Senior IT Service Manager

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime and migration.

Are you innovative with the energy and motivation to lead exciting technical andcultural change?

Would you thrive in an open, autonomous environment being an advocate for IT Service Management principles and processes and the benefits it can bring? If so, this could be the role for you.

Our Digital Services (DS) Directorate develops and operates much of the technology and services that ONS uses to deliver. Demand for data and statistics are increasing, and DS has a critical role in enabling the business to meet these demands.

We are seeking an experienced Senior IT Service Manager to join the Corporate IT & Services Division within the Digital Services (DS) Directorate. This is an exciting opportunity to lead high performing teams and shape the future of core IT services across the organisation.

As a Senior IT Service Manager with a broad technical understanding, you will provide strategic direction and strong leadership to ensure the delivery of high quality, secure, reliable, and efficient services. You will be accountable for guiding your teams, setting priorities, and ensuring outputs meet organisational needs and expectations.

You will also play a key role in aligning technology and service delivery with the ONS Technical Strategy. You will lead Change, Asset and Software Management as well as Governance and Audit compliance ensuring services are robust, well-governed and meet organisational standards. Your leadership will help drive continuous improvement, service excellence, and innovation that supports future strategic goals.

Job description

You will be responsible for setting the vision for the services that you own and fordelivering the technical roadmap(s) for key teams within the Corporate IT & ServicesDivision.

Leading your teams you will be empowered to be creative whilst focusing on delivering a high-quality service to all your stakeholders. You will need to be both innovative and have the passion to lead changes from the front.

You will collaborate with your colleagues in the IT Service Management profession, 3rd party suppliers, as well as internal Business and Technical stakeholders, developing and maintaining key relationships with all.

Using your experience and expertise of service delivery and managing IT Services, you will be the escalation point for IT related incidents as well as facilitating Major IT Incidents.

Leveraging ONS’ IT Service Management Toolset, you will ensure incidents, requests and changes adhere to their support processes within service level agreements (SLA). You will effectively manage the balance between business as usual (BAU) activities and demands of Project Delivery.

You will be responsible for collating and interpreting management information from various data sources for upward cascade.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate across various Technical Support teams, 3rd party suppliers, Business Stakeholders and Senior Management, ensuring the IT Service Management processes are followed and relevant operational level agreement (OLA), Service level agreements (SLAs) or Key performance Indicators (KPIs) are met.
• Develop relationships with the Corporate Delivery Teams, playing a proactive role as a key stakeholder, ensuring minimal impact to live services you are responsible for.
• Present management information on the status and performance of the service to Senior Management and key stakeholders across the Business.
• Lead continuous improvement activities across all processes. Driving quality and productivity with a focus on automation where appropriate.
• Play an active role in wider communities of practice, identifying and sharing best practice.
• Give direction on which tools or methods to use and be experienced in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Strategic Thinking - A strong leader, with a broad technical understanding, capable of leading teams of multiple disciplines. Who can support continuous improvement, and team development/performance.
• Stakeholder Relationship Management (IT operations) - A proactive individual with the ability to collaborate, communicate and influence across teams and organisational boundaries, including 3rd party suppliers.
• Business Analysis (IT operations) - Able to identify risks, owning and providing plans for mitigation, considering the impact on the wider organisation.
• Ownership & Initiative - A driven individual, that takes accountability for issues that occur, through to resolution and is proactive in searching for potential problems and analysing trends.
• User Focus - A real drive and passion for excellent user experience, employee enablement and continuous improvement.

Behaviours

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

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

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,861, Office for National Statistics contributes £16,472 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

ONS are committed to flexible ways of working that support a healthy work-life balance. ONS has already considered how this job could be right sized for applicants working flexibly and we are happy to explore options with you about working part time, in a job share or flexibly, in line with our hybrid working policies.

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 and Experience.

Security Clearance

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services records

Please note we will reach out to you once the advert has closed to confirm eligibility for this role, this will be via an e-mail. Please check your junk e-mails for any correspondence.

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, CV, skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum word count allowed is 1250 words, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.

Interviews will be via Microsoft Teams.

You will be required to provide a 10 minute presentation at interview. The presentation topic will be emailed to candidates who have passed the initial online application stage, 1 week prior to interview. This presentation will assess candidates against the Success Profiles Behaviour Seeing the big picture.

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

Important Dates

• Eligibility Security Clearance checks from 10/04 - 17/04. We will be sending you an e-mail with a form to fill out.
• Sift will be conducted from 20/04/2026
• Interviews will be conducted from 28/04/2026

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

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.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 : Government Digital and Data Recruitment
• Email : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.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, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission

Attachments

2721 Advert 1B Permanent - ONS National Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)