Deputy Director (Data Maturity & Transformation) - Government Digital Service - SCS1

Location

Bristol, London, Manchester

About the job

Job summary

Help government make data part of everyday work.

Government has a data strategy, agreed standards and a growing set of shared platforms. What it doesn't yet have is a reliable way to make sure the whole public sector uses them in live services and everyday decisions, rather than leaving them on the shelf. 

That's your job. You'll turn our data ambitions into habits that stick across departments, arm's-length bodies and the wider public sector. You'll do it by helping teams stand on their own feet, not by doing the work for them. 

Why now?

Almost every department wants to use AI, but AI is only as good as the data behind it and the people using it. Data quality is patchy in places, ownership is often unclear, and confidence varies a lot from one team to the next. A central team can't fix that by doing the work for everyone forever, so we need departments that can carry on without us. 

We already have a way to measure where we stand. The Data Maturity Assessment for Government covers 10 topics and six themes, and a new version is on its way. The hard part is turning what it tells us into real change. 

We're not the only ones working on this. Other governments are investing in digital, data and AI skills for their whole public workforce, including mandatory basics for every officer. We want to match that. 

Where you'll work 

You'll be part of the Government Digital Service (GDS), the digital centre of government. We're home to GOV.UK and the Incubator for AI (i.AI), we lead the Government Digital and Data function, and we have more than 1,000 colleagues across London, Bristol and Manchester. 

Job description

What you'll do

• Roll up your sleeves, then leave. Give departments short, hands-on help to adopt data standards, architectures and governance. You'll be the main link between central data teams and organisation’s across the Public Sector eco-system, and every piece of support should end with them owning the work with confidence. 
• Back the places that matter most. You can't help everyone at once, so put your effort where the risk, the impact or the dependency is greatest. With Devolution a reality, we need to help the system mature and transform with data. 
• Get government ready for AI. Improve the data capability, organisational readiness and capacity for change that real-world AI needs, so more departments can adopt it and scale it. 
• Measure how mature we are. Lead a government-wide approach to data maturity and readiness, using one clear model across purpose, people, methods and tools, from data quality and interoperability to skills, culture and leadership. Then help departments turn what it shows into practical actions. 
• Let the evidence steer the plan. Feed what you learn into the Strategic Data Roadmap, including priorities, investment and sequencing, and help decide where the centre steps in and where departments should lead. 
• Grow people as well as platforms. Lead the development of data literacy, skills and communities of practice, and build change, adoption and learning into every data initiative. Help create a confident, professional data workforce with clear role expectations and skills pathways. 
• Build once and reuse everywhere. Promote consistent approaches, so we end up with fewer bespoke solutions and less fragmentation. Support good practice across the data lifecycle, from quality and metadata to knowledge and information management, and develop reusable patterns and playbooks that scale across departments. Cover structured and unstructured data, including the metadata and retrieval that AI and decisions depend on in everyday workflows. 
• Help teams in sensitive places. Support teams working in national security and other sensitive areas to apply agreed standards with confidence, where security and assurance requirements are higher. 
• Turn insight into action. You're accountable for making sure what maturity and readiness work tells us leads to joined-up action across the system, so barriers come down and adoption speeds up. 
• Lead a great team. Build and lead multidisciplinary enablement teams that deliver well and enjoy working together.

What success looks like 

• One joined-up approach to data transformation across government, and faster take-up of the agreed standards and services. 
• Better data maturity, literacy and confidence in departments, arm's-length bodies and local government, so staff at every level can use and manage data in their day jobs. 
• Practical help that improves data quality, management and interoperability right at the source. 
• Departments that are ready to use data and AI in operations, analysis and decisions, and that lean less on central support as time goes on. 
• Strong communities of practice and learning pathways that keep improvement going after we step back. 
• Proof that it has stuck: better use of data in live services and decisions, and a steady fall in reliance on central enablement. 

The honest bit

Departments start from very different places, and you can't order them to change. You'll make progress by being useful, so expect to spend a lot of your time listening, persuading, showing the opportunities and removing blockers.  

Person specification

This role is for you if... 

You've changed how a big, complicated organisation works with data, technology or skills, and you did it by bringing people with you rather than giving orders. You can tell us what actually changed. You'll thrive in this role if you have: 

• Led organisational change or built capability at scale, with strong experience of both and evidence that behaviour moved. 
• Worked with data, digital or technology teams in a complex organisation. 
• Influenced without formal authority, and built trust with senior stakeholders along the way. 
• Turned strategy and standards into practical ways of working that people actually adopt, and explained complex ideas confidently to non-technical audiences. 
• Led with a delivery focus, and kept things moving when the picture was unclear. 
• Used data maturity models, readiness checks or capability assessments to plan and prioritise a transformation.