Customer Improvement and Innovation Lead

Job summary

The Customer Improvement and Innovation Lead is a Grade 7 role within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) Improving Customer Delivery team. You will lead high‑impact work to improve how millions of customers experience Defra services, shaping and delivering practical improvements across complex, cross‑organisational journeys.

Defra handles over 21 million transactions a year, with customer journeys that often span multiple agencies and touchpoints. These journeys can be long, fragmented and difficult to navigate, requiring leaders who can work across organisational boundaries to drive meaningful improvement.

The role sits within the Change Directorate, a new Directorate helping Defra deliver change sustainably and at pace. Working across the Defra group, we bring together customer thinking, project delivery and change management to shape and deliver change that matters. We help the organisation prioritise what matters most, manage change impacts, and ensure improvements are delivered effectively, with customers and their needs at the heart of decision making.

Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people’s day today lives - from the food we eat and the air we breathe to the water we drink.

What makes this role different

You’ll need to take ownership, lead customer improvements and delivery through to real-world impact. This isn’t a role where you’ll just advise and walk away.

You’ll do this by leading and working within multidisciplinary teams, partnering closely with service owners, policy, digital, data and operational colleagues to turn customer insight into delivered change.

You’ll operate in a fast-paced, constantly evolving environment. There’s no strict hierarchy, and success depends on your ability to collaborate, influence, and make things happen in uncertain conditions. You’ll need to be comfortable failing fast, learning quickly, and working with others in a culture of open challenge and shared accountability.

Job description

Personal specification

What you’ll be doing - responsibilities

As a Customer Improvement and Innovation Lead, your responsibilities will include (but are not limited to):

• Leading customer pathfinder activity from problem definition through to delivery, working in partnership with multidisciplinary teams to redesign services and test innovative approaches.
• Blending improvement approaches, including continuous improvement, lean and user‑centred design, to suit the needs of different services and contexts.
• Acting as the voice of the customer, ensuring that customer needs and impacts are central to service design, improvement planning, and implementation.
• Leading and workingas part of multidisciplinary teams across the Defra group to identify customer problems, shape service improvement priorities, and deliver tangible improvements to customer experience.
• Building and maintaining strong networks across Defra and its delivery bodies to embed a customer-focused culture and ensure collaboration on shared challenges and opportunities.
• Working with customer delivery teams across the group to improve the consistency, effectiveness, and quality of customer journeys.
• Managing a small, high-performing team responsible for delivering improvements in customer experience across Defra organisations.
• Supporting crisis response and service resilience, including developing and improving reactive customer communication and service delivery options.
• Promoting and embedding customer delivery best practice across Defra and wider government, building the department’s reputation as a leader in customer-focused service design.
• Playing an active role in the leadership team of the Improving Customer Delivery function helping to set direction, drive strategy, and deliver high-impact outcomes.

What’s new and what you’ll lead and shape

We’re expanding into new, ambitious areas of work - and in this senior leadership role, you’ll be at the forefront of setting the direction, driving delivery, and ensuring we achieve meaningful results. We’ll expect you to provide strategic oversight, secure buy-in from senior stakeholders, and ensure initiatives deliver both for customers and the organisation.

• Championing the adoption of emerging technologies - leading on how we explore and implement innovative tools, including AI, to strengthen customer insight, improve service efficiency, and enhance digital interactions across Defra.
• Driving the rapid improvement pathfinder programme - overseeing the delivery of end-to-end service improvement projects that bring together multidisciplinary teams, blend different improvement methodologies, and deliver measurable impact for customers while improving internal efficiency and effectiveness.
• Developing evidence-led, innovative ways to understanding service performance and customer experience - including pinpointing the real pain points and addressing them in a transformational way, defining success measures, and tracking whether improvements deliver the required outcomes.
• Creating a new approach to improvement - we are also creating an adaptable improvement approach that blends the most effective elements from techniques such as continuous improvement, lean, user centred design, and user research. This allows us to tailor solutions to the unique challenges of each service in a way that meets customer needs.
• Strengthening customer contact to enable first-time resolution - leading work to ensure customers can achieve their outcomes first time by improving how they interact with Defra services. This includes simplifying processes, reducing avoidable contact, enhancing the quality and consistency of customer delivery, and driving business efficiencies and better ways of working across teams.

This is your opportunity to shape the future of customer experience across a major government department, ensuring that Defra’s services, culture, and communications reflect the needs of the people and organisations we serve - both now and in the future.

Person specification

Essential criteria

This is a senior leadership role that requires a blend of strategic thinking, operational experience, and personal resilience.

To succeed in this role, you’ll need the following essential skills and experience:

• Proven experience in operational delivery and customer service, ideally across multiple departments or arms-length bodies.
• Strong leadership skills, including experience of managing teams and delivering through others, particularly in complex, cross-organisational environments.
• A track record of delivering sustainable improvements in customer contact or service areas from design through to implementation and benefits realisation.
• Demonstrable ability to build trust and influence stakeholders at all levels, including in politically or commercially sensitive contexts.
• Experience working across multiple policy and operational areas, using evidence and insight to understand customer needs and assess service impact.
• Skilled in navigating ambiguity, shifting priorities, and competing needs, while maintaining delivery focus and clarity of purpose.
• Able to work confidently in fast-paced, high-pressure, and reactive situations, including during incidents or crisis response scenarios.
• Comfortable working in an environment that promotes challenge, innovation, and experimentation - where learning from failure is part of the culture.
• Experience of managing projects end-to-end, including planning, risk management, stakeholder engagement, reporting, and benefits tracking.
• Confident introducing and managing innovative solutions in high-risk environments, including balancing opportunity with delivery risks.
• A good understanding of Defra’s delivery bodies, their services, and customer groups - or a proven ability to rapidly acquire that understanding.
• Comfortable with setting strategic direction and enabling others to act across teams that work across organisational and cultural boundaries.

