Senior Delivery Manager

Job summary

We are recruiting for two Senior Delivery Managers to join our Digital Change team.

The post holder will be responsible for the effective delivery of complex products or services via multi-disciplinary, highly skilled digital teams. This will involve delivering complex digital projects, breaking down barriers for the team and both planning at a higher level and getting into the detail to make things happen when needed.

The role will play a key role in supporting our digital strategy across Ofsted, leading the development of a community of practice, delivering training, coaching and mentoring delivery managers.

The role may involve the line management of other team members.

Job description

Please refer to the job specification for further information.

Person specification

Please refer to the job specification for further information.

Qualifications

Agile qualification or equivalent qualification.

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the Big Picture

Technical skills

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

• Proven experience in delivering complex digital projects, services and products, balancing multiple priorities and dealing with ambiguity.
• Experience of leading matrix managed multi-disciplinary teams and the line management of others.
• Experience of planning in a complex environment, identifying dependencies in plans across services and identification of innovative ways to unblock issues.
• Proven experience of creating or tailoring ways of working and coaching and leading teams in Agile practises.
• Proven ability to communicate with stakeholders at all levels, experience of mediating between people to align views to ensure discussion and decisions are agreed.
• Experience of managing complex relationships with contracted suppliers and getting good value out of contracts.
• Experience of influencing, negotiating and setting budgets in a complex environment.

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

• Proven experience in delivering complex digital projects, services and products, balancing multiple priorities and dealing with ambiguity.
• Experience of leading matrix managed multi-disciplinary teams and the line management of others.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £69,322, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills contributes £20,082 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Full details of the benefits available can be found in our Ofsted Offer brochure.

Ofsted is devoted to equality, diversity and inclusion. Within our Ofsted Strategy 2023-2027 we have stated that we will improve the representation of under-represented groups across the organisation and publish our progress on this annually. We are always looking to expand on our diverse workforce by recruiting candidates from varied backgrounds and differing experiences. We are proud to be a Disability Confident – Leader, we continually engage with our 5 staff networks for protected characteristics, and highlight the work of our Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Group. We ensure all candidates are treated with fair and open competition, with all appointments being made on merit and we use our Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) to provide assurance to all candidates of this.

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, Experience and Technical skills.

Application and shortlisting

The selection panel will assess your application based on your evidence you have provided against the essential criteria as set out in the person specification.

You will also be asked to provide information within the “Employer/Activity History” section of the application form. This information is equivalent to the information you would provide on a CV setting out your career history (this may be used in the sifting process).

Interviews

Candidates who pass the benchmark at the shortlisting stage will be invited to an interview where you will be assessed against a combination of the the Civil Service behaviours and the technical/experience skills set out in section 3 of the job specification.

If we receive a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted based on the following lead criterion:

• Proven experience in delivering complex digital projects, services and products, balancing multiple priorities and dealing with ambiguity.

Applicants who meet this initial eligibility criterion will be invited to progress to the next stage of the selection process. If required, a further full sift will be undertaken, where all applications that passed the initial sift will be assessed against the complete set of essential criteria outlined in the job description.

Interviews will be held during the week commencing Monday 2 March 2026 at 23 Stephenson Street, Birmingham.

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.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 : People Services Delivery Team
• Email : Jobs@ofsted.gov.uk
• Telephone : 03000 131 487

Recruitment team

• Email : Jobs@ofsted.gov.uk

Further information

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, which can be found at:
https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/20…

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should email Ofsted recruitment at jobs@ofsted.gov.uk in the first instance.
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission at:
https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/civilserv…

Attachments

Job Specification Senior Delivery Manager Opens in new window (pdf, 219kB)