Job summary
The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.
Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:
- joining up public sector services
- harnessing the power of AI for the public good
- strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
- elevating leadership and investing in talent
- funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
- committing to transparency and driving accountability
We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.
We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.
The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.
Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need
Join the Strategic Workforce and Capability Division, where our mission is to ensure the government possesses the necessary talent to drive digital transformation and overcome the challenges ahead. We're dedicated to enhancing the government's capacity to attract, recruit, nurture, and retain top tier digital and data professionals.
As part of the team, you will help shape the future of digital strategy and capabilities, providing vital insights that support cross departmental policies, standards, and strategies.
We're entrusted with devising strategies and delivering results for a community of 30,000+ digital innovators, aspiring talent, and the broader civil service. Our commitment extends to fostering an inclusive, supportive, and dynamic culture where individuals thrive and excel.
Job description
As the Pay and Reward Senior Delivery Manager, you will drive the end to end delivery of the cross government Digital and Data Pay Framework. This is a high impact delivery role, directly supporting government ambitions to scale a skilled and sustainable digital workforce. You will work closely with HM Treasury, senior leaders, departments and policy teams to ensure the pay and reward strategy remains competitive, coherent and aligned with professional and workforce planning priorities.
This role requires a strategic thinker, a numerate and confident delivery lead, capable of operating at pace across multiple and complex stakeholders.
Our priority within the Pay and Reward Team:
- A unified Digital and Data career and reward framework for government. Design and facilitate cross government adoption of a unified Digital and Data capability and remuneration framework that partners standardised digital and data role profiles, skill requirements and skill assessments with a competitive pay framework that is applied across government.
What You’ll Do
- Lead the end to end delivery of the Digital and Data Pay and Reward Framework, ensuring effective programme planning, risk management and alignment with workforce strategy and transformation objectives.
- Lead the Pay and Reward team, this will include line management of civil servants.
- Translate strategic reward priorities into actionable delivery plans, coordinating cross functional teams to design and implement evidence based solutions that meet user and policy needs.
- Oversee the development and delivery of pay structures and reward mechanisms across delegated grades and SCS, ensuring delivery aligns with capability based progression models and organisational goals.
- Coordinate engagement with departments and professional leads, driving consistent adoption of the framework by managing delivery roadmaps, implementation support and embedding policy into operational practice.
- Integrate workforce analytics, pay benchmarking and user feedback into delivery cycles to maintain a competitive and future focused reward offer. You’ll adapt plans based on evolving insights.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to assess and support delivery of departmental business cases, ensuring governance processes are met and changes to reward structures are implemented effectively.
- Act as the delivery lead for the digital and data pay strategy, representing delivery progress and risks to senior leaders, Government People Group and Trade Unions, ensuring alignment across stakeholders.
- Embed continuous improvement and agile delivery principles, using feedback loops, data driven insights and policy iteration to enhance outcomes and value.
- Develop and deliver communication and engagement plans that support transparency, inclusive delivery and stakeholder alignment. You will also enable professional development across the pay and reward community.
Who You Are
- A delivery focused professional with substantial experience in optimising reward strategies, identifying risks in pay frameworks, or similar fields and unblocking issues.
- Able to lead complex reward initiatives in ambiguous, multi stakeholder environments.
- Possess expert data analysis skills to shape decisions, challenge processes, build business cases and influence outcomes. You will also help others adapt to new processes.
- Be an excellent communicator, with the ability to simplify complex policy into compelling narratives for technical and non technical audiences, from ministers to leaders, managers and practitioners across government.
- Strong stakeholder management skills across senior levels, including with HR, Trade Unions, digital leaders, commercial management, policy professionals and HM Treasury.
- Experience in choosing the right type of feedback at the appropriate time and ensuring the discussion and decision stick.
- Be passionate about public service, experiment with new and innovative ways of working, leading to digital transformation.
- Build inclusive ways of working when applying agile and lean practices.
Person specification
We're interested in people who have;
- experience managing end to end delivery of high impact pay and reward programmes with multiple stakeholders and priorities
- experience translating strategic objectives into deliverable plans, particularly in the context of HR, pay or capability based frameworks
- experience of negotiating, influencing, whilst working within set budgets in complex environment
- the ability to build trusted relationships across departments, with senior leaders, unions and governance groups to drive adoption and alignment
- the ability to apply agile principles, iterate based on feedback and manage uncertainty and change
- experience in using workforce analytics, pay benchmarking and user research to shape, adapt and communicate delivery plans and outcomes
- experience using Microsoft packages, particularly Excel, Word and Powerpoint
- experience working within formal governance structures, assessing business cases and ensuring compliance to mitigate any risks, issues or dependencies
- the ability to lead clear, inclusive communication strategies that align to stakeholder needs, support transparency and build community understanding
- experience of using feedback, retrospectives or service performance data to refine delivery and increase impact over time
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
- paid volunteering leave
- 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
Selection process details
The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:
- a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV, a cover letter of up to 500 words and to answer an application question. 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 that will feature a short presentation. Information about the presentation will be shared prior to the 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.
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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is the application question: Please give an example where you have designed, developed and successfully implemented significant changes to pay and reward arrangements - 250 words max
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:
- leadership
- communicating and influencing
- managing a quality service
- 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 Delivery Manager role:
- Financial management
- Communicating between the technical and non technical
- Planning
- Maintaining delivery momentum
Recruitment Timeline
Sift completion: 17th July
Panel interviews: WC 28th July
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.
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.
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 the Civil 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-recruitment-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.
