Head of Live Service, One Login

GOV.UK One Login represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to simplify and widen access to all digital government services. Sitting at the heart of the government, we are building one straightforward, secure and inclusive way for users to log in and prove who they are that will work across all government services. 

The GOV.UK One Login programme is full of talented and passionate people who are consistently delivering high quality products for services and individuals. We’re half way through our build phase and features are being shipped almost weekly as we work to mature our product set so that we can expand the range of services and departments benefitting from our work. 

Sometimes described as the most strategic programme in government, GOV.UK One Login represents a once in a career opportunity to work on a software product that will be used by the majority of the people living in the UK. It’s a fast paced, dynamic and challenging environment that is sure to offer you career satisfaction as well as a chance to develop and enhance your skills. 

If this sounds like the next role for you on your career journey then we’d love to hear from you. Find out more at the GDS Blog.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead live services for Digital Identity (DI) at GDS. Reporting into the Deputy Director for Operations, the Head of Live Service will have oversight for service management and service operations; leading the delivery and continuous improvement of Digital Identity services. This is a high profile role suited to an experienced service leader with a track record of providing leadership on a range of complex services.

 As Head of Live Service, you will:

• provide strategic service leadership within an agile, multidisciplinary environment; drive operational excellence and efficiency by setting clear objectives for live service. Continuing to evolve and improve DI’s service maturity and organisation.
• act as a champion for live service across the programme; helping service insights inform product development and aligning closely with product and delivery teams to ensure effective live service support processes and structures.
• establish and maintain appropriate governance and reporting structures with appropriate visibility across live service with defined SLOs/SLAs, and measurable SLIs. Working in collaboration with the Lead Performance Analyst and Head of SRE to develop a joined up, holistic view of overall service performance across the programme. 
• manage and build capability of a high performing, multidisciplinary team consisting of a mixture of civil servants and managed service providers.
• maintain oversight for service operations, which includes DI’s Technical Service Desk and 24/7 eyes on monitoring and incident response, as well as ensuring that effective major incident management plans and mitigations are in place alongside problem management and business continuity planning. Enable effective functioning of out of hours processes, training, documentation and capacity.
• maintain oversight for service management, including effective supplier relationship management, productive ongoing relationships with Relying Parties and effective change and transition management governance and processes.
• together with the Head of SRE, scope and implement effective and proportionate tooling to support live service operations.

Person specification

We’re interested in people who have worked on a Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) or comparable service, and have knowledge and experience of all or many of the following:

• responsibility for running a complex, live service with effective processes and sufficient capacity to support high user volumes within an agile, multidisciplinary teams environment. 
• building service capability across a large or complex programme through recruitment, upskilling and developing effective processes and ways of working within product delivery teams.
• overseeing high impact, complex service changes, implementing appropriate and proportionate engagement and assurance, and maintaining a forward look for key stakeholders
• supplier relationship and contract management to ensure high levels of service performance
• major Incident Management - ensuring incident readiness, including service continuity planning, and providing strong service leadership within the context of major incidents
• oversight for reporting on service performance for senior, non-specialist audiences; driving continuous improvement in service and sharing insights to inform product development
• relevant service management framework knowledge with an expert certificate in the service management framework qualification.

Benefits

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for the King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• paid volunteering leave
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk 

Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

Things you need to know

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and for you to answer 2 application questions.
• a 60 minute video interview. We will assess you against the behaviours listed above and your experience. This will also include a presentation - the presentation topic will be shared in advance of the interview.

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.  Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is: 

• Tell us about your experience taking responsibility for running a complex, critical service at scale?

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

• leadership
• managing a quality service
• making Effective Decisions
• changing and improving
• seeing the big picture

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Capability Framework for the Service Owner role:

• leading performance and benefits
• operational management
• stakeholder relationship management
• strategic ownership

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: Friday 17th October 2025

Panel interviews: starting Monday 27th October 2025

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.