, including
children.

Our Strategy
Our current Strategy sets out our purpose, vision, and the impacts we want to achieve. Our
strategy was co-created with our staff and has been supported by insight from our various
partners, and throughout, you will find our ambitions to be achieved. Everything that we do within
DBS, from developing our strategic intent, to the day-to-day operational delivery of our services,
is underpinned by constant considerations of safeguarding, quality, sustainability, value for
money, and diversity and inclusion. Our strategic objectives aim to enhance our effectiveness,
influence, and customer satisfaction while fostering a supportive environment for everyone.

Equality, Diversion, and Inclusion at DBS

DBS is committed to fostering an environment that values individual differences and ensures fair
treatment to unlock the full potential of staff and better support customers. Equality, diversity,
and inclusion (EDI) are core to driving organisational success and we have developed specific
equality objectives for DBS.

Every decision and activity will be considered through an EDI lens, aiming to build an inclusive
culture, improve policies and practices, gain external assurances, and become a leading voice of
good practice in EDI.

Read More
For further information, please see below for a collection of DBS strategies and business plans:
• DBS strategies - GOV.UK
• DBS business plans - GOV.UK

Job description

Job Purpose:
The Associate Director for Solutions provides senior leadership for the design and delivery of
DBS’s future technology and business solutions, leading the charge on major change,
continuous improvement and enterprise architecture.
The role is accountable for turning strategy, the target operating model and business priorities
into integrated, deliverable solutions that modernise services, strengthen operational resilience
and build the foundations for DBS’s future digital capability.
Working across Technology and Innovation, the wider business, Home Office partners and
suppliers, the postholder will set direction, provide challenge and ensure solution decisions are
coherent, sustainable and aligned to the long-term transformation journey.
This is a pivotal role in ensuring DBS moves beyond individual programme delivery into a more
mature, enterprise-wide capability. The postholder will bring together solution design, testing,
data strategy and architectural assurance so that services are not only delivered, but proven to
be safe, robust, interoperable and ready to operate at scale.
The role will also take senior responsibility for the testing function, ensuring DBS has a clear,
disciplined and proportionate approach to quality assurance across change, live service and
supplier delivery. This includes setting expectations for test strategy, test governance, defect
management, acceptance criteria and the evidence required before services move into
operation.
The postholder will lead the development of DBS’s data strategy with a clear focus on “fixing
the plumbing”: establishing the data foundations, standards, ownership, quality controls,
architecture and interoperability needed for others to deliver value from data. This role will not
own AI, innovation or data insight outcomes directly, but it will create the trusted, well-governed
and accessible data environment that enables those functions to succeed.

Corporate Duties:
• Play an active part as a member of the directorate management team (DMT), leading the
organisation and undertaking corporate duties on behalf of DMT.
• As an Associate Director within the DBS Corporate Leadership Team (CLT)), take a lead role
in developing the organisation, ensuring a continued focus on VFM.
• Fully engage and participate in the change programme.
• Support the DBS Board and its committees as required.
• Work as part of a wider directorate management, bringing together skills and expertise into a
single, coherent and enabling directorate.
• Represent the Directorate, Group and Department as a leader in creating an innovative place
of work to both internal and external audiences and driving forward the positive public image
to all.
• Lead end-to-end solution design across major change programmes
• Translate strategy and TOM into deliverable solutions
• Ensure integration across business processes, technology and data
• Act as the senior T&I lead for future solution design, representing the directorate in strategic
decisions about what is best to build, buy, reuse or transform for DBS’s long-term service
model
• Provide authoritative, evidence-based advice at senior governance forums, ensuring
enterprise architecture, technology choices and delivery plans are aligned to DBS’s future
operating model and transformation outcomes
• Set and maintain the architectural direction and design principles for future services, ensuring
decisions are coherent, scalable, user-centred, secure and sustainable across the enterprise
• Lead the enterprise architecture function, ensuring future services are designed around user
needs, operational outcomes, accessibility, security and long-term sustainability, rather than
being driven by technology choices alone
• Lead the testing function, setting the strategy, standards and governance needed to provide
confidence that new and changed services are safe, resilient, compliant and fit for
operational use
• Ensure testing is embedded early in solution design and delivery planning, with clear
acceptance criteria, traceability, defect management and evidence-based assurance before
services are released
• Own and mature the DBS data strategy by fixing the underlying data foundations, including
data architecture, quality, standards, governance, ownership and interoperability, so that
data can be trusted, accessed and used safely across the organisation
• Enable, but not directly own, the delivery of AI, innovation and data insight outcomes by
providing the reliable data infrastructure, governance and standards those specialist
functions depend on
• Provide assurance through governance and design forums
• Support business readiness and adoption
• Engage and influence stakeholders across DBS, Home Office and suppliers
• Provide direction and challenge to delivery partners
• Manage risks to service continuity and safeguarding

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Ability to translate strategy into delivery
• Demonstrable experience in creating the vision for large-scale cultural change. Desirable Criteria
• Experience leading solution design in complex
• Experience working wit