Senior Delivery Manager

Job summary

GDS exists to help government make brilliant public services that empower people in the UK. We work at the very centre of government to drive digital transformation, focused on users. We build and maintain common platforms, products and tools for others to use and create great public services that are accessible, inclusive and easy to use. We also work with departments to identify patterns, share learning and create change to make government more efficient

Our teams are organised around delivering on our priorities. These are:

• making it easier for people to find what they are looking for on GOV.UK
• building common service platforms to make it simpler and cheaper to build quality digital services
• promoting agile, user-centred design practices both in the UK and across the world

GOV.UK is the groundbreaking single website for the UK government with more than 700,000 pages, 30 million monthly users, and home to hundreds of vital public services. As a Senior Delivery Manager, you will lead one or more multi-disciplinary teams to research, design, build and ship major changes to GOV.UK. Your team will be part of the award-winning GOV.UK programme, and will be empowered to improve the way the people interact with the government at national scale.

The GOV.UK team’s mission is to make it simple for everyone to interact with government. GOV.UK is part of everyone’s lives in the UK, from registering a birth to starting a business. Our priorities are to ensure more people get what they are eligible for, the public is better informed, and that digital government is joined-up. GOV.UK’s recent work to help people find support with the cost of living is a great example of this, and you can read about some of the GOV.UK team’s other work on the Inside GOV.UK blog (https://insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk).

GOV.UK is currently one of the top 25 most visited websites in the UK, and it’s our responsibility to be iterating and improving all the time as technology and user needs change. This role includes opportunities to experiment with new technologies and platforms with the potential to transform how the public interacts with GOV.UK.

Job description

We’re looking for a candidate with a demonstrated history of leading product delivery teams, with a strong emphasis on data-driven, user-centric approaches, in an agile setting. Your leadership should be deeply anchored in prioritising user needs, with a keen focus on delivering tangible outcomes and fostering a collaborative environment.

You’ll be working in a growing cross-functional team. You’ll also be working with stakeholders both internal and across government to understand needs and to deliver new capability.

You’ll be core to making decisions that build a high performing team, adept at breaking down barriers for your team, and both planning at a higher level and getting into the details to make things happen when needed.

As a Senior Delivery Manager, you’ll:

• lead and motivate multiple multi-disciplinary teams, helping them organise and plan their work, ensuring they deliver timely products and services that actually meet users’ needs
• co-create and co-own plans and progress using recognised lean/agile practices, and communicate status to more senior people and users appropriately
• provide useful and accurate delivery metrics to facilitate continual improvement
• facilitate an inclusive team environment where innovation and challenge are welcomed from all colleagues
• deliver to the agreed goals, actively tackling impediments, risks and blockers, and communicating and escalating where necessary
• continually improve the effectiveness, efficiency and cohesion of teams
• develop, guide and coach your delivery manager line reports
• manage stakeholders to ensure strategic alignment and effective communication, taking into account organisational context and different needs and priorities, dealing constructively with conflicting views
• work in partnership with product and technical leads on high profile work in ambiguous, complex and/or uncertain domains
• promote continual improvement, good communication and collaboration across the organisation using the principles of agile at scale

Person specification

We’re interested in people with experience of:

• using agile practices to ensure the iterative and timely delivery of products and services that serve real user needs
• facilitating effective workshops which give a voice to all participants and provide concrete outputs that enable delivery
• leading successful high functioning multidisciplinary delivery teams which are aligned to the organisation’s strategic priorities and the needs of stakeholders
• actively tackling impediments, risks and blockers, and communicating and escalating where necessary

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

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 order to assist candidates with this role, we will be holding a virtual recruitment event on Tuesday 31st March at 12:00pm where we will introduce you to what it is like to be a senior delivery manager at the Government Digital Service, the team that you will be potentially working with and a bit about how the application and interview process works within the civil service. There will also be time to answer any questions.

If you would like to join this recruitment open day session, please use this google meet link to access the session. [12:00pm]

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is:

• using agile practices to ensure the iterative and timely delivery of products and services that serve real user needs

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
• making effective decisions
• leadership
• developing self and others
• delivering at pace

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 Senior Delivery Manager role:

• agile and lean practices
• maintaining delivery momentum
• making a process work
• planning
• team dynamics and collaboration

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

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: 13th April 2026

Panel interviews: w/c 20th April 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.

Security

Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) — red stripe on pass: CTC is required if an individual is working in proximity to public figures, or requires unescorted access to buildings assessed to be at particular risk from terrorist attacks (certain military, civil, industrial or commercial establishments and all Whitehall buildings).

To gain CTC clearance, applicants will usually need to have been a UK resident for a minimum of 3 years. In addition to the checks performed as part of BPSS CTC will also involve checks to prevent persons who may have connections with terrorist organisations, or who may be vulnerable to pressure from them, from undertaking certain security duties where sensitive information may be compromised. CTC normally takes 4 - 6 weeks

Location

Whilst this role's location is Bristol/Manchester, if you are a current Civil servant working in DSIT and based in London you are also able to apply for this role. If you are successful, you will retain your current location and pay.

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.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist 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.

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.