About the job

Job summary

Here at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), we work on things that make a real difference to people’s lives. 

Whether it's through the homes we live in, the work of our local councils, or the communities we’re all part of, our work is at the top of the political agenda. We have ambitious and far-reaching outcomes to achieve this year and, if you’re thinking of joining us, there’s never been a more exciting time. 

We have over 3,500 staff who are based in 20 offices across the UK. 

The remediation programmes exist to improve the lives of those who live in buildings with unsafe cladding. The remediation work began six years ago to make buildings safer following the Grenfell Tower fire. Since then, we have made progress in fixing unsafe cladding but there is much more to do to meet the scale of the challenge.

Delivery is conducted through five programmes with a much greater role for Homes England, the Building Safety Regulator, social housing providers and developers. As the complexity and scale of remediation increases, a Portfolio model is being implemented. We are establishing a new function, System Design, as part of the Portfolio. The System Design function will take a holistic view of the entire remediation landscape to identify, evaluate and support the implementation of changes.

We particularly welcome candidates from an ethnic minority background and other underrepresented groups to apply, as we work to continually improve our ability to represent the places and communities we support through our work. 

Find out more about what it's like to work in a digital, data and technology role at DLUHC including our culture, ways of working, career progression and staff benefits. You can also read the DLUHC Digital blog to learn about the work we're doing. 

Job description

Come along to our online events to find out more about the System Design Team and the roles we have available:

• Wednesday 14th February: Systems Design Recruitment - Find Out More! Tickets, Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 3:00 PM , Eventbrite

• Monday 19th February: Systems Design Recruitment - Find Out More! Tickets, Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 12:00 PM , Eventbrite

The System Design function has been created to take a holistic view of the entire remediation landscape. Through identifying, evaluating and supporting the implementation of changes, the System Design team will bring clarity to a complex system and put the users at the heart of decisions whilst hoping to increase the pace and value for money of programmes. The System Design team will work collaboratively across teams within remediation around policy change and to develop a system view. As Head of Systems Design, you will work with and report to the Deputy Director to build and establish this team within remediation. 

System design responsibilities include: 
•    Developing an understanding of the remediation landscape, its boundaries, dependencies, areas of uncertainty, incentives and disincentives, and creating a view of where improvements are needed.
•    Leading the development of creative and innovative conceptual models and visualisations of the remediation landscape that can tell a story to teams and senior stakeholders
•    Work with user researchers and teams to generate system insights, including supporting teams to deliver user research with key actors in the system such as dents, leaseholders, regulators, construction sector, financial sector, technical professions and many more
•    Developing an understanding of the incentives and levers that exist across the system, and the impacts that the implementation of policy and delivery programmes have on users in the system
•    Ensuring that all system insights, from user research and a range of other sources, are embedded into the system view and developing analytical approaches that can assess system performance
•    Generating strategic priorities, recommendations and actions from the system view to support ongoing policy development and continuous improvement of the delivery of the remediation landscape
•    Building a flexible System Design function that can deliver deep dive projects into critical cross-systems issues that the team identify, working collaboratively with other teams in the group to design and develop user-centred options.

Leadership responsibilities include: 
•    Working with the Deputy Director to build and establish a user-centred System Design function that can work collaboratively with teams to develop and implement policy through a systems lens
•    Implementing a user-centred systems approach, bringing and embedding knowledge of user-centred design to a complex policy landscape
•    Championing user-centred systems approaches across the portfolio, developing and building capacity of systems design both in the system design team and across remediation.
•    You will embody inclusive leadership, managing a team and providing support and coaching to ensure individual and team performance.

