Deputy Director for Digital, Data and Building Technology in the Education Estate - Department for Education - SCS1
Government Digital & Data -
Location
This role is open to external applications and applicants from other government departments at the following locations: Manchester, Sheffield, London, Nottingham, Coventry. Please select a location preference when submitting your application.
The role is also open to existing EED staff in their current location. EED staff: please select your closest office location from those listed and include in the 'further location preference' field, details of your current office location, if not listed.
About the job
Job summary
The Deputy Director for Digital, Data and Building Technology will play a pivotal leadership role in stewarding the Education Estate toward a safe, sustainable and digitally enabled future. Central to this mission is ensuring that schools and colleges benefit from high quality technology, adopt consistent digital standards, and operate within a modern data and project delivery environment that works seamlessly for both the Department for Education (DfE) and the wider sector.
The postholder will be responsible for overseeing the operation, stability and continuous improvement of Education Estates’ existing digital platforms during a period of significant digital transformation. This includes the transformation of the Digital Operating Environment, ensuring delivery of the ambitions set out in the Education Estates Strategy. Key outcomes of this work include the creation of a single communication route – Manage Your Education Estate – which will provide a common data environment enabling two-way data sharing between the Department and the sector and a new project delivery tool to enable the construction programmes to be as joined up as possible with the new operating environment.
This integrated system will improve the join up between project management tools, interventions and sector owned building management systems, supporting the shift from reactive bidding to strategic, data driven investment.
The role will also lead the setting and rollout of digital and technology standards for schools and colleges, working closely with data collection teams to ensure sector-wide adoption and compliance. Alongside this, the postholder will provide leadership across Education Estates’ service offers – Estate Management, Renew and Improve, and Build and Rebuild – ensuring cohesive delivery across major programmes. Notable responsibilities include supporting the £325m digital connectivity programme and delivery of ICT and building technology within capital construction programmes.
To succeed, the postholder must ensure that all digital, data and technology components work in harmony, creating a seamless external offer for the sector supported by robust internal systems. They will act as a supportive and collaborative senior leader across the Education Estates Senior Leadership Team, fostering a culture of co design, inclusion and evidence-based decision making.
The role requires close partnership with Deputy Directors across Digital, Data and Technology (DDT) to develop clear delivery priorities, surface emerging opportunities early, and ensure requirements are well formed and grounded in strong evidence. The postholder will also maintain close oversight of performance and service delivery through effective collaboration with DDT operational teams.
Job description
We steward the Education Estate towards a safe and sustainable future and one critical component of that is making sure we have high quality technology in our schools and colleges, that are schools and colleges adopt a consistent digital standard, that our data collection systems and project delivery systems work in tandem with the sectors.
We have recently published our Education Estates strategy and have set out bold ambitions to transform our digital operations to improve how we interact with the sector and how we operate internally so that we create two-way data sharing between us and the sector that remove the need for future bidding and can focus on strategic investment.
This is a senior role with significant responsibility for delivering outcomes and for financial oversight. We are looking for a highly motivated, emotionally intelligent and empowering leader. The role will involve working across numerous stakeholders and trying to build long lasting relationships to deliver in what is a complex environment. Leading via collaboration will be key.
This role will:
- Oversee the operation of Education Estates existing digital operating systems and manage continuous improvement of those systems while we undergo a wider digital transformation.
- Lead the digital transformation of the Education Estates Digital Operating Environment so that we achieve the outcomes as set out in the education estate strategy: A single communication route (Manage Your Education Estate) between DfE and the sector that facilitates two-way data sharing via a common data environment and improved project delivery tools which ensure join up. This will also ensure our interventions and the sector's building management systems are joined up that we can remove the need for future bidding and strategically invest.
- Set and roll out the digital and technology standards for the school and college sector and work with data collection teams in Education Estates to ensure compliance with those standards.
- Lead a strong delivery function through each of our service offers to the sector: Estate Management, Renew and Improve, Build and Rebuild. Notably supporting the following programmes of delivery:
- The £325m digital connectivity programme into the sector.
- The delivery of ICT and Building Technology via our delivery construction programmes (build and rebuild pillar).
- Crucially, make sure all these components work together as one so our external offer works seamlessly with our internal digital systems.
- Be a valuable, and supportive leader across Education Estates Senior Leadership Team, to foster a culture of collaboration, co design, inclusivity and evidence-based decision making.
- Work collaboratively with the DDT Deputy Directors to produce a clear set of delivery priorities, ensuring opportunities requiring exploration or discovery are surfaced early and requirements are well formed and evidence based.
- Partner with digital and technology delivery functions in DDT to maintain oversight of services and performance.
Person specification
This is a senior role with significant responsibility for delivering outcomes and for financial oversight. We are looking for a highly motivated, emotionally intelligent and empowering leader. The role will involve working across numerous stakeholders and trying to build long lasting relationships to deliver in what is a complex environment. Leading via collaboration will be key.
Above all we are looking for a proactive and curious leader who is experienced in delivering with impact.
Applicants will be assessed against the following essential and desirable criteria:
Essential Criteria:
- Experience of leading at a senior level within a digital, data and technology environment. The division will be a large multidisciplinary team that needs to work across the sector and internally to deliver holistic digital, data and technology solutions. You will need to demonstrate leadership skills in a complex organisation.
- Experience of delivering through others and working together across organisational boundaries to deliver digital, data and technology solutions for both internal users and external users.
- Experience of delivering large technology capital programmes or large digital programmes at pace, to completion and in line with GDS principles and the DDT strategic framework.
- Horizon scanning and prioritisation expertise, identifying opportunities for discovery and shaping a balanced pipeline. Champion evidence-based prioritisation, turning operational metrics, user feedback and analytical insight into clear priorities and sequencing.
- Systems thinking, able to navigate policy/service/technology interactions, dependencies and constraints across DDaT and operations.
- High quality communication, with political acumen, able to distil complex findings into clear, compelling briefs and recommendations for senior audiences.
- Support teams to develop robust business cases that reflect end to end journeys, digital first principles, long term costs/benefits and viable options that align with data and tech strategies.
Desirable Criteria:
- Experience in leading large scale digital transformation in the construction sector or across complex capital programmes.
- Familiarity with Government Service Standard, discovery/alpha assessments and operational readiness considerations.
- Experience leading cultural change to embed co-design and evidence based prioritisation in policy and service development.
- User Centred, Evidence Based Design: Experience in user research, behavioural insight, service design, facilitation and co-design, including end to end journeys, service blueprints and value flows
Desirable criterial will only be assessed in the event of a tie-break situation at interview, to make an informed decision.
