The ministry is advertising a vacant post at director general level with a remit of enabling reform of skills and systems, while serving as departmental SRO for £2.5bn tech programme
The Ministry of Justice has launched a recruitment campaign for a director general of people and capability with a remit to deliver on the objective of “transforming the civil service in support of a productive and agile state”.
Mark Adam currently serves as the MoJ’s chief people officer. However, the recruitment campaign suggests that the new DG will be the “most senior people adviser” to the department’s next permanent secretary. The role offers a salary of up to £149,999 for the successful candidate, who will also assume a key role in delivering the Synergy programme: a £2.5bn project to implement shared services across the MoJ, Home Office, DWP, and Defra.
According to the department, the new people and capability DG will lead a team of around 1,400 staff and be responsible for the MoJ people function’s £216m budget. They will have direct accountability for people-transformation work at the department – including organisational design, business architecture and HR-system transformation.
The new DG will be the department’s senior responsible officer for the Synergy programme, which last year awarded IBM and Oracle £850m in deals for shared software and systems integration services. The advertisement states that £79m of the MoJ people function’s overall budget is for shared services.
Essential requirements for the successful candidate include “outstanding experience of leading a large HR function through complexity, with a clear focus on people and an ability to lead with humanity and openness” and a “track record of influencing effectively at senior levels”.
Another must-have is “a proven track record of designing and implementing innovative strategic workforce plans and delivering large-scale transformation programmes”.
Writing in the candidate pack for the role, MoJ chief operating officer James McEwen noted that the MoJ is the largest department in government – with a headcount of around 95,000 when its 34 agencies and arm’s-length bodies are taken into account.
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He said that ensuring the department is attracting and retaining talent, giving staff the skills and training they need to thrive, and looking ahead to the needs of the future workforce would be at the centre of the people and capability DG’s work.
“We are looking for a director-general who can provide compelling professional leadership to a team of over 1,000 staff, contribute to the department’s wider executive team and, with peers across government, help deliver the government’s ambition for transforming the civil service in support of a productive and agile state,” he said.
“Collaboration is at the heart of how we work, and you will need to be resourceful, resilient and pragmatic and adept at influencing. We are collaborative in how we work with each other across the department and all our agencies.”
McEwen added that the department would welcome applications from outside the civil service.
The advertisement for the senior civil service pay band 3 role states that it can be undertaken from any of England’s regions in addition to the capital. The post also comes with a civil service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
Interview panels for shortlisted candidates will be chaired by Stephen Cohen from the Civil Service Commission and include McEwen, government chief people officer Fiona Ryland, and Department for Transport second perm sec Jo Shanmugalingam.
The role is open to applications until 11:55pm on 11 May.
