About the job

Job summary

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared services providers in Europe, delivering corporate Human Resources, payroll, Armed Forces pensions and compensation, finance, and information services for over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD Civil Servants and industry. DBS strives to be the ‘best business services partner for the UK Defence and Security Communities’ by providing critical business services that enable our customers to focus on strategic Defence priorities and maintain National Security. DBS provides a broad and diverse range of products and services with over 100 different products in our Service Catalogue, including recently developed new capabilities such as an in-house award winning automation garage that has delivered a number of citizen facing gov.uk services and automated hundreds of forms for internal MOD end users.

As the DBS Chief Executive Officer (CEO), you will be accountable for coordinating the delivery of this significant range of services that support the successful operation of Defence from the ‘back office’ functions to more specialist functions. The CEO is accountable for delivering these services safely and securely, but also ensuring existing services are continually improved and modernised, through a relentless focus on the end user experience.

Are you an inspiring leader with an exceptional track record in the leadership and transformation of large-scale operational delivery organisations? Then we would love to hear from you.

Job description

The current responsibilities of the role include:

• Be accountable for operational delivery and continuous improvement of the services delivered by DBS.
• Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for Corporate Services Modernisation (CSM), which includes the leadership and oversight of major projects/ programmes which modernise the delivery of corporate services across defence and DBS. You will contribute to the Government Shared Services work on behalf of Defence.
• Set, communicate and deliver a transformational strategy and vision for CSM and DBS focuses on modernising and digitising services to meet customer and user needs and to drive efficiencies, operating within a constrained financial envelope.
• Provide empowering and inspiring leadership for DBS, creating a culture of change and diversity as a platform to drive innovation, improvement and transformation with public sector values at its heart.
• Ensure excellent service for DBS customers, driving up performance and ensuring DBS has the tools and capability to successfully monitor, challenge and improve delivery. This includes:

1. Appropriate customer-agreed service level agreements, key performance indicators and service catalogue, agreed with customers;
2. Effective operational planning tools and systems;
3. Capability within the organisation to use the tools to drive continuous performance improvement and ensure strong forward planning.

• Be a corporate leader within MOD, working across functions, with and on behalf of the other delivery organisations.
• Chair key meetings to enable delivery including the DBS Board and being accountable for the relationship with the 3 external NEDs, CSM Portfolio Board and ensuring there are effective relationships with DBS customers, through a customer forum.
• Direct line management of 2 Directors in operational delivery and programme roles that oversee delivery of operations and major project/programmes.
• Working with Ministers and other senior officials in MOD and Cabinet Office to support CSM, functional and veteran’s agenda as examples, in ensuring high profile projects and improvement work is successfully delivered.

Person specification

You must be able to demonstrate your experience and skills against the following essential criteria:

• A track record of strong leadership in a shared service environment and/or large-scale operational delivery enterprise.
• Project and portfolio management expertise, ideally through Project Delivery or Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) roles.
• Strong influencing and persuading skills, with the ability to gain endorsement to, and generate action on, ambitious transformation plans at all levels (up to and including Board / Ministerial), together with experience of building constructive and collaborative strategic relationships across a complex stakeholder landscape.
• An inspiring, confident and thoughtful leader with a proven track record of building, developing-and continuously improving high performing, diverse and inclusive teams.
• Excellent communication skills with an ability to establish and maintain influential relationships with senior stakeholders across a wide range of complex organisations.
• Demonstrable evidence of developing strategic plans with the use of data from disparate sources by aligning these to overall business strategy and decision making.
• A high level of commercial awareness, with a proven ability to understand, negotiate and influence across a complex, multi-dimensional supply chain.

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process accessed via the advertisement listed for this role. This should be completed no later than 23:55pm on Sunday 25th February 2024 and will involve providing the two documents outlined below via the Civil Service Jobs portal:

• A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
• A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role. 

Both documents are weighted equally in their scoring, so it's important to consider this when uploading your application. Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

For further information about the role and full application process, please refer to the candidate pack attached below. If you wish to receive any material in a different format for accessibility, then please contact People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk.

Nina Cope will be offering an online Q&A session on Friday 16th February at 11:30-12:15 to provide an overview of the role and welcome any questions you may have. Candidates can access the meeting by clicking here. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process. If you have any issues accessing the session, please contact: People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.