Senior Operational Delivery Manager

Job summary

This role sits within Census Service Delivery & Operations division and plays a key part in shaping the delivery and performance of Census services.

Census 2031 represents our most ambitious data collection project yet – a once-in-a-decade opportunity to capture a complete picture of everyone living in England and Wales. Building on the digital success of 2021, we're pioneering new ways to reach every household and community, ensuring no one is left uncounted. This vital work will provide the foundation for policy decisions, resource allocation, and community planning for the next decade.

Your work will support delivery of this transformational project that will shape how we understand and support our nation's future. You’ll be part of a team that ensures everyone is counted—and every voice is heard. We're building a culture that values collaboration, fresh thinking, and respect for diverse expertise. Whether you're a seasoned professional or bringing new perspectives, you'll be part of a team that welcomes bold ideas, works transparently, and thrives on solving complex challenges together.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime and migration.

Job description

This role offers an exciting opportunity to lead the development, delivery and continuous improvement of operational Management Information (MI) products that support effective decision-making across the organisation. Working within the Operational MI Service, you will ensure products meet operational needs, align with business priorities and deliver valuable insights that support successful outcomes. A technical or analytical background is not required; however, experience of coordinating delivery activities, managing stakeholders and working within a service environment would be advantageous.

You will play a key role in coordinating the end-to-end delivery of MI products, working closely with operational, analytical and technical colleagues to ensure priorities, requirements and dependencies are effectively managed. This includes supporting stakeholder engagement, gathering business requirements, coordinating testing and readiness activities, and ensuring products are delivered to agreed timescales, quality standards and operational objectives.

As part of the role, you will provide day-to-day leadership across multidisciplinary teams, monitor delivery progress and support the management of risks, issues and service performance. You will build strong relationships with stakeholders and delivery partners, helping to ensure operational requirements are understood and translated into effective solutions. You will also contribute to the development of new processes, products and ways of working, driving continuous improvement and supporting smooth implementation and adoption across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the continuous improvement of MI products and supporting processes, coordinating input from operational and technical experts.
• Act as an escalation contact for complex queries concerning MI delivery, including risks and dependencies, providing operational leadership to direct their resolution.
• Line manage junior staff, potentially from a range of job families, and support their professional development.
• Contribute to strategic planning for the team, ensuring alignment with broader ONS Census objectives.
• Liaise with stakeholders to identify MI product requirements and provide necessary support.
• Act independently on day-to-day issues, only referring to senior staff on broader policy issues or matters affecting other parts of the ONS.
• Support the development and maintenance of MI roadmaps, delivery plans and dependency management activities.
• Coordinate testing, readiness and implementation activities for MI products, ensuring delivery to agreed scope, quality and timelines.
• Coordinate the assessment and management of change requests for MI products.
• Monitor delivery progress, risks, dependencies and MI product performance, escalating issues where appropriate.
• Comply with legal and regulatory standard.

Person specification

Essential criteria:

• Strong leadership and people management skills, with experience leading inclusive teams, providing clear direction, and fostering a positive culture that delivers high-quality outcomes in complex environments.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to build effective relationships, collaborate across teams, and create an environment where feedback and open communication are valued.
• Proven ability to drive continuous improvement, identifying opportunities to enhance services, solve problems, and support teams through change while promoting learning and development.
• Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making skills, with experience using data, insights, management information, and performance measures to inform decisions, improve services, and support operational delivery.
• Demonstrable ability to deliver results at pace, making sound decisions, managing risks effectively, empowering others, and coordinating delivery across multiple teams and stakeholders to achieve organisational objectives.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,985, Office for National Statistics contributes £12,163 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful too