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* Please note, you will need to merge your personal statement and CV into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and personal statement. If you experience any technical issues, please contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk.

Job summary

Important - To apply for this role you will need to submit an anonymised CV and covering letter, merged into one document. Further details can be found in the Selection Process section further below in this advert.

The Local Digital team at DLUHC supports councils across England to deliver the local public services of the future – services that meet the needs of citizens and deliver better value for money, based on modern technology and new, collaborative ways of working. We’re building upon the ambition of the Local Digital Declaration – our vision for the future of local public services that has been co-signed by over 280 local councils, sector bodies and Government departments.

We have recently announced exciting next steps for the programme following the increase announced at Budget and Spending Review last year. We have an opportunity to scale our support to the sector over the next 3 years and are growing the product community within the team with the addition of two new Product Manager roles.

Job description

Local Digital Product Manager

Councils deliver essential services, from social care, to housing, education, and waste services. However, they are being squeezed from both sides: inflation and rising energy prices are increasing the cost of delivering services, while demand for these services is rising.

We want to help councils achieve greater resilience by leveraging technology to deliver services more effectively, securely and efficiently. We will explore how creating or adopting different technology and new ways of working can help deliver improved services at a reduced cost.

The Local Digital Fund has achieved a lot of success supporting projects that address some of these local service challenges in common, reusable ways. We want to build on that success and do more to help councils move on from legacy technology and implement the Local Digital Declaration. As Local Digital Product Manager, you will help us continue this momentum and refresh the vision and strategy for the Fund moving forward.

Together with our Local Digital Senior Product Manager, you will also have the opportunity to shape a new initiative. Through this initiative, we will be partnering with councils to test what changes work best across their organisation, addressing factors that enable or block change, from leadership awareness to procurement processes. As we learn from this collaborative work, you will help us shape the strategy and pathways that will support all councils to improve.

Person specification

• Agile working: You can identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, including measuring and evaluating outcomes. You know how to help the team to decide the best approach. You can help teams to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and work to agreed minimum viable product (MVP), print and scope.

• DDaT perspective: You can demonstrate a working understanding of design, technology and data principles. You understand the variety and complexity of users’ digital needs and how the product will meet those needs. You know about assisted digital support and can explain why it’s important. You can design services and make decisions to meet user needs.

• Experience of working within constraints: You can identify constraints and can communicate about these and work within them. You know how to challenge the validity of constraints. You can ensure standards are being met.

• Financial ownership: You understand the marketplace, realising the benefit and persuading others that a product is the right one to use. You know how to integrate a product with other services. You can ensure that products get used. You can realise benefits by linking work in progress back to the business case. You can build business cases based on user needs.

• Life-cycle perspective: You recognise when to move from one stage of a product life cycle to another. You can ensure the team is working towards the appropriate service standards for the relevant phase. You can manage delivery products and services at different phases.

• Operational management: You know how to design operational processes for the running and maintenance of products or services throughout their product life cycle. You can redesign operational processes, amend existing processes, and plan and put into operation the stages of a new product or service development. You can act as the escalation point for operational issues and can fix complex operational issues. You know how to overcome operational constraints to deliver a successful product or service. You can work closely with operational delivery teams in digital, data and technology (DDaT).

• Problem ownership: You know how to ensure that the right actions are taken to investigate, resolve and anticipate problems. You can coordinate the team to investigate problems and implement solutions and preventative measures.

• Product ownership: You know how to apply tools, terms and concepts in a variety of ways. You can be flexible, consider new ways of working and adapt to change.

• Strategic ownership: You know how to get buy-in from the organisation. You can work with scant information and explain it in abstract terms. You can develop a strategy.

• User focus: You know how to collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally. You understand the difference between user needs and the desires of the user. You can champion user research to focus on all users. You can prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so. You can offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to be used.

Experience required

• You have a successful track record as a Product Management professional.

• You have experience of clearly articulating the needs of a variety of users with empathy and understanding.

• You can demonstrate where you have used an iterative and flexible approach to deliver solutions and outcomes that meet user needs.

• You have experience of delivering solutions to meet issues and problems that arise from day-to-day operations and through project delivery.

• You have experience of establishing relationships and working collaboratively with 3rd parties and outsourced providers to achieve jointly agreed operational and project goals.

• You can demonstrate where you have communicated effectively with senior stakeholders and supported evidence-based decision making.

Offered benefits

Learning and development tailored to your role

An environment with flexible working options

A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Selection process details

We are for everyone

At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation.

We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role.

We are for everyone

CV and Cover Letter Declaration

We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called name blind recruitment.

Please remove references to your:

• name/title

• educational institutions

• age

• gender

• email address

• postal address

• phone number

• nationality/immigration status

You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter.

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors.

At sift, through your CV and covering letter we will be assessing:

Examples:

Experience

Technical

Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the job description.

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of technical, behaviour, and strength based questions as listed in the advert. The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements:

Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description

Technical: Yes - Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description

Strength: Yes

Behaviours: Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, Working Together

We do not consider direct CV applications – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs:

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign

Benefits

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018:

Any move to DLUHC from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.

For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack.

• Location

• Birmingham

• Bristol

• Cambridge

• Darlington*

• Leeds

• Manchester

• Newcastle-upon-Tyne

• Nottingham

• Wolverhampton

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role.

*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service. This role is based at DLUHC and we will be joined on the campus by:

• HM Treasury

• Department for International Trade

• Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

• Office for National Statistics

• Department for Education

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack.

Sift and Interview dates

We will be sifting applicants as we go – so please don’t wait until the deadline to submit your application. Interview dates will be confirmed at a later stage, all interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall.

Reserve List

In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Due to the length of time CTC checks can take, our HR Shared Services team will contact reserve list candidates for London based roles to commence CTC checks. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@communities.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list.

SEO salary

• The salary for this role is £37,064 (National).

• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. 

Fixed Term Details

For external candidates– you will be offered a 23 Month fixed term appointment with a possibility of permanency.  

For existing civil servants – you will be offered a 23 Month loan opportunity. Before applying for the role, you will need to seek approval from your parent department to take up a loan appointment should you be successful. 

For DLUHC employees  - you will retain your existing contract 

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

Internal Fraud Database 

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned.The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.  

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register 

Contact details

Who can candidates contact with questions about this vacancy?

Rachel Downs

Email address for candidate questions

rachel.downs@levellingup.gov.uk