Digital Delivery Manager - Office for National Statistics - SEO

Location

The locations for these roles are Newport and Titchfield (Fareham).

This role is aligned to ONS hybrid working principles, which are based on attending the office with purpose. The post holder will be expected to contribute to the organisation’s overall 40% office attendance, in line with business and role requirements.

Due to workforce controls you can only select Manchester, London, Darlington, Edinburgh, Belfast if you are an existing ONS employee contracted to that location. If you are not contracted at one of these sites, these options are not available to you.

Applicants who select a location they are not eligible for will be removed from the recruitment process and will not be considered for alternative locations.

Please refer to attachments for further terms and flexibilities.

The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.

About the job

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics.  These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime and migration.

Are you excited by the idea of building a rewarding career as a Digital Delivery Manager in the Government Digital and Data profession?

Do you thrive on working with people, improving how teams work, and helping deliver outcomes that genuinely make a difference?

As a Digital Delivery Manager, you will lead the successful delivery of high‑impact digital products and services. You will be a confident communicator, able to influence senior stakeholders, motivate teams, and drive delivery using agile and lean approaches.

Job description

We have five exciting Digital Delivery Manager opportunities across various Directorates at ONS: Data Products Services and Governance, Digital Services, Macroeconomic and Environment Statistics and Strategic Innovation and Analysis.

• Data Products Services and Governance (DPSG) - the role sits centrally within ONS, provides a cross-ONS capability for data, including data access and preparation, and the provision of data and linked data products. DPSG develops and manages the systems and processes that underpin the distribution of data across ONS and beyond. DPSG provides data to ONS, academia, wider government, and other external users in a safe and controlled way, supporting and encouraging users to maximise data utility, enabling innovation and statistical and research use.
• Digital Services (DS) - You will provide dedicated delivery leadership to the Knowledge Exchange Hub (KEH). KEH is an enabling function whose primary customers are software engineers and delivery teams across ONS, as well as key digital stakeholders involved in implementing software led change. Rather than delivering end user services directly, KEH focuses on improving engineering effectiveness, consistency and quality across the organisation through shared capability, standards, tooling and guidance. KEH plays a key role in enabling the adoption of AI‑assisted software engineering across ONS, embedding practical approaches (e.g. GitHub Copilot and emerging spec‑driven and multi‑agent development patterns) into day‑to‑day delivery and scaling proven practices across teams. 
• Macroeconomic and Environment Statistics (MESA) - the role will be in the Public Sector Systems (PSS) project. We are developing a data platform on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) which aims to modernise data processing systems for the National Accounts and Public Sector Finances. This is an exciting role that is key to delivering improved systems not only for the Public Sector Division but also could be implemented across ONS as part of the Digital Delivery Framework.
• Strategic Innovation and Analysis (SIA) - will be working in Data and Technology division which delivers AI and technology product development, economic and geospatial data development, data science projects for economic analysis and directorate operations.   

The Digital Delivery Manager Role 

As a Digital Delivery Manager, you are  accountable for the delivery of products and services. Build and maintain motivated teams, making sure there is an iterative plan to work towards. Protect the team and make sure the team collaborates, communicates, and focuses on what is most important. Coach team members and others. Facilitate continuous improvement and apply the most appropriate agile and lean tools and techniques for their environment. Proactively manage dependencies, overcome obstacles, and get the best value against constraints. May manage risks, budgets, and people.

Responsibilities 

• Own delivery of products and services, ensuring outcomes are achieved efficiently and sustainably.
• Build, lead, and motivate high-performing teams, setting clear goals and maintaining an iterative, outcome-focused delivery plan.
• Create a safe and effective delivery environment, protecting teams from unnecessary distractions and enabling strong collaboration and communication.
• Coach and support team members and stakeholders, embedding agile ways of working and developing delivery capability.
• Drive continuous improvement, selecting and applying the most appropriate agile and lean tools for the Academy context.
• Manage dependencies and constraints, proactively resolving issues and maximising value.
• Oversee risks, budgets, and resourcing, ensuring effective governance and responsible use of funding.
• Actively contribute to planning and estimation, adapting delivery plans to respond to change and emerging challenges.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Agile and Lean practices (Practitioner) - Compare and select the most appropriate delivery methods and processes. Recognise, reflect and adapt when something does not work, encouraging experimentation. Use a blended approach depending on the context. Help teams to measure, evaluate and visualise outcomes. Encourage reflective practice to improve ways of working.
• Making the process work (Expert) - Identify and challenge organisational processes of increasing complexity and those processes that are unnecessarily complicated.  Add value and can coach the organisation to inspect and adapt processes. Understand external suppliers’ delivery approaches and adapt to ensure interface to ONS delivery approach is smooth, challenging external supplier to align more closely where appropriate. Guide teams through the implementation of a new process.
• Planning (Practitioner) - Understand the environment and is able to prioritise the most important or highest value tasks. Use data to inform planning. Manage complex internal and external dependencies. Provide delivery confidence. Remove blockers or impediments that affect the plan and is able to develop a plan for difficult situations. Ensure teams plan appropriately for their own capacity. 
• Maintaining Delivery momentum (Practitioner) - Facilitate the delivery flow of a team, managing the pace and tempo. Actively address internal and external risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team.
• Communicating between the technical and non-technical (Practitioner) - Listen to and interpret the needs of technical and non-technical stakeholders, and manage their expectations. Manage active and reactive communication. Support or host difficult discussions within the team or with diverse senior stakeholders.