Associate Service Owner - GDS - G7
Government Digital & Data -
Location
Bristol, London, Manchester
About the job
Job summary
The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.
Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:
- joining up public sector services
- harnessing the power of AI for the public good
- strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
- elevating leadership and investing in talent
- funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
- committing to transparency and driving accountability.
We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.
We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.
The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.
Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.
Job description
This is a rare opportunity to transform the way government delivers services. As an Associate Service Owner in the Performance and Assurance team you will run and continuously improve world-class services based on user needs.
You will:
- Own the end-to-end design, delivery and continuous improvement of your service area, ensuring it meets the needs of users across government.
- Collaborate with relevant stakeholders including policy, delivery, commercial, finance, and technical teams to align service design with strategic objectives and statutory requirements.
- Drive a joined-up, user-centred approach to your area, using feedback, data, and insights to refine processes and improve outcomes.
- Lead cross-functional working groups and communities, ensuring coordinated contributions from stakeholders across government.
- Identify duplication, blockers or inefficiencies in the current landscape and shape digital or procedural solutions to address them.
- Work with service and project teams across departments to embed reformed processes, standards and tools in ways that streamline delivery and improve accountability.
- Contribute to the reform of central controls and performance frameworks, surfacing cross-cutting system-level issues.
The Performance and Assurance team sits at the heart of how government delivers great digital and technology services. We help departments build the right things, in the right way, by providing trusted assurance and insight across government. From running service assessments and digital spend controls through the Get Approval to Spend (GATS) service, to shaping funding reform and developing the new cross-government Performance Framework, which provides a consistent measurement of digital and technology development. We make sure digital delivery is effective, efficient, and focused on user needs. Our work drives accountability, builds confidence in delivery, and helps government make better decisions about where and how to invest in digital.
We’re hiring for three really exciting roles to shape the future of digital delivery in government:
- Digital Standards Associate Service Owner: Help drive how government delivers great digital and technology outcomes. You’ll design new approaches on how to bring together GDS’ bank of functional standards, test ideas, and build feedback loops.
- Systems Reform Associate Service Owner: We’re leading a cross-government Sprint to redesign the end-to-end assurance journey — bringing together Cabinet Office controls, HM Treasury approvals, and NISTA reviews into one streamlined digital service. We need an Associate Service Owner to lead discovery and prototyping, using user-centred design to cut duplication, simplify processes, and improve delivery outcomes.
- Performance Associate Service Owner: We’re also looking for an Associate Service Owner to define how we measure and improve digital performance across government. You’ll develop meaningful service metrics that show how services really perform for users, building a shared, data-driven view of what good looks like and helping teams turn insight into impact.
Please let us know in your application if you have a preference for one of the three focus areas.
Person specification
We are looking for candidates who have;
- excellent understanding of delivery of services across government
- leadership experience in the successful design, delivery and operation of high-quality products and services which maximise opportunities offered by digital technology
- proven expertise in gathering, analysing and using user insight and performance data in a way that ensures responsiveness to changing user needs and technical developments
- experience translating complex aims and needs into compelling strategies with clear and manageable plans - communicating these in an open and transparent way through a variety of channels
- experience managing the expectations of stakeholders with conflicting needs and demands, engaging with senior stakeholders, and developing a pipeline of customer adoption
- experience assessing risks, scoping resource requirements and managing budgets and operating costs to ensure value for money and sustainable development of teams and services at scale
- experience championing agile delivery principles and methods as outlined in the Government Service Design Manual.
