Senior Operational Delivery Manager

Job summary

This role sits within Census Service Delivery & Operations division and plays a key part in shaping the delivery and performance of Census services.

Census 2031 represents our most ambitious data collection project yet – a once-in-a-decade opportunity to capture a complete picture of everyone living in England and Wales. Building on the digital success of 2021, we're pioneering new ways to reach every household and community, ensuring no one is left uncounted. This vital work will provide the foundation for policy decisions, resource allocation, and community planning for the next decade.

Your work will support delivery of this transformational project that will shape how we understand and support our nation's future. You’ll be part of a team that ensures everyone is counted—and every voice is heard. We're building a culture that values collaboration, fresh thinking, and respect for diverse expertise. Whether you're a seasoned professional or bringing new perspectives, you'll be part of a team that welcomes bold ideas, works transparently, and thrives on solving complex challenges together.

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.

Job description

This role offers an exciting opportunity to lead the development, delivery and continuous improvement of operational Management Information (MI) products that support effective decision-making across the organisation. Working within the Operational MI Service, you will ensure products meet operational needs, align with business priorities and deliver valuable insights that support successful outcomes. A technical or analytical background is not required; however, experience of coordinating delivery activities, managing stakeholders and working within a service environment would be advantageous.

You will play a key role in coordinating the end-to-end delivery of MI products, working closely with operational, analytical and technical colleagues to ensure priorities, requirements and dependencies are effectively managed. This includes supporting stakeholder engagement, gathering business requirements, coordinating testing and readiness activities, and ensuring products are delivered to agreed timescales, quality standards and operational objectives.

As part of the role, you will provide day-to-day leadership across multidisciplinary teams, monitor delivery progress and support the management of risks, issues and service performance. You will build strong relationships with stakeholders and delivery partners, helping to ensure operational requirements are understood and translated into effective solutions. You will also contribute to the development of new processes, products and ways of working, driving continuous improvement and supporting smooth implementation and adoption across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the continuous improvement of MI products and supporting processes, coordinating input from operational and technical experts.
• Act as an escalation contact for complex queries concerning MI delivery, including risks and dependencies, providing operational leadership to direct their resolution.
• Line manage junior staff, potentially from a range of job families, and support their professional development.
• Contribute to strategic planning for the team, ensuring alignment with broader ONS Census objectives.
• Liaise with stakeholders to identify MI product requirements and provide necessary support.
• Act independently on day-to-day issues, only referring to senior staff on broader policy issues or matters affecting other parts of the ONS.
• Support the development and maintenance of MI roadmaps, delivery plans and dependency management activities.
• Coordinate testing, readiness and implementation activities for MI products, ensuring delivery to agreed scope, quality and timelines.
• Coordinate the assessment and management of change requests for MI products.
• Monitor delivery progress, risks, dependencies and MI product performance, escalating issues where appropriate.
• Comply with legal and regulatory standard.

Person specification

Essential criteria:

• Strong leadership and people management skills, with experience leading inclusive teams, providing clear direction, and fostering a positive culture that delivers high-quality outcomes in complex environments.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to build effective relationships, collaborate across teams, and create an environment where feedback and open communication are valued.
• Proven ability to drive continuous improvement, identifying opportunities to enhance services, solve problems, and support teams through change while promoting learning and development.
• Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making skills, with experience using data, insights, management information, and performance measures to inform decisions, improve services, and support operational delivery.
• Demonstrable ability to deliver results at pace, making sound decisions, managing risks effectively, empowering others, and coordinating delivery across multiple teams and stakeholders to achieve organisational objectives.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,985, Office for National Statistics contributes £12,163 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 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.

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.

Visa Sponsorship

ONS is unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants must have a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are currently in the UK on a time-limited visa, it must have at least 18 months remaining at the point of application.

Right to Work and Nationality Requirements

To work at ONS, applicants must meet the Civil Service nationality requirements, satisfy UK right to work requirements and, where applicable, meet the relevant security clearance requirements.

If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.

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, 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, 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.

You will be required to provide a 5 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 Working Together.

Interviews will be held in person at our Titchfield Site:

Office for National Statistics

Segensworth Road

Titchfield

Fareham

PO15 5RR

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

Important Dates

The Sift will be conducted from Thursday 8th October

Interviews will be conducted from Wednesday 21st October

Dates are subject to change.

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 basic (or equivalent) 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.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 : Recruitment Operations
• Email : RecruitmentOperations@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : about.you@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 v1-00 (2) Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)Role3_Census1_Requirements Opens in new window (pdf, 78kB)