Why join us?

This is a rare opportunity to work as part of a high-impact team to shape the way millions of people experience government services. If you’re passionate about improvement, excited by challenge, and ready to make a difference - we’d love to hear from you.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership

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

• Changing and Improving

Technical skills

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

• Technical Presentation based on the Skills needed for the role. Presentation will be provided when candidates are invited to interview.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,375, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £16,331 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

A career in the Civil Service is like no other. If you’re looking to join a world class team and develop your career with us, then the Civil Service is the place for you! You might be wondering, “what’s in it for me”? Take a look below at some of the benefits available to you as a civil servant in Defra.

Directorate Benefits

Learning and Development
Everyone in Defra is supported to develop their skills and capabilities. When you join the Directorate, you will be welcomed into your new team through an induction programme that will provide you with helpful information on the civil service, Defra, our work and our policies. Your line manager will also work with you to establish your priorities for the year, developing a performance, learning and development plan tailored to you and your role, while also working with you to connect you with a civil service mentor to help empower you in your new role.

Most importantly, we’re keen to invest in you! As a civil servant, you will also have access to Civil Service Learning where you can participate in professional development programmes across a wide spectrum of subjects and professions.

Department Benefits

Technology
We’re a firm believer in agile and flexible working. When you join Defra, we’ll kit you out with a new Windows 11 Laptop, smartphone and rucksack to make sure that you perform your best wherever you are.

Leave
25 days' paid leave per annum rising to 30 days after five years’ service, in addition to eight public holidays and the King’s Birthday privilege day. We also offer
- competitive maternity, paternity, parental and adoption leave;
- study leave for the pursuit of academic studies;
- 3 days paid leave for volunteering per annum;
- 15 days paid leave per year for reservist training; and,
- generous paid sick leave.

Cycle to Work Scheme
Defra loans you a bike for your commute as a tax-free benefit. At the end of the loan period, you have the option to buy the bike, saving 30% of the original cost.

Season Ticket and Bicycle Loan
We offer interest-free season ticket loans, to all Defra employees with more than three months’ service, for purchasing train and bus season tickets, as well as station car parking. For those unable to take advantage of tax-free benefits, we also offer an interest-free bicycle loan to enable the purchase of a bicycle for commuting.

Gym, Social and Sports Activities
Our offices have a range of different onsite facilities, including gym, fitness facilities, games room, showers and cycle storage. There are also a variety of networks and social groups to join. Ask your line manager for more information.

Restaurant and Café Facilities
A range of our offices offer onsite restaurant and café facilities.

Civil Service Benefits

Pension
Your pension is a valuable part of your total reward package, and you will be given the chance to join one of three different pension plans. You can find more information on the Civil Service Pension on the MyCSP Website at www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk

Civil Service Sports Council
The Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC) organises a wide choice of activities throughout the UK, from art, gliding, abseiling and orienteering to cabaret weekends and quiz and curry nights. Your CSSC membership will provide you with FREE access to hundreds of national and local sites, in addition to savings at many high street stores, cinemas, restaurants and historic houses.

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, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Application Process

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages.
• A Personal Statement of up to 750 words, explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential criteria.
• A behaviour statement. Changing and Improving.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Sift

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the Personal Statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

Sifting and Interview dates to be confirmed

Interview

If successful at application stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be assessed against Civil Service Behaviours, A technical presentation and strengths.

We'll assess you against these behaviours:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Leadership

Your interview will either be conducted face to face or by video. You will be notified of the location if you are selected for interview.

Location

As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s)

Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.

Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.

The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location, and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

Reserve List

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

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to Defra 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; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
• Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Visa Sponsorship Statement

Please take note that Defra does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.

Merit Lists

Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be appointed in merit order for each location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application

Criminal Record Check

If successful and transferring from another Government Department, a criminal record check maybe carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognize in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Internal Fraud Database Check

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

This is a Fixed-term Appointment as a Customer Improvement and Innovation Lead on the Improving Customer Delivery Team.

The post is not permanent. It is time limited due to a fixed funding period or as part of a specific project. The fixed term will end when the funding or the project expires.

This post will therefore begin from the candidate's start date and end after 2 years.

Higher Security Clearance

Job offers are made on the basis of merit. Security vetting will only take place after the receipt of a job offer.

If you are successful at interview, we will ask you to undertake Security Clearance due to the nature of this role.

All of these posts require the successful candidate to hold basic security clearance. Candidates posted to London may be subject to a higher level of clearance because of the security requirements for that location. Job offers to these posts are made on the basis of merit. Security vetting will only take place after the receipt of a job offer.

NSV

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.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 : Strategy Resourcing Team
• Email : sandc.resourcing@defra.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.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, in the first instance, you should contact Government Recruitment Services via email: defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: here