Service Owner, LG Reorganisation (Cyber, Digital and Data)

Details Reference number 435871 Salary £64,679 The salary for this role is £64,679 - £76,608 (National). For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges. A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% GBP Job grade Grade 6 Contract type Fixed term Length of employment 23 months Type of role Digital Working pattern Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time Number of jobs available 1 Contents Location About the job Benefits Things you need to know Apply and further information Location Bristol, Darlington, Leeds, Manchester, Wolverhampton About the job Job summary At the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), we work on things that make a real difference to people’s lives. We have over 3,500 staff who are based in 20 offices across the UK. Whether it's through the homes we live in, the work of local councils, or the communities we’re all part of, our work is central to the political agenda. With ambitious and far-reaching goals this year, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us. The Local Digital team sits within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and supports councils across England to deliver more secure, user-centred, cost-effective local public services through open, collaborative and reusable work. The English Devolution White Paper (published on 16 December 2024) set out the government’s vision for simpler local government structures. In February 2025 an invitation was issued to all councils in two-tier areas and small neighbouring unitary authorities to develop proposals for unitary local government. These will bring together lower and upper tier local government services in new unitary councils to deliver Local Government Reorganisation. We are looking for an inspiring leader to help shape and manage our work to support councils from a cyber, digital and data perspective through the process of reorganising and setting them up for success as a unitary council. Job description As Service Owner you will use digital thinking, culture, service design and delivery practices to develop the service. You will be an inspirational leader to those delivering the service, as well as being accountable for the quality of the service to senior leaders. You will represent the service and its users’ needs at all levels within the organisation and with partners. You will adopt a portfolio view, managing end-to-end services that include multiple products and channels, and influence policy and delivery teams to ensure they’re considering the needs of users. We’ve written a blog post about how MHCLG sees the role of Service Owner. As the Service Owner, you will: set direction and provide strong, decisive, and visible leadership for the service. be accountable for the quality and usage of your service, iterating and improving the service based on user feedback work with the broader Local Digital senior leadership team to deliver a successful Local Digital programme and support teams to deliver a quality service, considering user needs, organisational goals, financial constraints, security, cross-government strategy, commercial considerations and team capabilities operate at scale by building and maintaining strong relationships with local authorities, partners such as Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Local Government Association, Socitm, Solace, techUK and teams within MHCLG to deliver the service ensure the necessary business processes are followed and participate in the governance of the service, including acting as a point of escalation for delivery teams communicate the benefits and performance of your service to demonstrate impact and help support a culture of continuous improvement Person specification We will use the essential criteria below to evaluate you during the recruitment process. Make sure your CV details how you meet the criteria. As the Service Owner, you'll have: experience working with local government or wider public sector particularly from a digital and/or cyber security perspective knowledge of the digital, data, technology and cyber challenges facing local councils who are going through reorganisation, as well as the opportunities that could be unlocked experience demonstrating leadership within your service, through setting both a tactical and long-term strategy, and working with stakeholders from across a range of organisations to embed a cohesive approach to delivery across partners experience of working with senior stakeholders to communicate the value of a service and the ways in which it can be iterated and improved to meet their needs and deliver policy outcomes experience of managing high performing teams, delegating decision making to the most effective level, and empowering teams to autonomously deliver to the best of their abilities an ability to translate complex and technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and inform decision making a high-level understanding of service design principles experience of managing the expectations of stakeholders with conflicting needs and demands expertise in gathering, analysing and using user insight and performance data to design and continually improve a service experience of assessing risks, scoping resource requirements and managing budgets and operating costs to ensure value for money and sustainable development of teams and services Behaviours We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: Delivering at Pace Working Together Managing a Quality Service Benefits Alongside your salary of £64,679, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £18,737 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. Learning and development tailored to your role An environment with flexible working options A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% Things you need to know Selection process details This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours and Experience. MHCLG want to bring in a diverse workforce at all levels. Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise). Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use. CV and Cover Letter Declaration We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called anonymous 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 In your CV and covering letter, please include: a. why you are interested in the role; b. how you meet the essential skills and experience required The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following success profiles elements: Behaviour (Managing A Quality Service, Working Together, Delivering at Pace) Experience Technical In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements: Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the person specification Technical: Yes – Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the person specification Behaviours: Managing A Quality Service, Working Together, 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. Grade 6 salary The salary for this role is £64,679 - £76,608 (National). For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges. Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions. Benefits Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: Any move to MHCLG 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 MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. Geographical Location: Leeds Bristol Manchester Wolverhampton Darlington • 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 MHCLG 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 W/C 17th November 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. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@communities.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. SC (Security Check): Important note Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Security Check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete. Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the Security Check – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 5 years. Please refer to the MHCLG Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Security Check (SC). 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 MHCLG Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database. Candidate Pack Information Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 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 MHCLG candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 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 MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG 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 Fixed Term Details For external candidates – you will be offered a 23 month fixed term appointment with a possibility of permanency. For existing civil servants – you will be offered a 23 month loan opportunity. Before applying for the role, you will need to seek approval from your parent department to take up a loan appointment should you be successful. For Secondments - you will be offered a 23 month secondment opportunity. Before applying for the role, you will need to seek approval from your employer to take up a secondment opportunity should you be successful. For MHCLG employees - you will retain your existing contract. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. Security Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check . See our vetting charter . 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) 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 Working for the Civil Service The Civil Service Code 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 . 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. Diversity and Inclusion The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy . Apply and further information Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. Contact point for applicants Job contact : Name : Digital Data Jobs Email : digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk Recruitment team Email : digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk