About the job

Job summary

About OPSS 

 

Do you care about the safety of products and want to protect people and places? Can we use your skills, knowledge and experience to enable UK business to thrive? If the answer is yes, then we would like to hear from you! 

 

We are the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), part of the Department for Business & Trade (Previously the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy). We are here for the purpose of making regulation work to deliver real world impact. Regulation is a powerful Government tool to address market failures, influence behaviour and promote positive action. Crafted and delivered well, regulation can be an enabler of growth, innovation and efficiency. 

Since early 2018 we have been building a positive and creative team that enjoys a position of influence and respect within an organisation that continues to grow, most recently with the addition of construction products regulation planned. 

 

Our primary purpose is to protect people and places from product-related harm, ensuring consumers and businesses can buy and sell products with confidence. 

 

Further information can be found on our website here 

 

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles. We embrace diversity and promote equality of opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. There is a guaranteed interview scheme (DCS) for people with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. 

We are Inclusive 

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 recognise how important inclusivity is to achieve the best outcomes. We hope to attract applications from all underrepresented groups. 

 

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation if required to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Job description

About the Team  

We are the OPSS Digital and Technology team, and we build digital services focused on product safety and regulation.  

Our team is a mixture of civil servants and contractors that collaborate in agile service teams working on user centred designs.  

We have an exciting portfolio of services that have internal and external users with further services in our pipeline for future development. 

This is an exciting time to be at OPSS Digital. As a fast-growing area of the Department for Business and Trade, we’re raising compliance standards across the board and making a real-world impact on millions of lives nationwide. 

This is a senior leadership role for experienced live service managers who will have the opportunity to develop and grow in the profession. 

OPSS has sites in Birmingham and London, There will be a need to travel to our other sites on occasions.

About the Role 

As the lead live service manager on the OPSS Digital and Technology team you will be responsible for managing OPSS’s live services, ensuring that a strategy and vision for live service management is embedded and developed within OPSS.  

OPSS is currently maturing as a national regulator, with a selection of its digital services at, or approaching maturity. You will have the opportunity to set OPSS’s direction in the live service management space, working with core parts of the business to establish appropriate live service support models for OPSS’s live digital services. You will also be exposed to the range of digital service delivery which the team carries out, specifically those services which are not yet live. 

Our flexible working policy ensures a healthy work-life balance. We also nurture talent and offer a broad range of learning and development opportunities that will help you flourish in your role. 

We work hard to maintain a positive working culture and are committed to helping you fulfil your potential. We value diversity and provide an open, inclusive and supportive environment to help you do your best work. 

Key Responsibilities: 

• ​​Lead a small live service management team 
• ​Represent the OPSS IT service management function at a senior level 
• ​Act as an escalation point for business stakeholders 
• ​Establish a community of practice for live service management, leading the wider OPSS Digital and Technology Team in understanding its application 
• ​Ensure that live service development continually delivers value to the business and users, ensuring the threshold for such development is understood universally 
• ​Establish a change management process for live service development across the live digital service portfolio 
• ​Ensure service levels are defined within the business, working with stakeholders to define and set expectations 
• ​Ensure business continuity plans are established for OPSS’s live services 
• ​Ensure incidents and risks are managed effectively 

Person specification

Personal Attributes & Skills 

• Understand and have applied the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework, knowing how to adapt the framework to meet the needs of different live services 
• Know how ITIL aligns with and is complementary to working with Scrum and Agile delivery teams 
• Know how to manage continual service development for live services 
• The ability to communicate live service developments clearly with the business and end users, bridging the gap between the technical and less technical 
• Have developed service strategies by understanding wider business strategy and how this may impact live service management 
• Know how to effectively use the data from service monitoring tools to assess service performance, using such data to make beneficial decisions for a given service
• Know how to use service metrics to understand if services are delivering business value (i.e. the required outcomes and benefits), and what to do if they are not 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £53,560, Department for Business and Trade contributes £14,461 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, Strengths and Experience.

Interviews for this vacancy will be conducted virtually. We will, however, consider in-person interviews by exception.

Please ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.

To apply for this post, you will be asked to complete the following as part of the online application:  

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages.
• A Personal Statement of up to 500 words, explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential criteria.

It is likely that the sift will take place 1-2 weeks after the closing date and interviews 3-5 weeks after the closing date though this is subject to change.

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial short sift will be conducted on the Personal Statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview. 

As part of your interview, you will be asked to deliver a short oral presentation, details will be provided prior to your interview.

Reasonable Adjustments

We are committed to supporting candidates so they can perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. This includes making reasonable adjustments to our process. In order to request an adjustment:

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section on the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process.

Alternatively contact the Government Recruitment Service at DBTrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. 

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Candidate Support

You may want to join a virtual Candidate Support Session. These sessions include helpful tips and advice on the recruitment process, from application to interview. 

Please see attached Candidate Pack for further information on: Diversity and Inclusion; Benefits; Learning and Development; Working Patterns and what we deliver as a department.

Further Information:

• A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made. Reserve Lists will be for each location and appointments made in merit order based on location preferences.
• Any move to the Department for Business and Trade from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments.
• The Department will not consider sponsoring a visa or issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship. We are unable to offer advice on any Visa and Immigration cases. 
• New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band. 
• Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty. Any applicant who has details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
• A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government. 
• Terms and Conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you. 
• Please note – the successful candidate will be expected to remain in post for a minimum of 18 months before being released for another role.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

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.