GDS recruits for two £110k tech leadership roles

Written by Sam Trendall on 5 May 2022 in News
News

Positions cover digital identity and online user experience

Credit: Innov8Social/CC BY 2.0

The Government Digital Service is offering annual pay packets of more than £100,000 in a bid to fill two key technology leadership positions.

The roles are both at deputy director level and are respectively focused on the delivery of digital identity programmes; and the platform all user experience issues for government’s online infrastructure.

The postholder of the latter role will be “responsible for running the GOV.UK website”, according to the job advert. This includes supporting more than 500,000 pages of content and 50 million monthly users.

Core objectives of the post will include “driving continuous improvement and innovation to ensure [GOV.UK] remains the canonical source of truth and online home for HM Government while keeping pace with changing user needs and expectations”.

The successful candidate will be asked to “define the product roadmap, and practical plans for delivery across all aspects of the… website, including but not limited to product and service design, architecture, research and security”.


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In doing so, they will line manage about four other senior GOV.UK leaders and, below them, a wider team of up to 100 people.

The goal of updates to the website will be to “develop, shape and deliver the user experience in line with the GOV.UK and GDS strategy to ensure that GOV.UK is accessible, always available and people can quickly and easily find what they are looking for”.

The chosen applicant for the digital identity position, meanwhile, “will be accountable for delivering the digital identity programme, [which is] a key strategic priority for the Cabinet Office and HM Government,” the advert said. 

“This is a high-profile, complex area of work that has the potential to transform how government delivers services online,” it added. “This role will have oversight for the further development, iteration and implementation of the programme delivery roadmap and for supporting teams to deliver successfully against agreed milestones on time and to quality standards.”

GDS is currently working on delivering the One Login programme, which aims to deliver a single digital system allowing citizens to prove their identity and then access all services across departments. This includes the development of the first-ever GOV.UK app, through which users will be able to access hundreds of services in one place.

The deputy director will “be accountable for the further development, iteration and implementation of the [digital identity] programme delivery roadmap”. A key objective will be to “ensure that the non-functional requirements and service aspects of the programme are considered equally alongside product functionality, including in delivery plans”.

Each of the two roles come with a salary of “up to £110,000, dependent on experience”, and can be based at GDS offices in Bristol, London or Manchester.

Applications for the GOV.UK user experience post are open until 11.55pm on 27 May, while recruitment for the digital identity position runs until the same time on 5 June.

In both cases, applicants are asked to complete an online process, including the submission of a CV and a personal statement of up to 1,000 words.

Shortlisted candidates will undergo an individual leadership assessment, which will include “a range of online psychometric tests – mainly personality questionnaires but often including aptitude tests”.

The results of these tests – and potential interpretations thereof – will then be discussed during a two-hour interview “facilitated” by an occupational psychologist.

During a final panel interview, candidates will be asked to give a short presentation.

 

About the author

Sam Trendall is editor of PublicTechnology. He can be reached on sam.trendall@dodsgroup.com.

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