About the job

Job summary

We recognise the challenges that people with protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Are you passionate about creating a learning culture, giving people the skills needed to succeed?

Do you enjoy collaborating with a wide range of people and proactively seeking opportunities to co-create?

Do you have a strong commitment to delivering a great service?

If so, this is a role for you!

Job description

The HR SCS Employee Experience Team support the leadership cadre to deliver against DfT’s ambitious priorities through an enhanced end-to-end Senior Civil Servant (SCS) employee lifecycle. We work to improve the SCS employee experience by acting as a strategic enabler from sourcing to induction, through to supporting continuous leadership development and a managed offboarding process which maintains succession planning.

As the Head of SCS Development, you will be responsible for the design and delivery of a rolling programme of SCS learning, development and networking activity to build capability and community. You will work across the SCS portfolio, and wider HR, to improve the maturity of our SCS offer and ensure our development offer meets the wider strategic ambitions of the department.

This is an exciting time to join the portfolio, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to provide thought leadership on developing the next iteration of development and working alongside change programmes looking at the future DfT leadership expectations. The Organisation is undergoing a period of change, the head of SCS Development will ensure our leaders have the skills and confidence to lead and own this change.

You will have the opportunity to build and maintain relationships with some of the most senior people in the department, and act as a point of contact for them across these various areas.

Responsibilities

Key accountabilities of the role include:

• Designing and delivering the next iteration of the SCS Development offer available across DfT Group [including agencies] with a continued focus on community building, leadership capability and line manager standards.
• Leading the evaluation of Elevate; the flagship SCS Leadership Development programme across the SCS community.
• Partnering with the ‘Reimagining DfT’ leadership workstream to embed the new leadership and cultural expectations across the DfT senior community.
• Acting as the focal point for SCS development, working alongside partners across government, including Leadership College for Government, to embed the wider leadership offer into the DfT SCS offer.
• Working alongside the Head of SCS Talent & Performance Management to review the maturity of SCS talent across the department and help design development interventions to improve capability. 
• Trialling and evaluating a new bespoke DfT SCS induction; supporting candidates from a range of backgrounds to effectively embed into DfT’s culture and ways of working. ​
• Being an active member of the SCS Employee Experience leadership team. Working across all elements of the SCS life cycle to share insight and enhance the offer.

For an in-depth insight into the role please refer to the Role Profile.

Person specification

As the Head of Senior Civil Servant Development, you will be confident engaging a wide variety of stakeholders at various levels, and ability to build successful relationships. You are organised with experience of being able to prioritise and effectively balance a varied workload. A self-starter who is comfortable creating their own work and proactively working across boundaries to identify cross over.  You will have excellent communication skills and judgement. 

You will have the ability to collaborate and work across boundaries working effectively with external suppliers and other subject matter experts within the wider HR function to ensure there is alignment across the portfolio. Being able to collectively problem-solve with colleagues across the HR (and wider corporate functions) is key to our delivery of an excellent offer that meets the requirement of future DfT. 

Additional Information

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business, or carry out detached duty in another DfT workplace, will also count towards this level of attendance. 

Occasional travel to other DfT offices will be required.

Benefits

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance. 

Find out more about what it's like working at the Department for Transport

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

How to apply

When considering applying please look at how your experience relates to the role, and within your CV and Personal Statement please provide detailed evidence of your experience of the following:

• Experience of identifying skills gaps, and building & developing skills and capability within an organisation. Evaluating the impact of capability interventions.
• Building and maintaining successful relationships with a variety of stakeholders including senior colleagues.
• Experience of proactively working across boundaries to identify opportunities for co-creation/collaboration.
• Excellent communication skills and judgement. Confident engaging with stakeholders at the most senior level of the organisation.
• A strategic thinker who can interpret data and insight from a range of sources to create a strategic solution. 

Your Personal Statement will be limited to a maximum of 1000 words.

The sift is due to take place from 18th June

Interviews/assessments are likely to be held w/c 24th June

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

The selection process will be designed specifically for the role. As a result, your assessment will include:

• an interview and a presentation

This interview could be conducted online via Teams or face to face at one of our offices. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You’re encouraged to become familiar with the role profile, as you may be assessed against any of the criteria recorded within.

The Department for Transport alongside other Government Departments recruit using Success Profiles. This means for each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate in order to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

For further information on Success Profiles visit our Careers website.

Please see attached candidate notes for further information about our recruitment process.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.