Head of Quality (Ref: 15310)

Job summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

Head of Quality

Location: National*

Closing Date: 15th March 2026

Interviews: W/C 30th March 2026

Grade: 6

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary:

London: £75,674 - £85,257 (which may include an allowance up to £12,201) National: £71,381 - £80,419 (which may include an allowance up to £12,319)

Working pattern: full-time, part-time, flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Vacancy number: 15310

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP

The Role

We’re recruiting for a Head of Quality here at Justice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative LAA Digital team.

This role aligns against Lead Test Engineer from the Government Digital and Data Framework

As a Head of Quality, you will provide organisational leadership to foster a cohesive quality strategy across the organisation. You will build capability across the profession and product teams, ensuring teams are equipped to support the strategic direction. You will provide guidance, coaching and mentorship to teams to adopt and embed modern quality practices to deliver the digital services that Legal Aid Providers, citizens and case workers use daily.

You will advocate for early, sustainable quality activities and a proactive, quality first, risk aware culture. Your role will be instrumental in influencing quality metrics, governance and continuous optimisation of strategies, test plans and methodologies.

This role requires a high level of strategic thinking, technical understanding, capability building and the ability to influence organisational change.

You will be responsible for the line management structure of other quality professionals within the organisation.

The Team

You will be part of a forward thinking and innovative community, working closely with the engineering community, product managers, user researchers, designers, business analysts, and delivery managers to champion quality and testing excellence.

We cultivate an inclusive, diverse, transparent and agile environment. We believe in building quality into our products, systems and services and that quality is everyone’s responsibility. We encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025

Key Responsibilities:

As a Head of Quality you will;

• Define and execute a long-term quality and testing strategy, ensuring alignment with business and user needs.

• Work with the Head of Engineering to lead, guide, and influence testing and quality engineering practices across the organisation, ensuring scalable, sustainable, and robust methodologies are in place.

• Drive the integration of quality practices at every stage of the software development lifecycle to embed a culture of built-in quality.

• Promote the strategic use of automation, ensuring teams are equipped to implement effective, scalable automation frameworks that support efficient and repeatable testing.

• Shape and refine testing design principles, governance, metrics, and reporting, ensuring insights are used to drive continuous improvement and informed decision-making.

• Develop capability across the quality profession, mentoring and coaching teams, and supporting their professional growth.

• Engage with cross-government communities to share knowledge, collaborate on best practices, and contribute to the broader testing strategy within the public sector.

• Build and maintain a diverse, inclusive culture within the testing profession, ensuring an environment that encourages learning, experimentation, and innovation.

• Champion a quality-driven mindset, ensuring testing and quality are seen as shared responsibilities across teams.

• Monitor emerging technologies, tools, and trends, ensuring that the organisation stays at the forefront of quality engineering innovation.

• Oversee supplier and vendor relationships, ensuring third-party testing services align with organisational goals and quality standards.

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Benefits

• 37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.

• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best in class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.

• Staff have 10% time to dedicate to develop & grow.

• Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 28.97% from April 1st 2024 (Contribution Rates).

• 25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the King’s birthday. 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.

• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!

• Wellbeing support including access to the Calm app.

• Nurturing professional and interpersonal networks including those for Carers & Childcare, Gender Equality, PROUD and SPIRIT.

• Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location).

• Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers.

• 5 days volunteering paid leave.

• Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.

Person Specification

Essential

• Experience defining and implementing holistic quality strategies across large-scale digital projects.

• Expertise in applying and adapting testing methodologies across different development lifecycles, ensuring effective integration into Agile and DevOps environments.

• Knowledge of testing tools and automation frameworks, using them to improve efficiency, mitigate risk, and enhance overall quality assurance.

• Ability to use change management initiatives, enabling teams to adopt sustainable quality engineering practices without compromising productivity.

• Experience in ensuring teams are set up to support quality needs and work to agreed standards

• Building an inclusive, diverse testing culture, fostering an environment where innovation and collaboration thrive.

• Ability to champion and advocate quality engineering both internally and externally, shaping best practice, while promoting innovation.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.

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.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £71,381, Ministry of Justice contributes £20,679 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

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

How to Apply

Candidates must submit a CV and a supporting statement with a maximum of 500 words, which describes how your skills and experience, meet the requirements set out in the below criteria:

• Experience defining and implementing holistic quality strategies across large-scale digital projects. (250 words)

• Expertise in applying and adapting testing methodologies across different development lifecycles, ensuring effective integration into Agile and DevOps environments. (250 words)

Application Guidance

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply and how to complete a Personal Statement

Application Guidance

In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession CapabilityandSuccess Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:

• Working together

• Changing and improving

• Leadership

• Managing a quality service

• Communicating and Influencing

A diverse panel will review your application against the Person Specification above.

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1-hour panel interview and presentation held via video conference.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on ‘Experience defining and implementing holistic quality strategies across large-scale digital projects’ will be conducted before the sift.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

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

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

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 : SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team
• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk
• Telephone : 0345 241 5359

Recruitment team

• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitm…

https://www.jobtrain.co.uk/justicedigital/Job/JobDetail?jobid=996

Attachments

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