Senior Cyber Talent Capability Manager

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 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

Government Digital, Data and Cyber Workforce and Capability:

Join Government Digital and Data and Cyber Workforce and Capability, where our mission is to ensure the government possesses the necessary talent to drive digital and cyber transformation and overcome the challenges ahead. We're dedicated to enhancing the government's capacity to attract, recruit, nurture, and retain top tier digital and data professionals.

As part of the team, you will help shape the future of cyber talent strategy and capabilities, providing vital insights that support cross departmental policies, standards, and strategies.

We're entrusted with devising strategies and delivering results for a community of 30,000+ digital and cyber innovators, aspiring talent, and the broader civil service. Our commitment extends to fostering an inclusive, supportive, and dynamic culture where individuals thrive and excel.

We are responsible for:

• Delivering the cross-government Blueprint for modern digital government and Cyber Action Plan
  
• Digital, Data and Technology Strategy and Standards, like the Technology Code of Practice, the Service Standard and Open Standards
  
• Cross-government performance and assurance, including Spend Controls
  
• Government Digital and Data Capability Framework and the Cyber Capability Framework

This role sits within the Development and Partnering team in the Government Digital, Data and Cyber Workforce and Capability directorate within GDS.

We work with departments across government and other functions, including commercial and project delivery, to put the conditions in place for digital and data transformation at scale. The Capability and Partnering team leads cross-government talent and capability development for the Digital and Data Function and the Cyber Profession.

We are looking for a Senior Cyber Talent Capability Manager to join our high-impact team. In this role, you will play a leading role in shaping and delivering cyber talent and capability priorities across government, supporting the continued development of the Cyber Profession.

You will lead the delivery of complex, cross-government talent initiatives, working closely with senior stakeholders across departments to ensure programmes align with strategic priorities, including the Cyber Action Plan and wider workforce strategies.

Person specification

As our Senior Cyber Talent Capability Manager you will:

• Manage multiple cross-government Cyber talent and capability development projects, including procurement processes and development of new interventions, ensuring they are delivered on time, within scope, and to quality standard
  
• Lead the strategy and execution, overseeing contract management, and supplier performance for our Cyber apprenticeship and learning providers.
  
• Build and maintain delivery plans, ensuring alignment with DSIT priorities, the Cyber Action Plan and the Cyber Talent Strategy.
  
• Manage relationships with delivery partners and internal stakeholders, ensuring effective collaboration and compliance.
  
• Facilitate agile delivery practices, enabling teams to iterate and improve, while maintaining focus on outcomes and user needs.
  
• Ensure governance and reporting, providing clear updates to senior stakeholders and escalating risks and issues appropriately.
  
• Champion continuous improvement, embedding feedback loops and lessons learned into delivery processes.
  
• Design, deliver, and facilitate events and workshops to support Cyber capability goals and priorities, ensuring engagement and impact
  
• Manage talent data and collaborate with colleagues to interpret data, identify risks, and develop insights that add value and mitigate challenges

You will be responsible for the line management and development of two Higher Executive Officer (HEO), supporting their performance, wellbeing, and career progression.

This is an exciting opportunity to influence and shape Cyber capability and talent across government following the establishment of the Cyber profession in government and during a period of transformation and opportunity. Come and join us and make a real difference!

As a line manager, you will be responsible for working with your members of staff to define their objectives, as well as managing their development and performance.

Essential Criteria

We are interested in people who have:

• Experience of leading capability, apprenticeship and talent programmes across government, helping to prioritise and manage lifecycles and dependencies. Maintaining attention to detail and delivering to a high standard. (Lead)
  
• Excellent communication skills, confidently working with colleagues and stakeholders at all grades building and maintaining positive relationships, with the ability to interpret the needs of technical and non-technical stakeholders, and manage their expectations.
  
• Able to work with and in diverse teams, showing initiative and a proactive approach to resolving issues. Contributing to a positive, inclusive team culture and championing diversity, equity, and inclusion, supporting efforts to improve representation across the Cyber profession.
  
• Experience within HR, ideally delivering early talent or cross-government programmes
  
• Confident using data to evaluate impact and inform decision making.
  
• Demonstrable experience of creativity and strategic thinking in developing and implementing talent development products and solutions to meet wide ranging user and stakeholder needs, aligned to strategic objectives.

Desirable Criteria

• CIPD Level 5 (or willing to obtain)

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Seeing the Big Picture

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,620, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £12,926 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.

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.

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 Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV, personal statement and behavioural statements.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Please use your personal statement (in no more than 750 words) for the following: please give evidence to demonstrate how you meet the following essential criteria;

• Experience of leading capability, apprenticeship and talent programmes across government, helping to prioritise and manage lifecycles and dependencies. Maintaining attention to detail and delivering to a high standard. (Lead)
• Excellent communication skills, confidently working with colleagues and stakeholders at all grades building and maintaining positive relationships, with the ability to interpret the needs of technical and non-technical stakeholders, and manage their expectations.
• Able to work with and in diverse teams, showing initiative and a proactive approach to resolving issues. Contributing to a positive, inclusive team culture and championing diversity, equity, and inclusion, supporting efforts to improve representation across the Cyber profession.
• Experience within HR, ideally delivering early talent or cross-government programmes
• Confident using data to evaluate impact and inform decision making.
• Demonstrable experience of creativity and strategic thinking in developing and implementing talent development products and solutions to meet wide ranging user and stakeholder needs, aligned to strategic objectives.

Applications will be sifted on behavioural statements, CV, and personal statement.

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the personal statement only.

Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

The interview will consist of behaviour and strength-based questions.

To help you to prepare for your interview, for this campaign behaviour questions will be shared in advance of interview if you are successful at sift stage. These questions should be treated as confidential and should not be shared.

The interview panel may ask you other questions which will not be shared with you in advance, including any follow-up questions, and other elements listed in the job advert, for example, experience, abilities, strengths and technical skills. The panel will be looking for examples of your own work, experience, and ability so do try and avoid using AI written answers without any human oversight.

Sift and interview dates

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DSIT Candidate Guidance. A DSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Candidates who meet the minimum benchmark may be placed on a Reserve List for consideration for similar roles, including those at a lower grade. Candidates who narrowly miss the benchmark and are not placed on the Reserve List may still be considered for an offer in a similar role at a lower grade.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 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; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

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).

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.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Feedback

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

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 : Gemma Butterworth
• Email : gemma.butterworth@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : dsitresourcing.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance DSITrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk . If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: Click here to visit Civil Service Commission/Complaints.

Attachments

DSIT T&Cs v1.2 Opens in new window (docx, 179kB)