Deputy Director of Digital Content & Publishing

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics, spanning the economy, society and population, and is the recognised National Statistical Institute. Our mission is to deliver trustworthy, independent, high-quality statistics that underpin the UK’s most critical economic and societal decisions and inform the public.

The Communications and Digital Publishing (CDP) directorate is responsible for sharing these statistics so that a broad spectrum of users across government, business, civil society and citizens can find, understand, explore and act upon them.

Job description

The Deputy Director of Digital Content and Publishing plays a critical role in ensuring all our statistics are published in a timely and accurate manner and that our information products are of high-quality, meeting user needs. The role requires working closely with colleagues across the organisation to ensure an aligned vision for the website and our other digital and data channels, which is informed by users and uses evidence to continuously improve.

You will be joining at an exciting and pivotal time as we roll out our new ONS website and content management system. As Deputy Director you will be the overall service owner for the ONS website and our broader web estate. You will be accountable for the phased implementation of our new website and content approach, set the requirements for our digital products and tools, including data visualisations, and lead across teams to transform our data dissemination in the context of increasing use of AI.

We are looking for an inspiring and collaborative leader with experience of delivering complex digital change with users at the heart. This role is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate your expertise in digital and content transformation, with an ability to bring together digital and communications disciplines to measurably increase impact with audiences.

Key Responsibilities:

• Leading the strategy for the ONS website and our external digital and data channels, working closely with colleagues in Digital Services and across the organisation to ensure alignment on vision.
• Using your knowledge of the evolving digital and AI communications landscape to set the requirements for the ONS website, digital and data tools, ensuring product and design decisions are driven by user research and insight.
• Championing, embedding and further developing user-led content and data standards and approaches and leading colleagues from multiple disciplines through this change, including culture change.
• Overseeing a quality publishing service, building collaborative relationships with statistical, digital and communications teams to deliver accurate, timely and high-quality data, statistics and visualisations that meet user need, with performance evaluated.
• Shaping our approach for Census 2031 dissemination, ensuring readiness for high-quality outputs and statistical and data products.
• Bringing your personal influence to drive a culture of continuous improvement for impactful content delivery by monitoring, measuring and reviewing, and identify opportunities for automation and more effective and efficient working across the organisation.
• Accountable for an annual budget in the region of £5m including a team of around 70 colleagues located at our Newport, Fareham, London, Darlington and Manchester offices, and contract and supply management in the digital/web technology field.
• Leading across, and collaborating closely with, colleagues in the Communications and Digital Publishing directorate to ensure a common user-led approach and integrated planning, with specific accountability for ensuring audience insights are amalgamated and inform our decision making.
• Being held to account for effective and visible leadership in support of our ONS People Plan, including providing clear direction and support to teams, creating an agile, inclusive work environment that encourages diversity, collaboration and empowerment, and supporting professional development.
• Support the Director of Communications, Engagement and Digital Publishing in the regular review of resources against priorities, delivering sound financial and resource management, maintaining clear delivery objectives, proactively managing risk and planning for future skills needs.

For more information, please refer to candidate pack attached.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

Candidates are expected to evidence these criteria within their CV and Personal Statement:

• Digital content specialist with extensive experience of leading website, digital, data and content transformation for large/information rich websites, using an evidence-based approach to deliver impactful results for users, while identifying opportunities to improve organisational productivity, including automation.

• A track record of designing, implementing and evaluating engaging digital content or data strategies to engage wide audiences, employing a range of channels, digital and data tools and cutting-edge techniques including data visualisation and driving continuous improvement in the context of the evolving AI landscape

• Outstanding leadership skills with evidence of bringing together high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams to work towards a single vision and produce impactful, accessible and trusted relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

• Excellent communication and engagement skills, including an ability to convey complexity to all audiences both in writing and verbal and to influence through building credible and trusted relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
  
  
• Recognised role model of visible, collaborative and inclusive leadership, known for exhibiting behaviour that motivates others, supports colleague development and champions diversity, while demonstrating excellent resource, finance and risk management to enable efficient and effective delivery.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Office for National Statistics contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

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

Security Clearance

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)

• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records

• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency

• Security Services records

Selection Process

Applications should consist of your CV and Personal Statementcombined as one document and uploaded as a single attachment through Civil Service Jobs.​

A Curriculum Vitae of no more than 2 pages of A4 consisting of:​

• Details of your education and/or professional qualifications.​

• Full employment history, giving details (where applicable) of budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant key achievements in recent posts.​

• Details of your latest remuneration.​

A personal statement detailing in no more than 2 pages of A4 how you meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification. We recommend that you give clear examples for each describing your own contribution and the impact and value of your actions. ​

Applications will be acknowledged shortly after receipt. If you do not receive an acknowledgement within one week of applying for the post, please contact our SCS Recruitment Team at: SCS.Recruitment@ons.gov.uk​

Further information on the assessment approach for this role can be found in the candidate pack.

Expected Recruitment Timetable

Shortlisting meeting: w/c 16th March

Employee Engagement Exercise (EEE) - 30th March

Stakeholder Conversations - w/c 13th April

Interviews - 24th April - Held in our Newport Office - Cardiff Rd, Duffryn, Newport NP10 8XG.

Please note the interview date and location are subject to change but we can confirm that interviews will be face to face.

Full terms and conditions are attached at the bottom of this advert

If you meet the required standard but the recruiting department is unable to offer you the job, you may be given the option of being added to a reserve list. Reserve lists may be shared with other Civil Service departments and professions who are recruiting for similar roles.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

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.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.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 : Sarah Moore
• Email : SCS.Recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : SCS.recruitment@ons.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 recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission

Attachments

2721 Advert 1A Permanent - ONS London Inclusive v1-00 Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)Deputy_Director_of_Digital_Content_&_Publishing_SCS_Candidate_Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 903kB)