Credit: MaxPixel

The Government Digital Service is offering an annual salary of up to £100,000 to recruit a leader to oversee the implementation of the organisation’s long-term strategy.

The Cabinet Office-based agency is advertising a vacant position as deputy director of digital strategy. The successful candidate will be “will be responsible for owning and driving the implementation of the overall GDS strategy”, which was updated last year and covers the period up until 2024.

The postholder will sit at the head of a team of about 50 technical staff and other employees, based across GDS locations in London, Bristol and Manchester.

The chosen applicant will be expected to ensure “product teams across the organisation are aligned with the overarching strategy as they prioritise their products”.

The job advert added: “You will also establish and run teams that will rapidly experiment and prototype new and innovative ideas which don’t immediately fit in the current GDS delivery areas, but that are of strategic importance to the organisation. You will champion best practice and facilitate standardisation of the product management approach across GDS and work closely with service teams and leadership to ensure that roadmaps are aligned to meet the organisational mission as well as foster and facilitate the leadership and growth of the product and delivery management, and the design communities of practice.”

Related content

• GDS at 10: ‘The purpose that underpins our work is exactly the same’
• EXCL: Government hopes to announce new chief digital officer ‘very shortly’
• Great expectations: Government unveils new digital and data strategy

The 2021-2024 strategy set out five core missions that GDS will pursue over the coming months, the first of which is to make sure that GOV.UK is seen as “the single and trusted online destination for government information and services”.

The delivery of a “simple digital identity solution that works for everyone” – in the form of the new One Login system, which will ultimately be used across all departments to access a comprehensive range of government services – is another of the strategy’s central missions.

Establishing “joined-up services that solve whole problems and span multiple departments” is also a core objective, as is supporting the use of “common tools and expert services” and “joined-up data across departments”.

In overseeing the rollout of these strategic missions, the deputy director will be asked to “build teams to rapidly research, create and prototype new and innovative products”, as well as enabling the “the establishment and growth of communities of practice across the organisation for the product management, delivery management and design professions”.

The successful candidate will also advise GDS’s chief product and technology officers and their respective directorates, to support the digital agency’s “transition into a product-focused organisation”. The postholder will also “represent the UK government in international forums to enhance UK influence and impact in the field of digital, data and technology in the public sector around the world and ensure that international best practice insights are helping to keep GDS and the UK government at the cutting edge”.

Applications for the role are open until 11.55pm on 25 July, by which time candidates should submit a CV and a “statement of Suitability – no longer than two pages of A4 – explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience meet the criteria in the person specification”.