About the job

Job summary

This is a Nationally based role

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.

Service Owner

Location: National*

Closing Date: 20th March 2024

Interviews: Expected from 4th April 2024

Grade: Grade 6

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

Salary: London: £70,303 - £84,825 (which may include an allowance up to £14,522) National: £66,314 - £75,810 (which may include an allowance up to £1,955)

Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time & Flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Vacancy number: 85058

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP

The Role:

We’re recruiting for Service Owners here at Justice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative digital teams working in the areas of Legal Aid Authority, Probation and Prisons.

These are exciting times at Justice Digital. We have a clear vision - to develop a digitally-enabled justice system that works more simply for users - and we’re looking for talented people to help us achieve it. We’re making things better by building adaptable, effective services and making systems that are simple to use for staff and citizens. While challenging it is important and hugely rewarding.

LAA digital works to deliver swift access to legal aid for those who need it, and efficient payment to providers of those services. We aim to support the future of legal aid with sustainable, user-centred services such as Check if you can get legal aid.

Probation digital is working to make things simpler, faster and better for front line staff, so they can spend more time with people in our care, helping them out of the cycle of crime, or with their offending behaviour. We are also working with people on probation to understand their needs and deliver products and services to meet these.

Prison digital is working to create the tools that support the Prison Service to provide decent, safe and productive places to live and work and support prisons to protect the public & reduce reoffending. We work with our users in prisons to provide modern tools that share information and give staff focused efficiency.

To find out more about Service Owners, please take a look at our Becoming a Service Owner blog

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

Key Responsibilities:

The role of the Service Owner is to:

• Deliver services that meet the government Digital by Default Service Standard and are best in class for government meeting users’ raised expectations of technology.
• Be outcome-focused and balance the needs of competing stakeholders, ensuring that services are valuable and effective for the organisation
• Create and communicate a compelling service vision and roadmap ensuring the right balance of meeting business/user objectives and managing technical risk
• Represent a service area to departmental board-level officials and senior stakeholders, using information from diverse user, commercial and service sources
• Embed digital culture with your stakeholders, the department and the wider civil service
• Be responsible for legacy technology which is part of the service area, and tackling the risks associated with this
• Lead and develop a high performing team that use service design and user-centred, data-driven, cloud-based delivery practices - most of which is focussed on replacing our legacy systems

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Benefits:

• 37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
• We are committed to nurturing our staff and provide lots of training and development opportunities with learning platforms such as: Linux Academy, O’Reilly, Pluralsight, Microsoft Learning, Civil Service Learning etc.
• 10% dedicated time to learning and development with a budget of £1000 a year per person
• Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 97% from April 1st 2024 (Contribution Rates)
• 25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the Kings’ 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
• Wellbeing support including access to the Calm app.
• Nurturing professional and interpersonal networks including those for Carers & Childcare, Gender Equality, PROUD and SPIRIT
• Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
• Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers.
• 5 days volunteering paid leave.
• Free membership to BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.
• Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.

Person Specification:

Essential:

• User focus - Gives direction on which tools / methods to Is experienced in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels. Able to bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure these are met by the business.
• Strategic ownership - Able to develop a long-term vision and objectives. Discerning and disciplined in focusing on what is important and most Able to develop the capability of others.
• Agile working - Coaches and leads teams in Agile and Lean practices, determining the right approach for the team to take and evaluating this through the life of a Is able to think of new and innovative ways of working to achieve the right outcomes.
• Financial ownership - Able to develop a business case, own and iterate it throughout the lifecycle. Understands the granularity of financial costs per sprint and value delivered.
• Lifecycle perspective - Able to apply experience of multiple parts of the life cycle, recognising when it is right to move forward and when it is right to stop. Able to recognise the appropriate deliverables and the right people to meet these. Able to work with other agile delivery operations throughout the product lifecycle to plan and engage with the appropriate stakeholders at a particular stage in the project.
• Operational management - Keeps abreast of industry best practice and cascades ways of working. Knows how to make operations efficient. Is the escalation point for major operational issues and champions operational management across the Works closely with leaders of operational delivery teams in GDD.
• Problem ownership - Is able to anticipate problems and knows how to defend against them at the right Understands how the problem fits into the larger picture. Is able to articulate the problem and helps others to articulate the problem. Builds problem-solving capabilities in others.
• Proven leadership of multidisciplinary digital teams to successfully deliver digital service across the whole lifecycle - discovery, design, delivery, growth, continuous improvement and retirement into the larger picture. Is able to articulate the problem and helps others to articulate the problem. Builds problem-solving capabilities in others.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on 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.

Terms & Conditions:

Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out how 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

Person specification

Please refer to attached Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £66,314, Ministry of Justice contributes £18,501 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 Supporting Statement, up to 750 words (Any words over this may not be considered) which describes how you meet the requirements set out in the Person Specification above.

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

• Leadership
• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Delivery at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

A diverse panel will review your application against the Person Specification above. Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1-hour panel interview, which may include a task/presentation, held via video conference.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on your experience of working as a Service Owner, will be conducted before the sift.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

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.