Head of Digital Service Portfolio

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need

Job description

The Head of Digital Service Portfolio leads the oversight, assurance and performance insight of major government digital services. The role ensures leaders have the right information and governance to make informed decisions and deliver the best outcomes for users and government.

It provides a system-wide view of service health, transformation progress, risks and opportunities, ensuring the portfolio is effectively governed, prioritised and meeting organisational needs.

Working collaboratively with departments, the role drives continuous improvement and promotes best practice in service management and digital delivery. It ensures services align with government digital, data and technology strategies and the Service Manual.

The Head of Digital Service Portfolio leads and develops the portfolio function, overseeing its governance and operation. They lead a team of digital portfolio managers and build capability across the wider community to ensure consistent, high-quality portfolio oversight across government.

In this role you will:

• lead the performance tracking, assessment, and assurance of government digital services
• own portfolio prioritisation, sequencing and trade-offs, balancing risk, user outcomes, funding and delivery capacity across government services
• ensure effective governance and assurance processes are in place for digital services across government across the service portfolio
• monitor service health, delivery performance, user outcomes and transformation progress, to provide cross-government insights on service health, risks and opportunities strategic insight to senior leaders
• identify, manage and escalate portfolio-level risks, issues, dependencies and opportunities for intervention, including opportunities and risks posed by AI enabled services
• translate service performance data and delivery insights into recommendations that support prioritisation, investment and funding decisions
• provide a cross-government view of service health, future risks and opportunities to support strategic planning and decision-making. Work with departments and delivery teams to improve services, adopt best practice and deliver against agreed outcomes and service standards
• facilitate governance and assurance discussions in complex, high-risk and politically sensitive environments
• act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on service performance, delivery and transformation
• foster a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration and accountability across the service portfolio
• own and continuously improve the digital service portfolio function, building team capability and ensuring consistent, high-quality governance, assurance and insight across government

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• have substantial experience owning and operating a complex digital portfolio within an agile environment, utilising agile methodologies and iterating quickly to ensure delivery outcomes are aligned to organisational priorities
• demonstrate strong expertise in designing and implementing portfolio governance and assurance, and improving the performance of digital services
• be able to provide clear, compelling insight and recommendations to senior leaders, enabling strategic decisions about the future of the portfolio and providing guidance to other on working in the strategic context
• demonstrate expertise in planning, with the ability to identify, manage and escalate risks and dependencies across a portfolio, understanding the environment to prioritise the most important or high value tasks
• demonstrate excellent stakeholder leadership, including influencing and negotiating with senior stakeholders to resolve issues and enable progress.
• show a track record of building and supporting a professional community, including coaching, line management and developing capability

Benefits

There are many benefits of working at GDS, 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 GDS 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 which will feature a presentation. Details of the presentation will be shared with invited candidates prior to the 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.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is: have substantial experience owning and operating a complex digital portfolio within an agile environment, utilising agile methodologies and iterating quickly to ensure delivery outcomes are aligned to organisational priorities

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:

• changing and improving
• leadership
• seeing the bigger picture
• communicating and influencing

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 Head of Digital Portfolio role:

• agile working
• communicating analysis and insight
• governance and assurance
• planning
• stakeholder relationship manager
• strategic thinking

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

Recruitment Timeline

Open Recruitment Session - Wednesday 24th June 2026 12:00 - 13:00

Sift completion: Week Commencing 6th July 2026

Panel interviews: Week Commencing 13th July 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.

Open Recruitment Session

To provide more information and context about the role, we are holding an open recruitment session on the 24th June 2026, from 12:00 - 13:00. There will be a presentation followed by a Q&A Session. If you would like to be invited to the session, please email GDSrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

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 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.

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.