Digital and Transformation Chief Operating Officer - DWP - SCS2

Location

Birmingham, Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sheffield

About the job

Job summary

The Digital and Transformation Group, Chief Operating Officer (COO) is a key role within our Digital and Transformation Group Executive Team (D&TGET). Along with the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), the COO acts as the Chief Digital Information Office's (CDIO) spokesperson where necessary.

As COO you will lead on key strategic objectives, acting as the expert who owns and leads the relationships between DWP Digital, Government Digital Service(GDS) and HM Treasury (HMT).

Join Helen and the panel for a Live Q&A on Tuesday 26th August 2025 Time: 12noon

This virtual session is an opportunity for you to find out more about the role and what it's like leading the Digital Directorate. You'll get the opportunity to hear directly from the vacancy holder, Helen Wylie, who will provide an overview of the role and hold a Q&A session. Event Link

Job description

You will lead a challenging agenda, building strong partnerships with other functional leaders (e.g., Commercial, People, Finance, Risk etc) to build joined up approaches to problem solving and drive activity in the following areas:

Performance and Planning

• Own the complete view of Digital and Transformation Group business, ensuring it’s well planned, governed, and there is a positive return on investment
• Own the operating model for DWP Digital and Transformation, ensuring it enables effective and efficient delivery for colleagues and customers
• Deliver an accurate workforce plan for over 4000 FTE and in leading the annual and multi-year (Spending Review) Business Planning processes, ensure we have a clear and resourced plan to deliver our ambitions, strategy and vision
• Build key performance metrics and Objectives and Key Results that help shape and align to Departmental future plans

Governance and Risk Management

• Lead on organisational governance, control and risk management for DWP Digital, identifying blockers and issues early, and supporting and coaching colleagues to navigate these successfully
• Effectively manage the business of Digital and Transformation Group through the DET, representing Digital and Transformation Group and provide subject matter expertise on Departmental Committees
• Own and manage the relationship with Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) to ensure effective risk management and agreeing and implementing improvement actions where needed

Finance 

• Have oversight of DWP Digital budget (over £1bn) and headcount (circa 7000+)
• In close collaboration with Finance colleagues, drive budget conversations to ensure we get the funding we need to deliver on our priorities
• Mature our financial and budget management approaches, ensuring alignment with Cabinet Office and Treasury requirements, and supporting colleagues to navigate
  these requirements
• Work with our Commercial Director to ensure we achieve value for money from our suppliers
• Provide high level policy, strategic, budgetary and delivery advice to the CDIO

Digital Capability and Capacity

• Work in partnership with DWP People & Capability, and build strong relationships, acting as an intelligent customer, to lead capability and capacity development in DWP
  Digital and Transformation, building a diverse and professional workforce
• Attract, build, and develop the best digital talent, creating a strong talent and resourcing strategy, utilising our Digital Academy and making sure we have the right mix of civil
  servants, and cost-effective arrangements for contractors, outsourced arrangements, apprenticeships, and internships
• Lead professionalisation within the group, engaging with partners to create strong capability pipelines, accreditation and secondment opportunities to increase experience
  and skills
• Lead the Business Services Practice in Digital Group, developing capability across this group of people to ensure that the business of Digital is well managed, safe and
  effective

Communications and Engagement

• Bring the Business plan and Digital strategy and vision to life, leading a communications and engagement team to ensure a strong communication and engagement strategy is in place that keeps our people informed and engaged and builds a culture where our people can thrive in a positive, supportive and professional community

Person specification

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their knowledge, experience and skills against the following essential criteria:

• Significant experience of senior digital and change leadership in a mission-critical environment.
• Strong evidence of successfully influencing and managing complex senior stakeholder relationships, including at the most senior and board level in multi-divisional,
  multi-site organisations of appropriate scale where there are dependencies across different business areas.
• Proven experience of leading, developing and delivering exceptional capability at an organisational and team level; through recruiting, empowering, coaching and
  supporting others to build the right culture and develop others to achieve the highest performance standards.
• Successful track record of delivering real business value, with accountability for a significant budget, in a mission-critical environment, in increments in line with user
  need, and an appreciation that change can provide opportunity for efficiency and innovation.
• Highly effective track record of setting strategy and tracking progress against deliverables through the use of OKRs or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure and evaluate delivery.