Person specification

Essential Criteria
We are seeking a Head of System Design that can engage at a strategic, systems level in complex landscapes in a way which priorities users and their needs. The role requires: 
•    Experience of systems thinking and how to apply this in a complex policy or service environment, including understanding incentives, impacts and implications of changes on a system and its actors
•    Experience of user-centred design practices and methodologies (Agile/Lean), particularly in a complex policy or service environment, being able to identify root causes behind system issues
•    Experience of developing mapping, conceptual models and other visualisation products that can bring clarity to a large, complex and interconnected landscapes and can tell a compelling story to non-experts
•    Knowledge on wider digital economy and breakthroughs in technology in a government and/or private sector
•    Experience of gathering insights and aggregating information at a strategic level to generate recommendations and roadmaps
•    Experience of critically analysing a complex policy and/or delivery landscape to identify and prioritise areas for improvement, 
•    Experience of working collaboratively with teams to develop policy or delivery solutions to strategic issues taking a multi-disciplinary approach and the ability to design systems for use across multiple services and where you can identify the simplest of a variety of approaches.
•    Experience of building, leading and managing relationships with a variety of users and stakeholders, including the ability to work across organisational boundaries
•    Ability to solve and unblock issues between teams and the department at the highest level
•    An understanding and ability to work with complexity, uncertainty and organisational constraints in a political context
•    A visible and inclusive leader that can build and establish teams, coach and lead them to develop capability, and support them when working under pressure.
•    Leading on the strategy for DLUHC converging business needs with innovative analysis.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £67,280, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £18,165 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

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

We are for everyone 

At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation. 

We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role. 

We are for everyone 

CV and Cover Letter Declaration 

We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called name blind recruitment. 

Please remove references to your: 

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status

You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter. 

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors. 

At sift, through your CV and covering letter we will be assessing:

. Experience 

. Technical Ability 

Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the essential criteria we have described under “Person Specification”, including evidence of your experience and skills. 

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of behaviour based questions as listed in the advert.

You will be tested on the following behaviours: Seeing the big picture, Changing and Improving, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

The Vacancy Manager has also requested that candidates prepare a 5 minute presentation for the interview whereby the success profile 'Technical' will be assessed. Details about the presentation topic will be shared within the invites to interview.

In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements: 

Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description 

Technical: Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description. 

Behaviours: Seeing the big picture, Changing and Improving, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

We do not consider direct CV applications – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs: 

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign. 

Group 1 DDaT roles 

DLUHC has implemented the DDaT capability framework for Group 1 roles. Applicants that are successful at the sift stage will be required to complete a capability assessment at interview.  

DLUHC will honour completed capability assessments for this role from other Government Departments for existing Civil Servants. Please provide a copy of your capability assessment to the Hiring Manager when applying. If you have any queries on pay, please contact the Hiring Manager. 

Salary is determined by performance at interview, within the range advertised. Each experience or technical skill is assessed between 1-3, representing working towards, at or above the job level requirements. You are awarded a proficiency level accordingly, and you will be given opportunities at least once a year to re assess your capability and progress through the pay scale within your grade. An additional digital allowance may be payable depending on level of assessed capability. 

Candidates moving from another government department have the option to retain their current salary where the principle for implementation is there is no detriment where existing pay exceeds the indicative level. Where individuals are at a lower salary than their assessed level, they will receive an upward adjustment. 

Grade 6 Group 1 DDaT salary 

• The salary for this role will between £73,578 - £79,266 (London), £67,280 - £72,960 (National) depending on the proficiency level assessment.
• An additional digital allowance may be payable depending on the level of assessed capability up to £11,335
• For applicants in receipt of existing allowances, we will assess each case individually and aim to match the digital allowance implemented with no detriment. 
• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable

Benefits 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 

Any move to DLUHC from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk. 

For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

Location 

• London
• Wolverhampton
• Darlington*
• Birmingham
• Leeds
• Manchester
• Bristol

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role. 

*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.  This role is based at DLUHC and we will be joined on the campus by: 

• HM Treasury 
• Department for International Trade
• Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy 
• Office for National Statistics 
• Department for Education

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack. 

Sift and Interview dates 
 
Sifting is envisaged to take place from Wednesday 28/02/2024 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

Reserve List 

In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Due to the length of time CTC checks can take, our HR Shared Services team will contact reserve list candidates for London based roles to commence CTC checks. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. 

CTC (Counter-terrorism Clearance): 

Important note 

Successful candidates for roles based in our 2 Marsham Street building must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete. 
 
Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the CTC security checks – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Please refer to the DLUHC Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Counter Terrorism Clearance (CTC). 

Candidates should also note that with effect from 1st August 2018 the department will also check all applicants who are successful at interview, against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) held by the Cabinet Office. In accordance with the Civil Service Internal Fraud Policy, any applicant who is included on the IFD will be refused employment by DLUHC. Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database. 

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

Internal Fraud Database 

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.  

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist 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.