26.22 G6 Associate Director Operational Service Management

Disclosure & Barring Service

On-Site

Expires: Expiring in less than 3 weeks

Flexible

£74,061 - £79,037 per year

Job summary

DBS was established under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 on 1 December 2012, operating from two sites, Liverpool and Darlington. We operate on behalf of government delivering Disclosure functions in England, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and Barring functions for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We operate in the complex world of safeguarding alongside our multi agency partners. Safeguarding means protecting people’s health, wellbeing and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect.

We provide a service that enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make better informed, safer recruitment and other decisions. We do this by providing information to enable them to determine whether individuals are unsuitable or unable to undertake certain work, particularly with occupations involving regular contact with vulnerable groups, including children.

DBS has a number of strategic priorities:

Delivering the highest possible quality of products and services, to the highest standard of practice and integrity.
Increasing the diversity of our workforce, the representation in our decision-making and service offering, and the inclusiveness of our operations and the services we provide.
Looking towards increased sustainability in the improvement of our products and services, and an enhanced focus on the wellbeing of our people and customers.
Achieving the most optimal value from how we work, where we work, and who we work with, for our customers and stakeholders.

Further information about the Disclosure & Barring Service can be found via - Disclosure & Barring Service

Job description

Job Description:

The Post holder will play a pivotal role in supporting the Executive Director of Operational Services to establish a new Directorate from two legacy functions. Your leadership will drive forward the priorities of the Directorate, cascading the vision and translating this into delivery objectives for your teams, to ensure services are effectively transformed.

Key accountabilities include:

Drive the development of the customer journey to deliver DBS customer experience priority encompassing the channel shift strategy digital first reduce human assisted channels ensuring these are accessible and meet the needs of all customers, ensuring the appropriate delivery models are in place.

Design and maintain a quality checking framework which ensures the integrity of all products and services across end-to-end customer journey. Lead operational services approach to quality ensuring a clear focus on compliance and assurance to reduce unauthorised disclosure of personal information and maintain the integrity of the Disclosure Certificates and Barring decisions.

Drive the operational service approach to performance management aligned to corporate framework. Policies procedure and Training.

Work with other Operational Service ADs to assess activities which may be more efficiently delivered centrally.

Lead the transformation of the Operational Services management functions in alignment with Business Optimisation Programme principles, maximizing efficiency, synergy, reducing costs, and improving services, maximising the use of automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Create a unified approach across operations, leading the function through a change programme ensuring progressive organisational shape, design and development to ensure capacity, effective organisational culture and performance-centric delivery.

Develop and maintain effective strategic relationships with internal and external strategic partners, driving collaborative practices and behaviours to improve delivery of DBS strategic objectives and increase mutual value.

Develop a common understanding and agreement on future budget and resources required to deliver against the DBS strategy. Accountability for the effective overall management of:

Operational staff and a delegated budget

You will lead and be accountable for the delivery of the following specific functions:

Integrated customer services including complaints, disputes, and complex enquiries
Management of aggregated performance and risk of Gold Contracts and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
Operational Services Performance Management Frameworks
Operational Services Policies and Procedures
Training
Operational Quality Assurance
Data and Operations Support including correspondence and mail handling.
Appeals including ensuring appropriate reporting, lessons learnt and feedback for Barring and Legal teams.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

Ability

The ability to manage priorities, set direction and articulate a clear vision of success, thinking strategically to support delivery of the DBS Strategy and safeguarding priorities.
Ability to lead others (beyond line management responsibility) to deliver strategic objectives within and across organisations.
Ability to establish and maintain senior level relationships and influence at all levels both internally and externally.
Ability to understand external and internal trends and changes and advise on appropriate strategic and operational responses.
Strong communication, negotiation and interpersonal skills, including the ability to craft an effective written strategic narrative.
Ability to manage internal and external stakeholders and deal with existing or potential conflicts at an individual, team or strategic level within a complex Public Sector environment.
Demonstrate the ability to adapt to changing circumstances and adverse situations whilst remaining calm, reassuring others and maintaining delivery and performance.

Experience

Proven experience working at a senior level, with the ability to understand complex problems and recommend options for change.
Evidence of developing quality assurance frameworks and driving quality within service delivery.
Demonstrate extensive experience in large operational environments in performance management and data analytics which evidence areas for improvement in quality.
Proven track record of creating organisation-wide strategic plans and successfully implementing them.
Demonstrable experience as a senior leader - visibly driving the delivery and continuous improvement of a multi-discipline function at organisation-level.
Evidence of building and maintaining strong relations with senior stakeholders across industry/sector boundaries within either the public and/or private sectors
Strong financial planning and budget management experience
Experience of creating and delivering strategic workforce plans

Technical

Extensive knowledge of working in a fast paced operation supply chain, delivering against customer expectations, KPIs and service standards.
Comprehensive grasp of performance metrics, financial metrics and the ability to flex outcomes and resources in line with forecasts

Desirable Criteria:

Ability

Commercially astute with experience of delivering large scale procurement and managing Gold

Experience

Experience of operating in a politically influenced environment, including responding to ministerial requirements.
Leading in a statutory/regulation and/or casework environment with high quality thresholds
Track record of strong supply chain management

Further Information:

To View the DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice, please click the link below:

DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

This privacy notice covers personal data collected during the recruitment, security clearance and on-boarding process.

Behaviours

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

Leadership
Seeing the Big Picture
Changing and Improving
Communicating and Influencing
Making Effective Decisions

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

Leadership
Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £74,061, Disclosure & Barring Service contributes £21,455 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:

To apply for this role, candidates should provide a CV together with a Suitability Statement of no more than 500 words outlining how your skills and experience meet the requirements of the role, including all essential criteria and the key responsibilities. You will also need to provide behavioural statements of no more than 250 words for each of the following Civil Service Behaviours:

Leadership

Communicating and Influencing

Should a large number of applications be received, the sift may be conducted using the CV and suitability statement only.

Candidates successful at the sift stage will be invited to attend an interview which will include a presentation and will assess the following behaviours:

Leadership
Seeing the Bigger Picture
Changing and Improving
Communication and Influencing
Making Effective Decisions

The closing date for applications is 16/03/2026 at 10am.

Interviews are due to take place week commencing 13/04/2026.

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

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

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

Salary range

£74,061 - £79,037 per year