Associate Service Owner (Cyber Uplift) - Government Digital Service - G7

Location

Bristol, London, Manchester

About the job

Job summary

The Government Cyber Unit's mission is to protect public services from cyber threats and digital resilience failures. We are working to achieve a step change in our cyber and digital resilience across government, through delivery of the Government Cyber Action Plan, and working closely with departments and national technical authorities including the National Cyber Security Centre to deliver. This is a challenging time to be working in cyber security and digital resilience, but we have an incredible opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives and promote national security by protecting the public services and national infrastructure they rely on. We work at the forefront of shaping the UK’s national response to emerging cyber and technology issues - from the increasingly complex range of state-sponsored cyber-attacks and supply chain compromises, through to the transformational benefits and security challenges of frontier AI and quantum computing.       

We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive working environment where people can learn, develop and do their best work. Continuous professional development and a focus on wellbeing is core to our unit culture. We welcome applications from candidates who share this ethos and are excited by our mission.  

The Cyber Services Team supports the delivery of the Government Cyber Action Plan by coordinating, overseeing and delivering services to help public sector organisations solve cyber security challenges.  

The services we provide centrally are those where automation and economies of scale can be applied to address common resilience and cyber problems. These cover the core internet services we all rely on such as DNS, email and web services, as well as vulnerability management, cyber testing and cyber capability uplift.    

We ensure that cyber services are easy to find and use, and that the information and support delivered by these services is coherent, valuable, relevant, timely, trusted, reliable and easy to action. We track success using evidence-based objective measures.  

Job description

Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest. 

As an Associate Service Owner you’ll: 

• define and own the service delivery of Cyber Uplift products that operate at scale for the whole public sector. Work closely with the Head of Cyber Products to ensure that products are coherent and deliver value, in alignment with cyber services’ strategic objectives
• prioritise areas of development that balance user needs, business requirements, performance and policy to drive continuous iterative improvement at different phases of the service life cycle 
• lead the team’s agile working practices to develop a scalable and repeatable remediations catalogue to address cyber challenges faced by departments, generating management insights through internal teams and third-party suppliers/vendors 
• identify measurable security benefits that represent good value for money alongside competing priorities, developing business cases to provide sustainable funding
• design and implement a long-term strategy and tactical approach for strategic decision-making, working with multidisciplinary teams and security architects to solve problems and share best practice
• build strong stakeholder relationships with departments, technical experts, business partnering and strategy teams to identify and overcome operational constraints, acting as the escalation point
• be a proactive and constructive Cyber Services leadership team member, developing new ideas to meet the Government Cyber Unit strategic vision and objectives
• adopt a user-centric and collaborative approach to manage a small team and define solutions to cyber challenges, evaluate outcomes, lessons learned, and provide insights for scaling or adoption within the wider organisation 
• manage the governance and assurance processes to ensure that standards are met, continuously improved and effectively aligned to agreed business benefits and wider government needs 

Person specification

We’re interested in people who: 

• proven experience owning the roadmap and delivery of a digital, cyber or technology-enabled service, translating strategic priorities into practical delivery plans, setting and iterating ways of working across different delivery methodologies to manage risks, dependencies and achieve delivery outcomes
• clear communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to explain complex cyber and delivery issues to non-technical audiences, secure input from busy teams, influence wider strategy through service insight, and influence and negotiate with senior stakeholders to resolve issues and enable progress
• an ability to build and manage strong stakeholder relationships and coordinate action across multiple organisations with different priorities, dependencies and levels of cyber maturity
• experience using service data, delivery reporting, user feedback and operational insight to prioritise work, manage performance and improve delivery  
• experience ensuring a scalable operating model is in place to deliver resilient, high quality services in complex environments, working with multidisciplinary teams, suppliers and delivery partners to achieve measurable outcomes
• excellent levels of personal resilience, remaining calm under pressure, comfortable working in ambiguous environments, and making rapid decisions with often limited information
• experience improving delivery performance, using metrics to monitor, manage and prioritise delivery, inform decision making, and demonstrate the value and outcomes of a live service or programme
• experience supporting strategic decision-making and leading multidisciplinary delivery teams, ensuring organisational alignment, clarifying priorities, removing blockers and supporting good team performance
• an in-depth understanding of cyber threats, vulnerabilities, mitigations and the practical challenges of remediation in complex legacy environments
• experience managing service governance, assurance, business planning, funding, prioritisation and value for money within agreed delegated authority