The Scottish government is recruiting for a director to expand its digital public services accelerator scheme CivTech, at a salary of around £68,000.
Scottish government seeks leader for scheme to boost innovation in public sector services – Photo credit: PA
The CivTech programme, which was piloted last year, offers developers and entrepreneurs the chance to compete in open challenges – rather than through closed tenders – with the aim of bringing in new companies and increasing innovation.
The Scottish government said that the scheme – which it described as the world’s first government-run accelerator for better digital public services – had “gained significant traction” since its launch in June.
It has been shortlisted for two Scottish Public Service Awards and is “already attracting attention from governments around the world”, the government said.
However, the pilot ends this month and the government said it now needed to recruit a permanent head of the programme, who will write a strategy “for the magnification or multiplication of the CivTech model”.
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The new recruit, who will sit in the digital public services and business transformation division of the Scottish government in Edinburgh, will be expected to deliver a culture change programme within the public sector.
They should also influence government policy by working with the economic development and digital public service policy teams, as well as building relationships with ministers and senior civil servants.
In addition, the role will involve working with procurement, legal and facilities teams to make sure the programme remains compliant, as well as to support the companies that are delivering accelerator workshops.
The CivTech programme, which was launched earlier this year, offers developers and entrepreneurs the chance to compete in open challenges – rather than through closed tenders – with the aim being to bring in new companies and increase innovation.
The scheme sets out public service challenges, with the most recent round of winners including work to promote innovation in healthcare data, flood forecasting and cyber security.
The winners were selected from a pool of 80 applicants, and each received £15,000 and were based in the CivTech accelerator, CodeBase, for three months of design and development. The idea is to encourage both collaboration and idea sharing as well as competition between the successful project teams.
The closing date for applications for the programme director role is 23 January.
