Head of Transformation Delivery (up to 2 roles) (Ref: 15259)

Job summary

This position is based at 102 PETTY FRANCE (MOJ) LONDON, SW1H 9AJ, National

Job description

Head of Transformation Delivery (up to 2 roles)

Grade 6

The Strategy and Transformation Directorate is recruiting on a permanent basis for a Grade 6 Head of Transformation Delivery.

Location:

Successful candidates will have the option to be based at one of the following locations:

• 102 PETTY FRANCE (MOJ) LONDON
• SW1H 9AJ, National

We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your chosen base location.

At the MoJ we believe and promote alternative ways of working, these roles are available as:

· Full-time, part-time or the option to job share

· Flexible working patterns

If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.

We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service will be expected to join on the minimum of the pay range.

If you are already a civil servant and are successful in an external recruitment competition for a role with us, your starting pay will be the better of:

· promotion terms or transfer terms, as appropriate; or

· pay on appointment arrangements (minimum of pay range)

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MoJ is the largest government department, employing over 90,000 people with a budget of approximately £10 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including at 500 courts and tribunals, and 133 prisons in England and Wales.

Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice

This role sits within the Service Strategy & Transformation (SS&T) Directorate, within the Service Transformation Group (STG). STG, is responsible for leading the transformation of the services the MoJ and its agencies deliver to the public. Its mission is twofold: to provide the best justice services in the world, powered by the happiest team in government. The SS&T Directorate within STG is responsible for:

• Service Transformation Strategy: Working across Service Transformation Group, to understand and drive collaboration on current transformation and digital plans; bringing together all areas of STG to collectively create a clear and compelling strategy for delivery over the next 3-5 years; baselining and supporting performance and prioritisation across STG.
• : Managing the transformation portfolio, including through the Transformation Committee (Director General level); analysing portfolio performance; building transformation programme capabilities; identifying cross-cutting opportunities and issues that block progress towards user outcomes; and recommending rebalancing efforts where needed.
• : Providing end-to-end service transformation delivery support to embed best practice approaches; identifying, encouraging and delivering new ways of working; acting as a critical friend to delivery partners and collaborating with a wider range of stakeholders to improve user outcomes.
• : Accelerating systems-wide transformation through high-value investments in digital development and product innovation; piloting initiatives to test new ways of working in cross-functional teams to unlock value through innovation and create cutting-edge solutions to challenges in the justice system.

Head of Transformation Delivery – the role

The Grade 6 Head of Transformation Delivery will be responsible for the successful delivery of end-to-end service transformation. This role is one of multiple Head of Transformation Delivery posts, each leading delivery across a portfolio of services or systems, collectively forming the delivery muscle of the MoJ Transformation function.

You will lead a motivated and high-performing team that steps in where change is hardest: intervening where services are falling short of user outcomes, pace or confidence is lacking, or transformation capability needs to be rapidly strengthened. Acting as a senior delivery leader, you will work alongside service owners, programme SROs and digital, data and operational partners to unblock progress, raise standards and embed sustainable ways of working.

You will operate as part of a wider Transformation leadership cohort, closely aligned with the Transformation Office and other central teams. While this role does not “own” the portfolio or governance, you will be a critical delivery partner: translating strategic intent, standards and decisions into tangible progress on the ground within your domain.

Interventions across your domain may include hands-on delivery support, capability building or structured problem-solving. In some cases, challenges will be best addressed through targeted experimentation, in others, through sustained delivery intervention. You will work closely with the Innovation Engine, with both teams acting as complementary levers that may be recommended by the Transformation Office to address different types of transformation need.

You will regularly provide expert delivery leadership, challenge and support to your Deputy Director, programme SROs, Directors, Director Generals and colleagues across the department. The post holder will lead teams through periods of uncertainty, change and significant opportunity, acting as a champion of outcome-focused delivery, pragmatic problem-solving and transformation excellence at scale.

As our Directorate grows, we are adapting our operating model. We are looking for delivery leaders who are motivated not only to deliver at pace, but to help shape and continuously improve how this function operates in practice. This may particularly appeal to candidates with experience in delivery units, priority projects, consultancy and other similar teams, who have informed views on what works (and what doesn’t) to deliver transformation outcomes at high pace and to an exceptional standard.

Key Responsibilities

End-to-end transformation projects: Lead and oversee the delivery of transformation interventions within your domain, ensuring services make demonstrable progress against agreed user outcomes. Step in with hands-on support where required, working alongside service teams to restore pace, confidence and clarity, with clear entry and exit points.

Strategic problem-solving and intervention: Lead structured problem-solving to diagnose root causes of delivery challenges across your domain. Coordinate people, expertise and surge capacity across SS&T, digital and operational teams to address cross-cutting issues, and escalate where necessary with clear, evidence-based recommendations.

Embedding standards, models and ways of working: Implement and embed MoJ service transformation standards and approaches (including outcome-led and product-led ways of working) across your domain. Coach and support service owners and delivery teams to adopt these approaches sustainably, building capability rather than creating dependency on central teams.

