Associate Director for Solutions
Job summary
DBS was established under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 on 1 December 2012, working
from two sites, which are 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 function within a framework of
legal and regulatory requirements and that includes work with a range of external organisations
including other government departments, regulators, and trade bodies.
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.
Our Strategy
Our current Strategy sets out our purpose, vision, and the impacts we want to achieve. Our
strategy was co-created with our staff and has been supported by insight from our various
partners, and throughout, you will find our ambitions to be achieved. Everything that we do within
DBS, from developing our strategic intent, to the day-to-day operational delivery of our services,
is underpinned by constant considerations of safeguarding, quality, sustainability, value for
money, and diversity and inclusion. Our strategic objectives aim to enhance our effectiveness,
influence, and customer satisfaction while fostering a supportive environment for everyone.
Equality, Diversion, and Inclusion at DBS
DBS is committed to fostering an environment that values individual differences and ensures fair
treatment to unlock the full potential of staff and better support customers. Equality, diversity,
and inclusion (EDI) are core to driving organisational success and we have developed specific
equality objectives for DBS.
Every decision and activity will be considered through an EDI lens, aiming to build an inclusive
culture, improve policies and practices, gain external assurances, and become a leading voice of
good practice in EDI.
Read More
For further information, please see below for a collection of DBS strategies and business plans:
• DBS strategies - GOV.UK
• DBS business plans - GOV.UK
Job description
Job Purpose:
The Associate Director for Solutions provides senior leadership for the design and delivery of
DBS’s future technology and business solutions, leading the charge on major change,
continuous improvement and enterprise architecture.
The role is accountable for turning strategy, the target operating model and business priorities
into integrated, deliverable solutions that modernise services, strengthen operational resilience
and build the foundations for DBS’s future digital capability.
Working across Technology and Innovation, the wider business, Home Office partners and
suppliers, the postholder will set direction, provide challenge and ensure solution decisions are
coherent, sustainable and aligned to the long-term transformation journey.
This is a pivotal role in ensuring DBS moves beyond individual programme delivery into a more
mature, enterprise-wide capability. The postholder will bring together solution design, testing,
data strategy and architectural assurance so that services are not only delivered, but proven to
be safe, robust, interoperable and ready to operate at scale.
The role will also take senior responsibility for the testing function, ensuring DBS has a clear,
disciplined and proportionate approach to quality assurance across change, live service and
supplier delivery. This includes setting expectations for test strategy, test governance, defect
management, acceptance criteria and the evidence required before services move into
operation.
The postholder will lead the development of DBS’s data strategy with a clear focus on “fixing
the plumbing”: establishing the data foundations, standards, ownership, quality controls,
architecture and interoperability needed for others to deliver value from data. This role will not
own AI, innovation or data insight outcomes directly, but it will create the trusted, well-governed
and accessible data environment that enables those functions to succeed.
Corporate Duties:
• Play an active part as a member of the directorate management team (DMT), leading the
organisation and undertaking corporate duties on behalf of DMT.
• As an Associate Director within the DBS Corporate Leadership Team (CLT)), take a lead role
in developing the organisation, ensuring a continued focus on VFM.
• Fully engage and participate in the change programme.
• Support the DBS Board and its committees as required.
• Work as part of a wider directorate management, bringing together skills and expertise into a
single, coherent and enabling directorate.
• Represent the Directorate, Group and Department as a leader in creating an innovative place
of work to both internal and external audiences and driving forward the positive public image
to all.
• Lead end-to-end solution design across major change programmes
• Translate strategy and TOM into deliverable solutions
• Ensure integration across business processes, technology and data
• Act as the senior T&I lead for future solution design, representing the directorate in strategic
decisions about what is best to build, buy, reuse or transform for DBS’s long-term service
model
• Provide authoritative, evidence-based advice at senior governance forums, ensuring
enterprise architecture, technology choices and delivery plans are aligned to DBS’s future
operating model and transformation outcomes
• Set and maintain the architectural direction and design principles for future services, ensuring
decisions are coherent, scalable, user-centred, secure and sustainable across the enterprise
• Lead the enterprise architecture function, ensuring future services are designed around user
needs, operational outcomes, accessibility, security and long-term sustainability, rather than
being driven by technology choices alone
• Lead the testing function, setting the strategy, standards and governance needed to provide
confidence that new and changed services are safe, resilient, compliant and fit for
operational use
• Ensure testing is embedded early in solution design and delivery planning, with clear
acceptance criteria, traceability, defect management and evidence-based assurance before
services are released
• Own and mature the DBS data strategy by fixing the underlying data foundations, including
data architecture, quality, standards, governance, ownership and interoperability, so that
data can be trusted, accessed and used safely across the organisation
• Enable, but not directly own, the delivery of AI, innovation and data insight outcomes by
providing the reliable data infrastructure, governance and standards those specialist
functions depend on
• Provide assurance through governance and design forums
• Support business readiness and adoption
• Engage and influence stakeholders across DBS, Home Office and suppliers
• Provide direction and challenge to delivery partners
• Manage risks to service continuity and safeguarding
Person specification
Essential Criteria:
- Ability to translate strategy into delivery
- Demonstrable experience in creating the vision for large-scale cultural change. Desirable Criteria
- Experience leading solution design in complex
- Experience working with multiple stakeholders and suppliers
- Strong understanding of business, data and technology integration
- Strong decision-making and problem-solving skills
- Strong understanding of testing strategy, quality assurance, release confidence and service acceptance in complex technology environments
- Ability to set direction for enterprise data strategy, with a focus on strengthening the data foundations, governance, quality, standards and interoperability required to enable AI, innovation and insight functions
Desirable Criteria:
- Knowledge of safeguarding or policing
- Strong communication, influencing and leadership skills to translate technical concepts and issues into easy-to understand propositions and secure buy-in
- Demonstrable evidence of thought leadership in transformation with relevant qualifications to support.
- Public sector or government experience 4 5 transformation programmes
- Experience moving from legacy to digital platforms
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 (opens in a new window).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
DBS has appointed executive search specialists Gatenby Sanderson to support us with this appointment.
To apply for this please click the link below:
Your application should include:
- A current CV, including your educational and professional qualifications and full employment history (explaining any gaps), with details of budgets and teams managed and highlighting key achievements.
- A covering letter, no more than two A4 pages, explaining why this appointment interests you and how you meet the criteria set out in the candidate profile (please note that references and open-source due diligence checks (including into social media accounts) may be undertaken for all short-listed candidates)
The anticipated timetable is as follows:
Closing Date: 9am on Monday 5 October 2026
Long Listing: Week commencing 12 October 2026
Preliminary Interviews: Weeks commencing 19 and 26 October 2026
Short Listing: Week commencing 2 November 2026
Informal Discussions: Week commencing 9 November 2026
Final Panel: Week commencing 16 November 2026
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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
Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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 :
Recruitment team
Attachments
Job Description - Associate Director for Solutions August 26 Opens in new window (pdf, 362kB)Salary range
- £74,061 - £80,000 per year