About the job

Job summary

This position is based nationally

Job description

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate on the basis of culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

Our values are Purpose, Humanity, Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.

IT Service Manager

Location: National*

Closing Date: 17th December 2023

Interviews: after 3rd/4th Jan 2024

Grade: SEO

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary: London: £45,824 - £50,039 (with an allowance up to £2,251)

National: £39,868 - £43,535 (with an allowance up to £2,057)

Working pattern: Full time, Flexible working, Job-share and part-time (min. 80%) also considered

Contract Type: Permanent

Vacancy number: 81999

*We are currently offering hybrid working which includes 2 days per week in your local office. Office locations can be found HERE

The Role

This is a great opportunity for an experienced IT Service Manager to work as part of the Digital Prisons Service Live Support Team, responsible for supporting users of our portfolio of Digital Services alongside our growing Digital Prisons product teams. The role is pivotal in continuing to provide a high quality service to our colleagues across HMPPS, and forms a key part of Digital Prison’s delivery practice.

Digital Prison Service exists to create the tools that support the Prison Service so that they can provide decent, safe and productive places to live and work, and support prisons to protect the public and reduce reoffending by rehabilitating the people in our care through education and employment. Our Live Services mission is to ensure that the Digital Prison’s underpinning technology and services operate for those accessing our digital services throughout the HMPPS estate.

Key Responsibilities:

The Live Service Support team is responsible for the overall support and reliability of Digital Prisons Services.

This will include being able to:

• Ensure incidents are being processed in accordance with agreed service level agreements

• Prioritise multiple high priority issues at any given time without sacrificing SLA commitments.

• Constantly review and update knowledge artefacts 

• Work with the service desk to improve quality of incidents

• Support Senior IT Service Managers with reporting requirements for trend analysis and service performance

• Coordinate major incident resolutions

• Collaborate with internal teams to escalate and address critical issues promptly.

• Confident in technical understanding of our end to end services

• Create and maintain documentation related to application support processes, known issues, and resolutions

• Identify opportunities for process improvements and efficiency gains in management of services

• Participate in cross-functional meetings to enhance communication and understanding.

• Provide “Out Of Hours” Major Incident support. The out of hours period is defined as weekday evenings from 18.00 through to 08.00 the next day, and 24/7 across weekends and bank holidays.

• As the team grows you will be required to line manage a number of application support engineers.

• Cultivate and maintain relationships with other teams within DPS and Justice Digital, the MoJ's Department responsible for Digital Services.

To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025

Person Specification

We’re interested in people who:

• Business analysis (IT operations). You can investigate problems and opportunities in existing processes, and contribute to recommending solutions. You can work with stakeholders to identify objectives and potential benefits. 

• Continual service improvement. You can identify process optimisation opportunities with guidance, and contribute to the implementation of proposed solutions. 

• Ownership and initiative. You can own an issue until a new owner has been found or the problem has been mitigated or resolved. 

• Service focus. You can see the bigger picture by taking groups of services and investigating how to get the best of underlying services.

• Service reporting. You can produce relevant reports in a standard format and agreed timeframe. You can work with important stakeholders to discuss any changes in the reporting processes. You can add a commentary that provides an interpretation of the data set. 

• Technical understanding. You can understand the core technical concepts related to the role, and apply them with guidance.

Willingness to be assessed against  the requirements for SC clearance. 

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate on the basis of culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor. 

Our values are Purpose, Humanity, Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.

Person specification

Please refer to attached Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,868, Ministry of Justice contributes £10,804 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

How to Apply

Candidates must submit a CV and a suitability statement of no more than 500 words which describes how you meet the requirements set out in the Person Specification above.

In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Digital, Data and Technology Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:

• Working together

• Managing a quality service

• Changing and Improving

Your application will be reviewed against the Person Specification above by a diverse panel. 

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1-hour panel interview held via video conference.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on experience, as well as knowledge of data analytics processes will be conducted prior to the sift.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out the way we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact recruitment@digital.justice.gov.uk

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 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.