* 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@communities.gov.uk.

Job summary

Here at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), we work on things that make a real difference to people’s lives. 

Whether it's through the homes we live in, the work of our local councils, or the communities we’re all part of, our work is at the top of the political agenda. We have ambitious and far-reaching outcomes to achieve this year and, if you’re thinking of joining us, there’s never been a more exciting time. 

We have over 3,500 staff who are based in 20 offices across the UK. 

As a technical delivery lead for MHCLG you will be working on one of the Government’s most high profile and exemplar digital services, classed as Tier 2 on the CNI scale and containing two of the CDDO Flagship 75 services. The Technical Delivery Lead is someone who enjoys problem solving and working in an agile way, responsible for the day-to-day technical governance and development of critical electoral services. You will be managing and directing the workload of an operational team comprised of internal and third-party suppliers. You will ensure performance is to a high standard and deadlines are met.

You’ll be someone who can understand non-technical requirements from our internal teams, identifying what technology could be leveraged to deliver what has been asked. Your work will include the creation of new capabilities and services that span digital services and other organisational teams. The team works in a fast-paced environment with a high degree of autonomy. You’ll be someone who enjoys a challenge, self-motivated, likes to explore new things and be able to respond quickly to new requirements.

We particularly welcome candidates from an ethnic minority background and other underrepresented groups to apply, as we work to continually improve our ability to represent the places and communities we support through our work.

Find out more about what it's like to work in a digital, data and technology role at MHCLG  including our culture, ways of working, career progression and staff benefits. You can also read the MHCLG Digital blog to learn about the work we're doing. 

Job description

As a Technical Delivery Lead, you’ll:

• work with technical architects to create the required artifacts (solution designs, diagrams etc) for DevOps and service teams to build and run solutions and services

• identify changes to infrastructure and solutions in AWS or other services that allow introduction of new services to meet business needs

• triage new requirements, translating business requirements and non-functional requirements into solution designs, working across multiple technologies and subject matter experts to integrate components into an overall service

• ensure any legal and statutory requirements are met as part of any changes to the services

• direct (as required) and coordinate an agile, multi-disciplinary delivery team to iterate development to meet user needs

• to represent the digital service at relevant governance meetings

• ensure appropriate operational documentation is in place and regularly reviewed

• act as portfolio lead for Cyber Security ensuring processes and systems are regularly reviewed. This is done through liaison with Government Digital Services and National Cyber Security Centre

Person specification

We will use the essential criteria below to evaluate you during the recruitment process. Make sure your CV and cover letter details how you meet the criteria.

As a Technical Delivery Lead, you’ll have:

• experience in implementing cloud based or SaaS technical solutions in an enterprise environment

• good knowledge in Cloud based services and architecture at a broad level so that you can work with business teams to suggest solutions to problems, meet business needs and identify the appropriate technologies to deliver this

• proven experience in delivering digital projects and products across local authorities at a large scale

• experience of being able to work with business and technology stakeholders to articulate and translate business problems into technical designs for systems characterised by levels of risk, impact and business or technical complexity

• familiarity with DevOps processes and agile ways of working

• developed and owned enterprise architecture strategies and roadmaps from a business and technology perspective, including ‘as-is’, ‘to-be’ and transitional states

• experience working under broad direction in a fast-paced and results-oriented environment, influencing strategic decision making and understanding strategic consequences of IT decisions

• experience in modern authentication, authorisation, and Identity Management systems, particularly in using them to provide a seamless user experience with SaaS applications and cloud host

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Changing and Improving

• Making Effective Decisions

• Managing a Quality Service

• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £51,934, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £15,045 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 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 employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

MHCLG want to bring in a diverse workforce at all levels.

Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise).

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:

• Experience

• Technical

In your CV and covering letter, please include: a. why you are interested in the role; b. how you meet the essential skills and experience required

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following success profiles elements: 

Behaviour: Changing and Improving, Making Effective Decisions, Managing A Quality Service, Delivering at Pace

Strength: The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

The Vacancy Manager has requested that candidates prepare a presentation for the interview. Details on the presentation topic/focus will be shared in the invite to interview.

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

Experience: Experience will be tested at sift around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the person specification

Technical: Technical will be tested at sift around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the person specification

Behaviours: Changing and Improving, Making Effective Decisions, Managing A Quality Service, Delivering at Pace

Strengths: Yes

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.

Grade 7 salary

• The salary for this role is £51,934 - £61,562 (National). 

• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges. 

Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions. 

Benefits

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

Any move to MHCLG 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 MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack.

Geographical Location:

• Wolverhampton

• Birmingham

• Manchester

• Bristol

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.

Sift and Interview dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place from Tuesday 01/10/2024 with interview dates to be confirmed. 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. 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.

SC (Security Check):

Important note

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Security Check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete.

Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the Security Check – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 5 years. Please refer to the MHCLG Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Security Check (SC).

Candidates should also note that with effect from 1st August 2018 the department will also check all applicants who are successful at interview, against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) held by the Cabinet Office. In accordance with the Civil Service Internal Fraud Policy, any applicant who is included on the IFD will be refused employment by MHCLG Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database.

Candidate Pack Information

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information.

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 MHCLG candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules

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 MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG 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

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window). See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland

• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK

• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)

• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020

• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).