Service Owner

Job summary

We are MHCLG

This is an exciting opportunity to lead one of the Government's most visible and impactful digital services. As Service Owner for the Registration Service, you will shape the future of voter registration, lead multidisciplinary teams, and drive improvements that help millions of citizens engage with democracy.

The Elections Directorate is a welcoming and inclusive team responsible for a challenging and dynamic portfolio that is frequently in the public eye, covering electoral policy and law and development and delivery of a suite of digital services, including Register to Vote. We are working on an exciting programme of work to implement key manifesto commitments, through primary and secondary legislation, and digital and operational delivery. The commitments include:

• Increasing engagement of young people by enfranchising 16- and 17-year-olds.
• Improving voter registration so that more people are correctly registered to vote.
• Reforming voter identification rules to improve accessibility for all electors.

This programme includes some significant developments around electoral registration - moving towards a more automated approach to registration, making better use of central and local data and integrating voter registration into other government services, with the overall goal of making it as easy as possible for citizens to be correctly registered. In addition, extending the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds also requires changes to the existing Register to Vote service, and we are also exploring what can be done to reduce the volume of duplicate applications that are submitted, particularly in the run up to a general election. Alongside these large-scale changes, the live Register to Vote service also serves thousands of users every day, and we are continuing to iterate and improve the existing service.

Given the volume of changes, we are recruiting a Service Owner role for our registration services, which includes our flagship Register to Vote service, plus two other services, one for overseas electors and one which supports local authorities with their annual review of the electoral register.

This role will be accountable for the end-to-end delivery, performance, and continuous improvement of our registration services, and leading and co-ordinating the planned changes to ensure the services continue to work for users.

Find out more about our Digital teams and what they are working on through our MHCLG Digital blog. Please note that MHCLG do not offer visa sponsorship and applicants will need a valid visa for the duration of your employment.

Job description

As a Service Owner, you'll:

• Own the vision, strategy, and roadmap for the Registration Service, ensuring development is prioritised in alignment with user needs, policy goals and business requirements
• Own the success and quality metrics for the service and focus delivery on the intended outcomes and benefits
• Lead multidisciplinary teams across product, UCD, delivery, operations and data, to deliver significant changes to the service and continuous improvement, creating the right culture and environment for the team to do their best work
• Engage with in-house teams and third-party suppliers, working across organisational boundaries to ensure positive service outcomes. This includes ensuring all parties are aware of their roles and contractual obligations and are held accountable for delivery
• Champion user-centred design, accessibility, and data integrity throughout the service lifecycle
• Develop close working relationships with a range of stakeholders including policy, strategy, engagement and analytical colleagues within the Elections Directorate, Digital colleagues across MHLCG and stakeholders in the wider elections sector, building consensus around the vision and strategy for the Registration Service
• Ensure that work on the service complies with all the required governance processes, including internal programme management within the Elections Directorate and spend approvals and service assessments led by the Digital Directorate
• Work closely with our Elections Operations team to oversee risk management, including cyber security posture and IT Health Check remediations

Person specification

As a Service Owner, you'll have:

• A track record of leadership in complex digital service design and delivery, ideally in a government or regulated environment, including creating and implementing long-term service visions and strategies based on evidence and metrics
• Experience of building strong relationships with stakeholders, achieving buy in to strategy and delivery, and ability to resolve issues and tensions to enable progress
• Experience of building and managing high performing teams, delegating decision making to the most effective level, and empowering teams to deliver to the best of their abilities
• A strong understanding of service design and user-centred design principles, and experience of applying these approaches to solving problems and making strategic decisions
• Experience of assessing risks, scoping resourcing requirements, managing budgets and guiding teams through governance and assurance processes, to ensure value for money, high quality delivery and sustainable development of teams and services
• An understanding of and experience in agile methodologies, including bridging from traditional waterfall and project management approaches, and experience in working with senior stakeholders to persuade them of the benefits of agile working

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £72,686, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £21,057 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).At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Childcare Voucher and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

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

Application and Selection

The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Experience , Technical

Please ensure your CV does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Note: We do not consider direct CV applications. All applications must be submitted via the provided application link.

Important: Your CV and Cover Letter must be merged into a single document before uploading.

Stage 1: Sift (CV & Cover Letter)

Experience & Technical: Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the job description.

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Communicating and Influencing, Working Together, Leadership
• Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.*

*Candidates will be asked to prepare a 5-10 minute presentation, further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 26th October 2026.

Interviews are envisaged to take place shortly after and are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

How We Recruit

Find out everything you need to know before applying here..

• Applying
• Sifting
• Interview
• Interview Results & Feedback
• Reserve List
• Near Miss
• Civil Service Grades
• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer
• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

What you need to know before applying.

• Security Clearance Requirements
• Civil Service Nationality Requirements
• Right to Work
• Artificial Intelligence
• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles
• CV Declaration
• Sponsorships
• Salary and Grade
• Existing Civil Servants
• Conflict of Interest
• Location and Flexible Working
• Fixed Term Contracts
• Internal Fraud Database - Internal Fraud Register
• Appeals and Complaints
• Conflict of Interest

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office: + SC

London Office: + SC

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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

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 : Digital Data Jobs
• Email : Digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk

Further information

If you are unsure about any part of the process or require additional information about the post to enable you to progress your application, you should speak to the Resourcing team - Recruitment@communities.gov.uk. Candidates can appeal at any stage of the recruitment process if they believe there has been:
•a procedural irregularity
•an infringement of the Civil Service equal opportunities policy
•exceptional circumstances which were not notified to the interview panel which might have affected performance on the day.
It is important to note that these are appeals about the process not the decision. In the first instance, an appeal should be directed to the MHCLG Resourcing Hub at Recruitment@communities.gov.uk.
If the MHCLG Resourcing Hub is unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint, you may contact put your complaint in writing to the Civil Service Commission, Room G8,1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or by email to: info@csc.gov.uk