About the job

Job summary

Deliver the large-scale digital transformation that supports the government’s ambitions for migration and borders

The Home Office’s mission is to deliver a safe, fair and prosperous UK. As well as working to reduce crime and enforce the law, we strive to protect the vulnerable and have a proud history of providing refuge to those who have been displaced or are seeking asylum.  It’s critical work that demands the very best digital services to support it.

This is an opportunity to be involved in developing some of the most challenging and transformative technology products in government. You’ll be heading up the delivery of the Migration and Borders Technology Portfolio (MBTP), which is part of the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP).

Accountable for a £350m pa budget for capability delivery and live service, as well as the leadership and management of 2,300 people, you’ll also manage contracts and suppliers at a strategic level, ensuring quality, consistency and agility-to-service delivery. In addition, this role leads on two functions, Delivery Integration and Service Orchestration, that are accountable for end-to-end design and delivery, and support for product teams.

Success depends on strong leadership skills. You’ll have a track-record of building high-performing teams, and inspiring and empowering colleagues. Experience of delivering large-scale digital transformation is essential, ideally in a government setting.  This should include maintaining relationships with senior stakeholders such as Ministers, Director Generals and Senior Civil Servants. Commercially and contractually astute, you will have led significant procurement exercises and been involved in ongoing supplier management. Excellent planning, organisation, problem-solving and decision-making skills are also expected.

Along with extensive training and development, we offer structured career progression.  Other benefits include access to a valuable civil service pension and flexible working arrangements.

Job description

Key responsibilities include:

• Leadership and (line / matrix) management of our strategic product teams and other digital resources responsible for delivery management, in order to deliver prioritised outcomes for the Migration and Borders System.
• Accountable for maximising c£350m pa investment in capability delivery, sustainable services and live services.
• Budget, contract, and strategic supplier management for third party outcome-based contracts, including procurements and achievement of value for money.
• Membership of senior programme boards and direct accountability to Ministers for the delivery of their strategic digital-enabled outcomes.
• Stakeholder management and acting as a digital partner for wider Migration and Borders leadership, including proactive response to changing priorities (e.g., the need to quickly establish bespoke humanitarian routes such as Ukraine, Afghanistan etc) and to highlight ambitious but deliverable choices.
• Continual improvement of the delivery model, ways of working and Agile delivery at scale.
• Full participation in the Migration and Borders Technology Portfolio (MBTP) and wider DDaT change and delivery agenda.

Person specification

Essential Criteria  

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their knowledge, experience, capability and behavioural approach to a high standard against the following key criteria: 

• Demonstrable experience of delivering large scale, ideally in government, digital transformation.
• Proven experience in handling complex stakeholder engagement alongside robust leadership skills. Fostering high-performing teams and inspiring colleagues, at every level. to deliver in a complex environment.
• Experience of leading close collaboration between civil servants and suppliers, fostering a ‘one-team’ culture. Optimising innovation in harnessing technology to deliver outcomes.
• Commercially and contractually astute, having led significant re-procurement exercises with evidenced savings combined with enhanced delivery. Evidence of excellent ongoing supplier management.
• Experience of establishing and managing products, managing outcomes across a range of products, at scale, and in the management of technical debt, leading to sustained stability.
• Demonstrable expertise in overseeing substantial budgets, leading large-scale annual budget planning, and possessing strong abilities in planning, problem-solving and decision-making.

Desirable criteria: 

• Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA) graduate or willing to undertake it.
• Contract Management Practitioner or willing to undertake it.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £120,000, Home Office contributes £32,400 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online, no later than 23:55hrs on Sunday 28th January 2024.

Provide some basic personal information;

1. A CV - setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, including details where budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years;
2. A Statement of Suitability – (limited to 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.
3. Diversity Monitoring - as part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy: 2022 to 2025 (HTML) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for more information.

It is essential that in your written application you give evidence, using examples, of proven experience. These responses will be developed and discussed with candidates invited for interview. Failure to submit both a CV and Supporting Statement will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (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

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

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.