Role Purpose
This role offers the opportunity to shape some of government's most strategically important digital priorities, influencing how technology enables public service reform, economic growth and delivery at national scale.
Operating at the intersection of policy, delivery and enterprise digital capability, the postholder will help shape how government delivers secure, resilient and scalable digital services across complex organisational boundaries.
This is a rare opportunity to operate within a highly complex federated environment, influencing strategic delivery decisions across departments, delivery partners and senior government stakeholders.
The Deputy Director for Digital Delivery is the senior accountable interface for a number of important strategic digital delivery initiatives.
The role leads engagement with policy groups, programmes and senior leaders, shaping demand, setting delivery expectations and ensuring digital interventions deliver clear operational and strategic outcomes.
Reporting to the CDIO (ICS Digital), the postholder holds end-to-end accountability for digital delivery activity, balancing pace, assurance, value for money and long-term sustainability.
Operating at system leadership level, the role aligns departmental priorities, ICS capability, cross-government standards and delivery capacity across a complex shared services environment.
The successful candidate will operate across a complex portfolio of digital delivery activity spanning multiple customer departments, Directors General, Arms Length Bodies and delivery partners, influencing prioritisation, sequencing and delivery outcomes across a federated operating model.
The role requires balancing competing priorities and finite delivery capability, ensuring resources remain focused on the highest-value strategic outcomes.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Delivery Leadership
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Own digital delivery portfolios, translating departmental priorities into coherent and deliverable digital roadmaps.
- Act as senior responsible leader for complex, high-risk digital initiatives spanning policy, service delivery, data and emerging technology.
- Ensure delivery activity aligns to the relevant departmental strategy, ICS Digital operating models and cross-government standards.
- Provide strategic oversight across governance, assurance, delivery controls and risk management, intervening decisively where delivery performance, dependency management or strategic alignment require course correction.
- Lead benefits realisation and outcome tracking to ensure digital investment delivers measurable operational and strategic value.
- Ensure delivery activity supports sustainable service ownership models and long-term organisational resilience.
Strategic Engagement and Business Partnering
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Act as trusted senior business partner to customer departments, Directors General, Directors, Programme SROs and senior stakeholders.
- Shape demand by challenging assumptions, clarifying outcomes and sequencing work realistically.
- Operate successfully across a complex federated environment, balancing departmental priorities, shared service capability models and cross-government dependencies.
- Mediate trade-offs between pace, scope, risk, cost and sustainability at executive level.
- Build strong strategic relationships across departments, delivery partners and wider government communities.
- Represent ICS Digital within cross-government digital, data and technology communities, influencing delivery approaches, capability development and adoption of standards.
Delivery at Pace and with Control
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Ensure digital initiatives are delivered iteratively, securely and at pace, grounded in evidenced user need and sustainable delivery practices.
- Enable effective delivery of AI-enabled services and emerging technologies, ensuring innovation is balanced with proportionate governance and sustainable operational delivery.
- Balance rapid experimentation with robust controls appropriate to public services.
- Intervene decisively where delivery is off-track or systemic barriers emerge.
- Ensure governance and assurance mechanisms support successful delivery outcomes across complex portfolios.
Platforms, Capability and Sustainable Delivery
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Ensure delivery teams make effective use of shared platforms, common services and reusable capabilities rather than creating unnecessary bespoke solutions.
- Work closely with architecture and platform leaders to align delivery demand with platform evolution.
- Encourage reuse, standardisation and sustainable service ownership.
- Promote modern delivery approaches including agile, product-led delivery, user-centred design and platform-based delivery models.
- Build strong delivery capability through coaching, standards, professional development and communities of practice.
Commercial and Financial Stewardship
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Influence commercial decisions and supplier arrangements to maximise delivery outcomes, value for money and long-term sustainability.
- Ensure digital investment delivers measurable value aligned to agreed strategic outcomes.
- Influence investment decisions to prioritise high-impact and sustainable digital change.
- Ensure prioritisation decisions appropriately balance strategic ambition, delivery risk and organisational capability.
Leadership and Capability
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Lead and develop high-performing multidisciplinary teams spanning delivery, engagement, product and assurance functions.
- Build strong delivery capability through coaching, standards and communities of practice.
- Champion inclusive leadership, professional standards and continuous learning.
- Model values-based leadership aligned to the Civil Service Leadership Statement.
- Create an environment where individuals can thrive, building diverse, inclusive and high-performing teams.
