25.132 Governance Programme Officer - Fixed Term Appointment
Job summary
You will be responsible for drafting and managing all associated Legacy Technology Estate Replacement (LTER) Programme related papers and documents, which includes, but is not limited to governance papers, Programme Board packs, etc.
You will be responsible for working with different internal and external stakeholders to gather the relevant detail and interpret technical information for inclusion in various papers, materials, etc.
- Enabling governance and compliance Translate complex technical and regulatory requirements into clear, actionable governance papers, policies, procedural guides, etc. This ensures that public sector technology programmes align with legal mandates, security standards, and government-wide best practices
- Facilitating strategic decision-making: Digest intricate technical information from a technology program into accessible reports, white papers, and presentations for senior officials and non-technical stakeholders. This helps leaders make informed decisions about technology investments, risks, and strategic direction.
- Ensuring public transparency and accessibility: Create user-friendly public-facing documents, such as explanatory materials for new digital services, privacy notices, and guides for the public. This is essential for building public trust and ensuring that citizens can understand and effectively use government services.
- Managing the documentation lifecycle: Take ownership of the entire documentation process for the technology program, from initial research and content strategy to ongoing maintenance and version control. This ensures that all materials and artifacts remain accurate, up-to-date, and accessible to the relevant audiences.
- Improving operational efficiency: Develop internal documentation, including technical specifications, runbooks, and standard operating procedures (SOPs), to help technical teams and other staff work more effectively. By creating clear and accurate internal materials, your role will reduce confusion and streamline the programme's operations.
Job description
Corporate Duties:
You will be responsible for a variety of tasks:
Content strategy and planning: Define and manage the overall documentation plan for the technology program, including audience analysis, content structure, and the tools used for creation and distribution.
Stakeholder collaboration: Work directly with software developers, technical architects, legal experts, policy analysts, and programme managers to gather information and ensure technical accuracy.
Information interpretation: Synthesize complex technical details, such as system architecture or data models, and translate them into simple, understandable prose for non-specialist audiences.
Document management: Implement version control, document review cycles, and a centralised knowledge base to ensure that all program materials and artefacts are stored, categorised, and maintained.
Quality assurance: Edit and review all written materials for clarity, consistency, and compliance with government writing standards (e.g., plain language initiatives)
Person specification
Essential Criteria
● Proven experience in developing technical documents.
● Proven experience of working in a professional manner with internal and external stakeholders at various levels of seniority.
● Proven experience balancing multiple priorities and dealing with ambiguity.
● Understanding of the technology landscape
Further Information:
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DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
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.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
- Changing and Improving
- Delivering at Pace
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £42,075, Disclosure & Barring Service contributes £12,189 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.The DBS offers a number of excellent benefits for its employees. These can include:
- Generous annual leave entitlement
- Excellent maternity, paternity and adoption schemes (after a qualifying period)
- Commitment to the health and wellbeing of our employees
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Flexible working opportunities
- Eyecare voucher scheme
- Occupational Health Service including referrals for counselling and physiotherapy
- 24/7 Counselling and Wellbeing Service
- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
The DBS vision and purpose is to make people safer by being a visible, trusted and influential organisation, providing an outstanding quality of service to all our customers and partners, where our people understand the important safeguarding contributions they make and feel proud to work here. To do this, the DBS is committed to being an employer that is able to attract, develop, retain and engage diverse talent that is representative of the communities we serve, and to be an organisation providing outstanding service to all our existing and new customers, who are diverse and have a range of different needs. We want all our staff to be able to bring their ‘whole self’ to work.
Things you need to know
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 (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
To apply for this post, please provide a suitability statement of no more than 500 words, outlining how your skills, experience and qualifications meet the requirements of the role, including all essential and desirable criteria and the key responsibilities.
For all candidates who are successful at the initial sifting stage, you will be invited to a panel interview via MS teams.
The aim of the panel interview will be to assess your ability to demonstrate the following behaviours:
Communicating and influencing
Working Together
Changing and Improving
Delivering at Pace
The following timetable outlines indicative dates. Please note, these dates may be subject to change without prior notice.
The initial candidate sift is due to take place week commencing 19th January 2026.
Interviews are due to take place week commencing 26th January 2026.
Whilst we will endeavour to provide some flexibility with regards to dates wherever possible, it is unlikely that we will be able to offer an alternative date once an appointment has been scheduled.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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) (opens in a new window)
- 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
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) 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 (opens in a new window).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.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).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 : People Support Team
- Email : dbspeoplesupportteam@dbs.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : DBSPeopleSupportTeam@dbs.gov.uk