Organisation seeks manager to replace Nic Harrison in role spearheading design, standards, and controls
Credit: Derwent London
The Government Digital Service is offering an annual salary of £130,000 in a bid to recruit a new director for service design and assurance.
The position comes with a remit to lead the organisation’s team of service designers, and spearhead the creation and implementation of standards and assurance. The chosen candidate will oversee an annual budget of £9m, with which they will be expected to deliver “an ambitious programme of work”.
“GDS is under considerable internal and external scrutiny to meet its demanding objectives,” the job advert said. “The postholder is required to exercise their judgement over a complex cross-government transformation agenda in a highly politicised and demanding stakeholder environment.”
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The role will involve leading GDS’s work to conduct spend controls and service assessments, as well as heading up the development of security guidance and protocols.
The design and assurance chief will report into GDS director general Kevin Cunnington, and will directly manage the heads of security standards, service design standards, technology standards, and standards assurance. The successful applicant will have indirect managerial responsibility for about 100 employees in total.
The successful candidate will replace the previous postholder Nic Harrison, who left GDS at the end of September to return to the Department of Work and Pensions.
Applications for the role, which will be based at GDS headquarters in east London, are open until 9am on 11 February. Once a shortlist has been drawn up, assessments will take place in March, with final interviews scheduled for the first two weeks in April.
