Associate Service Owner (Cyber Uplift)

Job summary

The Government Cyber Unit's mission is to protect public services from cyber threats and digital resilience failures. We are working to achieve a step change in our cyber and digital resilience across government, through delivery of the Government Cyber Action Plan, and working closely with departments and national technical authorities including the National Cyber Security Centre to deliver. This is a challenging time to be working in cyber security and digital resilience, but we have an incredible opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives and promote national security by protecting the public services and national infrastructure they rely on. We work at the forefront of shaping the UK’s national response to emerging cyber and technology issues - from the increasingly complex range of state-sponsored cyber-attacks and supply chain compromises, through to the transformational benefits and security challenges of frontier AI and quantum computing.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive working environment where people can learn, develop and do their best work. Continuous professional development and a focus on wellbeing is core to our unit culture. We welcome applications from candidates who share this ethos and are excited by our mission.

The Cyber Services Team supports the delivery of the Government Cyber Action Plan by coordinating, overseeing and delivering services to help public sector organisations solve cyber security challenges.

The services we provide centrally are those where automation and economies of scale can be applied to address common resilience and cyber problems. These cover the core internet services we all rely on such as DNS, email and web services, as well as vulnerability management, cyber testing and cyber capability uplift.

We ensure that cyber services are easy to find and use, and that the information and support delivered by these services is coherent, valuable, relevant, timely, trusted, reliable and easy to action. We track success using evidence-based objective measures.

Job description

Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.

As an Associate Service Owner you’ll:

• define and own the service delivery of Cyber Uplift products that operate at scale for the whole public sector. Work closely with the Head of Cyber Products to ensure that products are coherent and deliver value, in alignment with cyber services’ strategic objectives
• prioritise areas of development that balance user needs, business requirements, performance and policy to drive continuous iterative improvement at different phases of the service life cycle
• lead the team’s agile working practices to develop a scalable and repeatable remediations catalogue to address cyber challenges faced by departments, generating management insights through internal teams and third-party suppliers/vendors
• identify measurable security benefits that represent good value for money alongside competing priorities, developing business cases to provide sustainable funding
• design and implement a long-term strategy and tactical approach for strategic decision-making, working with multidisciplinary teams and security architects to solve problems and share best practice
• build strong stakeholder relationships with departments, technical experts, business partnering and strategy teams to identify and overcome operational constraints, acting as the escalation point
• be a proactive and constructive Cyber Services leadership team member, developing new ideas to meet the Government Cyber Unit strategic vision and objectives
• adopt a user-centric and collaborative approach to manage a small team and define solutions to cyber challenges, evaluate outcomes, lessons learned, and provide insights for scaling or adoption within the wider organisation
• manage the governance and assurance processes to ensure that standards are met, continuously improved and effectively aligned to agreed business benefits and wider government needs

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• proven experience owning the roadmap and delivery of a digital, cyber or technology-enabled service, translating strategic priorities into practical delivery plans, setting and iterating ways of working across different delivery methodologies to manage risks, dependencies and achieve delivery outcomes
• clear communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to explain complex cyber and delivery issues to non-technical audiences, secure input from busy teams, influence wider strategy through service insight, and influence and negotiate with senior stakeholders to resolve issues and enable progress
• an ability to build and manage strong stakeholder relationships and coordinate action across multiple organisations with different priorities, dependencies and levels of cyber maturity
• experience using service data, delivery reporting, user feedback and operational insight to prioritise work, manage performance and improve delivery
• experience ensuring a scalable operating model is in place to deliver resilient, high quality services in complex environments, working with multidisciplinary teams, suppliers and delivery partners to achieve measurable outcomes
• excellent levels of personal resilience, remaining calm under pressure, comfortable working in ambiguous environments, and making rapid decisions with often limited information
• experience improving delivery performance, using metrics to monitor, manage and prioritise delivery, inform decision making, and demonstrate the value and outcomes of a live service or programme
• experience supporting strategic decision-making and leading multidisciplinary delivery teams, ensuring organisational alignment, clarifying priorities, removing blockers and supporting good team performance
• an in-depth understanding of cyber threats, vulnerabilities, mitigations and the practical challenges of remediation in complex legacy environments
• experience managing service governance, assurance, business planning, funding, prioritisation and value for money within agreed delegated authority

Benefits

There are many benefits of working at DSIT, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for the King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

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

The standard selection process for roles at DSIT consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and cover letter of up to 750 words. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above
• a 60 minute video interview

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

While we value the use of AI technology to enhance our daily work, we also value the personal touch and urge applicants to write cover letters without the use of AI to emphasise their own unique experiences.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is: proven experience owning the roadmap and delivery of a digital, cyber or technology-enabled service, translating strategic priorities into practical delivery plans, setting and iterating ways of working across different delivery methodologies to manage risks, dependencies and achieve delivery outcomes

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

• Leadership
• Seeing the big picture
• Making effective decisions
• Managing a quality service
• Communicating and influencing
• Changing and improving

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Capability Framework for the Service Owner (G7) role:

• Strategic ownership - Practitioner
• Financial ownership - Practitioner
• Life cycle management - Working
• Operational management - Practitioner
• Managing service outcomes - Practitioner
• Leading performance and benefits - Practitioner
• Stakeholder relationship management - Practitioner

Want to know more about who Government Digital and Data are? Click Here

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: 9/11/2026

Panel interviews: Starting from 16/11/2026

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

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

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.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

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

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk
• Email : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact gds-complaints@dsit.gov.uk in the first instance.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission by email: info@csc.gov.uk Or in writing: Civil Service Commission, Room G/8 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.