Head of Delivery
Salary: £67,600 – £78,000 (depending on experience)
Location: Wales. Remote but will be expected to attend some in person meetings.
Term: This is a permanent role for the remainder of this Senedd term (until 2026) with an option to extend in future.
This role is also available as a secondment for Welsh public sector employees. Please follow your own organisation’s policy on informing and getting permission from line managers.
The ability to speak and write Welsh, or a willingness to learn Welsh, is desirable. We will judge applications submitted in Welsh or English equally.
Closing date: 20/03/2023 at 23:59
About the Centre for Digital Public Services
The Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS) has been described as a start-up with government backing. The guidance given to CDPS by Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee Waters was, “We can do things differently, so let’s.”
CDPS was created in 2020 to help deliver the Digital Strategy for Wales. Its central goal is to improve the lives of everyone in Wales.
CDPS is a uniquely experienced group of digital, data and technology professionals, committed to making services better for people. We aspire for everything we do to be exemplary and shared, drawing on lessons learned globally – we know we won’t always succeed.
CDPS’s values are central to everything we do. We seek to be bold, transparent, people-focused, collaborative, and optimistic. Our staff policies aim to make us the best employer we can be, like our pioneering Period and Menopause policy.
Hear from one of our recent hires, Sophia Kyrantonis-Jackson:
“I joined CDPS as Executive Assistant to the job-sharing CEOs, Myra and Harriet, in August 2022. From the first hour of my first day, I felt welcome and part of this great team. CDPS is a very professional, yet fun, place to work and I learn something new every day from the wealth of skills offered by the various divisions. Everyone, from the top down, is totally approachable and more than happy to help and answer any questions you may have. The company motto should be “There’s no such thing as a stupid question!”
Progress so far
CDPS is committed to working in the open. We regularly blog and tweet about our work and we encourage you to look at the work we do with our partners.
A few examples we’re particularly proud of are:
- Welsh Revenue Authority’s Land and Property Data Proof of Concept
- Sport Wales work to increase the reach of their community investment funds
- our discovery into Tech Net Zero
- understanding the access challenges to GP surgeries in Wales
- our research to understand the shared technology landscape in Wales
The role
The Head of Delivery is part of CDPS’ leadership team and is dedicated to Agile ways of working: starting with user needs, focusing on problems not solutions, on delivery and outcomes over process, and on working in the open.
Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer at CDPS, you will provide passionate, committed leadership, that is both transparent and accountable. You will manage a team of delivery managers and develop a community of practice for delivery managers across Wales.
This role is accountable for planning and coordinating the delivery of our delivery strategy, roadmap and leading on the commissioning process for projects and through all phases of the Agile development lifecycle. You will build relationships with partner organisations across the public sector, building commitment to modern ways of working and growing confidence in better service delivery through working with CDPS.
We work in a fast-moving environment which requires anticipating, balancing, and managing change that comes from government priorities, policy, user research findings, data, and learnings from the development process.
You will represent CDPS and your teams in leadership, delivery, and planning forums. You will communicate plans and progress inside and outside CDPS. This might range from blog posts, show and tells, conferences, and representation at board-level meetings. You will work with and engage with users, stakeholders at all levels, and teams across the Welsh public sector.
Who you are
We are looking for someone who can show first-hand experience of coordinating delivery of public services. You will be comfortable with Agile delivery at scale and creating the environment for dynamic, high-performing delivery teams. You with have strong affinity with the goals of the Digital Strategy for Wales and passion for CDPS’ remit to deliver it.
We want to hear from people with skills in:
- Agile delivery – practitioners who have experience in medium to large digital transformation programmes (skill in scaled Lean/Agile management methods and techniques preferred)
- managing a complex risk environment, with elements such as political context or public interest
- managing and influencing varied stakeholder groups, with excellent communication skills and the ability to put yourself in partners’ shoes and understand their perspective and priorities
- ensuring sustainable but progressive delivery momentum – solving issues and unblocking problems and empowering teams to do the same
- the variety of disciplines involved in digital delivery, including engineering, service design, product management, performance analysis and user research developed through working in multidisciplinary teams
- commercial, supplier and dependency management, ensuring commercial contracts and suppliers are accountable for their timeliness, value, and quality
- managing uncertainty, accountability and with being the escalation point for internal and external issues
- influencing and making positive changes to the organisation
- creating and supporting a working culture that empowers, engages, and supports our staff
- understanding of the political and social landscape of Wales
Please keep reading
Research shows that, while men apply for jobs where they meet 60% of the criteria, women and other marginalised people tend only to apply when they check every box. So, if you think you have what it takes, but don’t necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch. We’d love to have a chat and see if you’d be a good fit.
We are passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from under-represented communities. We embrace equality of opportunity irrespective of disability, neurodivergence, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, gender and gender presentation, marital status, sexual orientation, culture, or religion.
Benefits
This is an overview of some of our benefits we are happy to provide a full list on request.
- Enhanced pension contributions – 7% contribution by the employer
- Generous holiday entitlement: 28 days’ annual leave plus public holidays
- 37.5-hour week for all full-time team members
- Flexible Working Policy
- Flexible benefits: buy and sell annual leave, dental insurance, discounted gym membership and OpenLearn (free learning from the Open University)
- Group income protection – a replacement income if an employee is unable to work because of a long-term illness or injury
- Group critical illness protection – financial peace of mind for our employees by paying a tax-free lump sum of £100k when diagnosed with a defined critical illness
- Group life assurance – this benefit will pay out a lump sum (4 times the salary) to your family or next of kin should you pass away while employed with us
- Employee Assistance Programme (24/7 GP consultation)
How to apply
Please submit your CV and a covering letter to support your application.
The covering letter should be no more than two sides of A4. Your letter needs to:
- explain why you’re interested in the position
- provide evidence of why you’re suitable, based on the ‘Who you are’ section above
- tell us where you saw the job advertised
Email your application to careers@digitalpublicservices.gov.wales.
The successful candidate must have BPSS certification before starting this role, which we will pay for and process.
