Director for Working Age Services

Job summary

Are you an inspiring digital leader ready to shape services that change lives at scale?

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is looking for an exceptional Director for Working Age Services Digital Delivery.

Within DWP’s Digital and Transformation Group (DTG), you will play a central role in one of the biggest and most ambitious digital transformation programmes in Europe. DTG is the driving force behind modernising DWP services, bringing together digital expertise and project delivery to improve outcomes for millions of people. With more than 400 secure systems supporting almost £288 billion in annual payments to 23 million customers, our work directly contributes to national priorities such as boosting employment, reducing poverty, strengthening financial resilience, and delivering efficient, high quality services.

In this role, you will report to the Service Owner for Working Age Services and provide strategic and inspirational leadership to a team of around 500 civil servants, alongside colleagues from our contractor and supplier community. You will also have a wider leadership influence across 8,000 colleagues in DTG.

Your portfolio will include some of the most important digital services in the UK, including Universal Credit, the jobs and careers service, and New Style benefits. You will be responsible for both the live running and the transformation of these services, shaping how we support people of working age today and in the future. You will also play a major leadership role in the delivery of the jobs and careers service programme.

This is a unique and career defining opportunity for a bold, collaborative and forward thinking leader who thrives in a complex environment and is motivated by the chance to deliver meaningful change for society.

For more information about DWP and this role, please see the Candidate Pack attached.

Location: Caxton House, London

Details of specific sites and the geographical regions they cover can be found on page 6 of the Candidate Pack.

Here more about DWP

Virtual Engagement Session ​

Date: 27/02/26 Time: 11:15am - 12:15pm

This virtual session is an opportunity for you to find out more about the role and what it's like leading the Working Age directorate. You'll get the opportunity to hear directly from the vacancy holder, Will Garner and HR Director Beverley Morton, who will provide an overview of the role and hold a Q&A session. Join session HERE.

Job description

You will report to the Service Owner of Working Age Services. You will be responsible for up to 7 direct reports, a team of c500 civil servants with additional responsibility for contractors and suppliers and annual spend of c. £100m. In addition, you will be a leadership role model for 8000 colleagues in Digital and Transformation Group (DTG). ​

The Director for Working Age Services Digital Delivery is responsible for a wide-ranging portfolio covering support for live services, digitally enabled transformation and priority policy reforms. For Working Age Services, they will lead the digital services that support both the current and future services the department provides to people of Working Age. This includes Universal Credit, the jobs and careers service, and New-Style benefits.​

The Director will be accountable for both the live running and transformation activities for services including playing a key leadership role in the jobs and careers service programme.

• You will own the delivery strategy delivering transformation outcomes through our services, including working across Directorates to deliver policy intent through user-centred digital services. Ensuring that the right processes, procedures, and technologies align to delivering improved user, policy, and business-related outcomes. ​
• Development and execution of comprehensive roadmaps for those services, aligning organisational design, governance practices, capability, and 3rd party services to enable delivery of service design and delivery. ​
• Lead design, development, and delivery of large-scale user-centred services, utilising innovative technologies and data, integrated with DWP’s core platform capabilities. ​
• Lead multi-disciplinary teams to design, plan, deliver and maintain products - including user experience, development, data models, real-time analytics, machine-learning, APIs, development, and behaviour-driven testing​.
• Lead creation of core capabilities to support the service and make available across DWP though loosely coupled services, leading and influencing matrixed architecture, security, and infrastructure operations teams. ​
• Play an active role within the DWP Director community, and as a senior Digital leader across the Government. ​
• Lead and embed new ways of working and technology-enabled innovation, driving and building sustainable digital capability across the Department to support Civil Service Reform. ​
• Role modelling inclusive leadership behaviours and creating the culture and conditions to empower people to work across organisational boundaries, in multi-disciplinary teams, in service of our priorities. ​
• Provide assurance and oversight of transformation programme activity, ensuring they are managed effectively and represent value to taxpayers. ​
• Maintain outstanding financial management and control standards, which require financial budgets to be managed to within 1% variance per quarter and per budget allocation. ​

​In addition, the role will require you to: ​

• Contribute to and actively participate in the executive leadership of DWP as we deliver unprecedented change to the welfare system, and to the products and services it delivers. ​
• Manage complex relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders including partners and vendors​

Person specification

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their knowledge, experience and skills against the following essential criteria: ​​

• Significant experience of delivering high performing, transformational digital services at scale and to budget.
• Experience of building and leading high performing teams, proactively setting strategic priorities, communicating delivery impact and issues to senior colleagues. ​
• Experience in developing and continuously improving digital services, increasing service quality and performance whilst reducing cost. ​
• High levels of digital literacy and be capable of effectively engaging with design, delivery and technical colleagues, suppliers, and stakeholders to define the best approach to service design. ​
• Experience of building service strategy based on user-insight, driving value through delivering user-centred digital services. ​
• Experience of adopting innovative approaches to delivering and procuring services and managing relationships with suppliers.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £100,000, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £28,970 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

DWP have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

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

If you have the experience and energy to take on this stretching and demanding role, we would be very keen to hear from you.​​

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process outlined below by no later than 23:55 on 9th of March 2026.

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years;
• A personal statement (maximum 1250 words), explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities, and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.​

For more information about the roles and the applications process, please see the candidate pack attached.

Reasonable Adjustments
At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, especially those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should contact senior.recruitment@dwp.gov.uk as soon as possible, before the closing date to discuss your needs. Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what additional support or adjustments you might need during the recruitment process.
For further information regarding reasonable adjustments, please see following link: Reasonable Adjustments , Civil Service Careers

Artificial Intelligence
For further information regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within applications, please see following link: Artificial intelligence and recruitment , Civil Service Careers

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 : SCS Recruitment Team
• Email : senior.recruitment@dwp.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : senior.recruitment@dwp.gov.uk

Further information

What do I do if I want to make a complaint?

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact: senior.recruitment@dwp.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response, you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

Attachments

Working Age Services - Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 575kB)