Job description

The Role and Our Team

Join ICS Digital, where innovation meets expertise to create digital solutions. We are a cohesive digital community who work in the open, solving problems together and fostering a culture of transparency and collaboration. Our commitment to user-focused design and data-driven decision-making ensures that we deliver accessible services tailored to the needs of our customers.

The team

This is a senior role within ICS Digital. You will be responsible for managing the resources to deliver complex digital, data, and technology projects – many of which come with a high level of political risk. You will work with digital and non-digital stakeholders at all levels across government. You will regularly communicate about digital and data strategy, project plans, and project progress. 

You will manage risks, issues, and ensure that we realise the benefits of each project. You will work closely with team leaders across the digital team, providing them help, support and guidance to ensure projects are delivered on time and to a high standard. You can operate effectively with a high level of uncertainty or ambiguity. You will be proactive and manage the effect that frequent changes in government priorities and policies have on our projects.

Your responsibilities will include line managing Delivery Managers within the projects you run and beyond.

Visit our blog to learn more about us and our work: https://icsdigital.blog.gov.uk/ 

Person specification

Key Responsibilities

As Head of Digital Missions you will be responsible for the building maintaining and improving the delivery. In this role, you will: 

Lead Large and Complex Projects: You’ll take the lead on significant and intricate pieces of work, which may involve coordinating multiple teams. 

Supplier and Partner Management:You’ll be responsible for potentially procuring and managing suppliers/delivery partners. 

Financial Oversight: Managing costings, budgets, and project finances will be part of your role. 

Team Building and Motivation: Bringing together a cohesive team, ensuring their motivation, collaboration, and effective work.

User-Centric Delivery: Ensuring that products and projects meet user needs and adhere to agreed-upon time and cost constraints. 

Obstacle Identification and Resolution: Identifying obstacles and helping the team overcome them. 

Stakeholder Engagement: Managing dependencies and engaging with stakeholders across ICS Digital and beyond. 

Governance and Alignment: Shepherding projects through internal and external governance processes, working closely with architecture and assurance teams to align products and services with appropriate standards. 

Status Reporting: Documenting and reporting project status, including managing risks, issues, and dependencies. 

Effective Governance: Establishing appropriate governance structures for the projects and products you’re involved in. 

Prioritisation: Focusing the team on what is most critical for successful product and service delivery. 

Continuous Improvement: Encouraging and facilitating continuous improvement within the delivery team, fostering a supportive environment for growth and development. 

Coaching and Mentoring: Providing guidance and mentorship to team members and others, emphasising the application of agile and lean tools and techniques.

Communications: Ability to clearly communicate between the technical and non technical.

Skills and Experience

Essential Experience:

We are looking for a candidate with proven experience in the following areas, ideally within digital transformation projects in large and complex organisations:

- Expertise in understanding the digital delivery landscape and environment.

- Confidence in engaging with senior leaders and stakeholders, with a track record of influencing their decisions and communicating technical information in layman's terms.

- Experience in connecting with service owners and product managers in a delivery environment.

- An investigative mindset to analyse your portfolio and assess where you can add immediate value.

Please, no recruitment agencies.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Agile and lean practices- https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/digital-data-and-technology-profession-capability-framework
• Life-cycle perspective - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/digital-data-and-technology-profession-capability-framework