Digital Programme Director

Digital Delivery - Head of Fraud and Error & Head of Debt

Pay: Circa £89,000 per annum, plus 28.97% employer pension contributions worth around £26k pa.

Flex and purpose: Hybrid working (60/40 in/out), flex-friendly policies, work life balance and work with real impact and legacy, touching millions of DWP customers.

Locations: Birmingham, Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sheffield

Regular travel across these locations will be required, with an expectation of travel to one of these hubs (especially Blackpool and Manchester) at least once a week.

Were recruiting for two leadership level Digital Delivery professionals to lead our teams in DWP Digital.

In DWP we call these roles Digital Delivery Head of Fraud and Error and Digital Delivery Head of Debt.

But while an understanding of Fraud and Error or Debt would give you a running start, its not a requirement. Really, these are just the areas in which youll work, deliver and make a difference to millions of people.

Youll use your agile delivery background to deliver value, products and services through technology and through DWPs technical experts thats the background and the expertise we really care about.

Why are we hiring?

DWP has been given a clear agenda to reduce fraud, error and debt.

Well use cutting edge tech and user centred design to help customers get it right first time, to prevent error getting into the system, creating a debt balance which DWP needs to recover.

Were aiming to reduce the cost to DWP, but also to limit stress and pain for DWP users. There are real people at the end of our services, and we want to improve the experience for them.

There is genuine fraud too nobody wants taxpayer money going into the pockets of people who dont deserve it and shouldnt be claiming it. We need you to help us get the technology, the products, systems and services in place to stop that happening.

Youll either be standing up enterprise level teams and projects which prevent fraud and error, or working on a new self-serve debt recovery system for DWP customers which is currently in Discovery phase.

The scale is huge, with 20 million users affected and billions of pounds at stake.

About you and your role:

To do this role well youll need to be an experienced delivery professional with an agile background. You will have delivered something big and complex and ugly, ideally within a mixed matrix environment.

Youll need to be a great leader, capable of absorbing the noise and enabling your people to deliver in a psychologically safe space, and youll need to have excellent stakeholder management skills.

This is a major change programme there are lots of interested parties. There is scrutiny. It will be high profile and high on the agenda. So youll need to be resilient, credible and confident.

Youll be talking to directors general, change managers, ministers and more. Youll be able to describe issues and risks at programme board level.

You have the experience of technical delivery to translate complex issues to a non-technical, but very interested audience. So, when your team tell you that there is something wrong in the cloud environment, you know what that means and you can help others understand too.

There are around 145 people working across these programmes at the moment, with a mix of in-house experts, contractors, suppliers and change management professionals. Youll lead the team, set the vision and keep everyone on track. Its not huge leadership span but it is high complexity.

And there will be money and people available as you shape your team and build the environment you need in order to deliver.

On a given day you may be looking at our operational processes and really understanding how technology can make those better for the agents that work them, and improving the customer experience.

Youll be creating the conditions for highly engaged teams that understand their mission, and the value of the work theyre doing.

Youll influence policy, deliver tangible results, youll manage a complex and demanding stakeholder network

We really believe these are among the most exciting roles in government, and a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape how DWP takes on the issues of fraud, error and debt using technology to deliver solutions that are both humane and effective.

If you think you can help, apply now or get in touch for a chat.

Youll need to demonstrate the following knowledge, experience and skills in your application:

Youre an exceptional and authentic leader, with the ability to build, inspire and engage their teams to deliver results even in times of ambiguity?

You have experience leading in a scaled agile environment where your success depends on influencing and managing cross-team dependencies, as well as setting consistent and predictable ways of working on your own

You have a successful track record of delivering real business value in increments in line with user needs.

You have experience of managing and delivering change in a complex environment

You need to be able to build excellent stakeholder relationships, creating a wide-ranging and collaborative network which enables better work across organisational and team boundaries.

You have strong financial acumen and a genuine motivation to deliver true value for money.

DWP have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

Generous annual leave at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (prorata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.

Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.

Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members.

Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 years continuous service.

Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.

An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Womens Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Click apply to read the full job advert on Civil Service Jobs, and to start an application.

Youll also find contact details for our recruitment team if you have any questions or just want a chat about the role.