Senior stakeholder influence: Build and maintain strong, credible relationships with a wide range of senior stakeholders, including programme SROs, Directors and DG Group colleagues. Act as a trusted delivery partner, able to challenge constructively, align interests, and secure commitment to difficult decisions in service of better outcomes.

Strong leadership and team development: Provide direct line management to G7 Delivery Leads within your domain. Foster a culture of high performance, collaboration and continuous learning, modelling MoJ leadership behaviours, agile delivery practices and cross-functional ways of working. Develop talent and capability so teams can deliver with confidence and pace.

Skills and Experience

The work of this team is highly dynamic and delivery-focused and requires a proactive, adaptive approach. The successful candidate must demonstrate:

• , with the ability to respond effectively to changing priorities, delivery risks and emerging user needs within a complex transformation environment.
• , working iteratively with service teams and senior stakeholders to shape problems, test solutions and drive progress, often using agile and outcome-led approaches.
• , able to operate effectively in complex, cross-cutting delivery environments where issues span policy, operations, digital and wider organisational boundaries.
• , building alignment and momentum across multiple teams and stakeholders to achieve shared transformation outcomes.

Essential

• Exceptional at diagnosing complex, high-stakes delivery and transformation challenges that have stalled or resisted resolution. Rapidly structures ambiguous problems into clear hypotheses, priorities and actionable components, drawing on quantitative and qualitative evidence. Cuts through complexity with clarity and judgement, and is comfortable operating without being the domain specialist.
• Proven ability to stand up high-performing project teams quickly to tackle complex or stalled areas of delivery. Sets a clear direction, restores pace and confidence, and leads teams through uncertainty to deliver tangible improvements. Builds alignment with local leaders and secures agreement to meaningful change, while strengthening capability and ways of working for the long term.
• Brings sufficient depth of understanding of digital, data and technology-enabled transformation to operate credibly with digital, policy and operational leaders. Able to act as a trusted, neutral translator between disciplines: bridging language, incentives and ways of working to enable effective joint delivery, without needing to be a technical specialist.
• A strong belief that the Civil Service must transform how it designs and delivers services, with ideas and experience that demonstrate how change can be delivered at pace and at scale. This role is open to candidates from inside or outside the Civil Service who bring relevant delivery experience and a clear reform mindset.
• Exceptional ability to engage with, challenge and influence senior leaders, including programme SROs, Service Owners and their teams. Comfortable navigating complex organisational and political contexts, building trust quickly, and securing alignment around difficult delivery and transformation decisions.
• Experience of agile and outcome-focused operating models. Comfortable applying these approaches pragmatically in complex public service or mission-driven environments, and iterating the model in response to learning.

Desirable

• Experience working within, or in close partnership with, parts of the justice system with an understanding of the operational, policy and user context.
• Alternatively, a track record of rapidly immersing yourself in new, complex domains, learning the landscape quickly, building trust with subject-matter experts, and becoming a credible delivery partner in unfamiliar systems.

Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.

The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.

You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application, including your CV, statement of suitability and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

Selection process details

Experience

You will be asked to provide a CV during the application listing any experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role. This will not be assessed.

You will also be asked to upload a Statement of Suitability of no more than 750 words stating how you meet the following criteria:

• Exceptional at diagnosing complex, high-stakes delivery and transformation challenges that have stalled or resisted resolution. Rapidly structures ambiguous problems into clear hypotheses, priorities and actionable components, drawing on quantitative and qualitative evidence. Cuts through complexity with clarity and judgement, and is comfortable operating without being the domain specialist.
• Proven ability to stand up high-performing project teams quickly to tackle complex or stalled areas of delivery. Sets a clear direction, restores pace and confidence, and leads teams through uncertainty to deliver tangible improvements. Builds alignment with local leaders and secures agreement to meaningful change, while strengthening capability and ways of working for the long term.
• Brings sufficient depth of understanding of digital, data and technology-enabled transformation to operate credibly with digital, policy and operational leaders. Able to act as a trusted, neutral translator between disciplines: bridging language, incentives and ways of working to enable effective joint delivery, without needing to be a technical specialist.
• A strong belief that the Civil Service must transform how it designs and delivers services, with ideas and experience that demonstrate how change can be delivered at pace and at scale. This role is open to candidates from inside or outside the Civil Service who bring relevant delivery experience and a clear reform mindset.

Candidates invited to Interview

Candidates who are successful at sift will be invited to interview 1.

Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely.

Interview 1 – We will invite candidates to a short (15 minutes) suitability conversation to understand more about your background and motivation at this stage. This will include strengths-based questions to explore what you enjoy, and your motivations relevant to the job role.

There is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well.

You can refer to the CS Strengths dictionary for more details: Success Profiles - Civil Service Strengths Dictionary (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Interview 2 – Short-listed candidates will complete a take-home task, with a 45-minute follow up interview covering:

• Discussion of the task
• In depth experience-based questions to explore in detail how you meet the essential experience criteria.

Interviews expected to take place April 2026 (dates are indicative and subject to change).

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Strengths and Experience.https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

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 : 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://justicejobs.avature.net/internalcareers/JobDetail/15259?entityId=15259