About the job

Job summary

Defence Digital provides its global users with the digital and IT services they need to carry out their work and keep their teams connected, from the hardware and software they use day-to-day, satellite connectivity, operating and defending our networks, access to the spectrum frequencies we need, developing bespoke apps, and much more. This Function is redefining how we approach the challenges we face, ensuring we are cohesive and coordinated across the digital Defence environment, and aiming to be more responsive, more agile, more efficient and better able to exploit new technologies and deliver the success that is so critical to our customers and the Defence of the UK.

As the Head of Digital Business Partnering, you will be a senior leader in Defence’s Digital function, driving Digital thought leadership and ensuring the coherence and exploitation of digital and data capabilities across Defence’s business functions and organisations (E.g. HR, Finance, Commercial, Logistics, Head Office, and Analysis).

Are you a confident leader with experience driving and delivering positive change in a large Digital and Data Function? Then we would love to hear from you.

Job description

Partner with functions and organisations to:

• Develop the digital direction and roadmaps for the key Defence Business Functions and organisations, aligned to the Defence Digital Strategy.
• Develop and maintain a prioritised view of strategic demand for digital and data enablers from MoD Head Office, partnering with senior leaders from Defence to drive prioritisation decisions against resource constraints.
• Represent and champion the MoD’s business outcomes and priorities across the Digital Function, and lead on prioritisation decisions on appropriate digital investment and demand within Defence Digital and across the function to deliver on Digital capabilities in line with Defence Command Paper and strategy.
• Through Digital thought leadership, understand, engage and influence key organisations and functions business strategies and ensure the underpinning digital capabilities are fully integrated, largely on common platforms and services.
• Sustain a roadmap of major strategic digital demand from across MoD’s business functions and organisations and drive awareness across digital delivery organisations. Identify areas for de-duplication, coherence, integration and greater alignment to Defence Digital standards and architectural principles across different areas of business demand.
• Represent Defence Digital on major business transformation programmes and ensure programmes align to Defences Digital Strategy and direction. E.g. Defence’s enablement of the Government Shared Services Strategy. Act as the escalation of last resource for Defence Digital’s delivery responsibilities for these programmes.
• Act as a leader within the function, supporting and driving cross-functional initiatives (such as the Digital Skills agenda) and supporting knowledge sharing across the function.
• Engage with other government departments, organisations and external bodies, sharing best practice and findings back into Defence.

Person specification

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their experience and skills against the following essential criteria:

• Relationship management. Adept at establishing strong, collaborative working relationships with a diverse set of senior customers. Significant experience partnering with and managing senior stakeholders to drive an organisation’s Digital priorities and agenda, acting as the trusted voice and expert.
• Strategic thinking. You are proficient within a strategic context and able to communicate how digital activities align to Defence priorities and outcomes. You have significant experience operating at a senior level within a Digital leadership role across a complex organisation with a focus on aligning digital and data priorities to business and enterprise outcomes.
• Digital perspective. You have a clear passion for and understanding of emerging digital and data technologies and their application to common business challenges. You will have the foundational knowledge of the technologies needed to run modern digital and data.
• Digital leadership. You have demonstrable leadership within a large Digital and Data Function and a collaborative leadership style, as well as championing and driving cross-cutting functional improvement initiatives
• Requirement definition and management. You can facilitate the setting of business priorities for change initiatives of high complexity and ensure digital delivery teams are aligned. You have experience setting the priorities, direction, and leadership for digital delivery teams, and managing conflicting demands from a senior audience against constrained resources.

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 23:55 on Sunday 24th March 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.

Caroline Bellamy will be offering an online Q&A session on Monday 11th March 15:30 -16:15 to provide an overview of the role and welcome any questions you may have. You can access the meeting by clicking here. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process.

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.