Digital Senior Delivery Manager
Requirements
Requires expert-level proficiency in Agile/Lean practices, complex planning, and stakeholder communication. Candidates must be able to manage delivery momentum and navigate the full product life cycle in ambiguous environments.
Job Description
This role is aligned to ONS hybrid working principles, which are based on attending the office with purpose. The postholder will be expected to contribute to the organisation’s overall 40% office attendance, in line with business and role requirements.
The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.
Due to workforce controls you can only select Manchester / London / Darlington / Edinburgh 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.
Only existing ONS contractual homeworkers can select Homeworking.
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.
Job Summary
Do you thrive on working with people, improving how teams work, and helping deliver outcomes that genuinely make a difference? We are looking for a Digital Senior Delivery Manager to support the upcoming Census!
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.
Census 2031 represents our most ambitious data collection project yet – a once-in-a-decade opportunity to capture a complete picture of everyone living in England and Wales. Building on the digital success of 2021, we're pioneering new ways to reach every household and community, ensuring no one is left uncounted. This vital work will provide the foundation for policy decisions, resource allocation, and community planning for the next decade.
Your work will support delivery of this transformational project that will shape how we understand and support our nation's future. You’ll be part of a team that ensures everyone is counted—and every voice is heard. We're building a culture that values collaboration, fresh thinking, and respect for diverse expertise. Whether you're a seasoned professional or bringing new perspectives, you'll be part of a team that welcomes bold ideas, works transparently, and thrives on solving complex challenges together.
Interview for this role will be in person from either Newport or Titchfield.
Job Description
This is a fantastic opportunity to play a pivotal role in shaping the design of Census 2031. As a Delivery Manager, you will lead multidisciplinary teams of researchers, designers, statisticians, operational experts, and delivery professionals to run discovery activities that explore complex challenges and identify innovative solutions for the future census. You will be responsible for planning and leading a programme of innovation events, ensuring insights and evidence are effectively captured, synthesised, and translated into actionable design outcomes.
Working collaboratively across professional disciplines, you will enable further research, design, and experimentation, helping to build a robust evidence base that informs key decisions and drives the development of services, processes, and operating models for Census 2031. A key aspect of the role will be working closely with colleagues in the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), as well as National Records of Scotland (NRS), to support a coordinated UK-wide approach to census design. This will include planning and facilitating joint innovation events, workshops and discovery activities, building strong working relationships across organisations, and ensuring insights from across the UK are considered as part of the development of Census 2031. Regular engagement with NISRA colleagues, including opportunities to work alongside teams on-site in Belfast, will support effective collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and expertise.
As a Digital Senior Delivery Manager, you will be accountable for the effective delivery of complex, high risk products and services. You will have strong communication skills and engage senior stakeholders. You will also coach and mentor other Digital Delivery Managers. You will be accountable for ensuring delivery achieves agreed outcomes, provides value for users, and aligns with wider organisational priorities and strategic goals.
These roles will contribute to delivery across strategic platforms and key organisational objectives, supporting critical services and transformation initiatives.
You will work with multidisciplinary teams and senior stakeholders to plan and deliver effectively in fast-paced, often ambiguous environments.
Key Responsibilities
You will:
- Manage the delivery of high-risk products and services, ensuring successful outcomes.
- Share expertise with other team members, nurturing their growth and development.
- Maintain open lines of communication with high-level interested parties, effectively advocating for their team.
- Contribute to strategic decision-making, steering the direction of products and service delivery.
Working collaboratively across professional disciplines, you will enable further research, design, and experimentation, helping to build a robust evidence base that informs key decisions and drives the development of services, processes, and operating models for Census 2031. A key aspect of the role will be working closely with colleagues in the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), as well as National Records of Scotland (NRS), to support a coordinated UK-wide approach to census design. This will include planning and facilitating joint innovation events, workshops and discovery activities, building strong working relationships across organisations, and ensuring insights from across the UK are considered as part of the development of Census 2031. Regular engagement with NISRA colleagues, including opportunities to work alongside teams on-site in Belfast, will support effective collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and expertise.
As a Digital Senior Delivery Manager, you will be accountable for the effective delivery of complex, high risk products and services. You will have strong communication skills and engage senior stakeholders. You will also coach and mentor other Digital Delivery Managers. You will be accountable for ensuring delivery achieves agreed outcomes, provides value for users, and aligns with wider organisational priorities and strategic goals.
These roles will contribute to delivery across strategic platforms and key organisational objectives, supporting critical services and transformation initiatives.
You will work with multidisciplinary teams and senior stakeholders to plan and deliver effectively in fast-paced, often ambiguous environments.
You Will
- Manage the delivery of high-risk products and services, ensuring successful outcomes.
- Share expertise with other team members, nurturing their growth and development.
- Maintain open lines of communication with high-level interested parties, effectively advocating for their team.
- Contribute to strategic decision-making, steering the direction of products and service delivery.
Essential Criteria
- Planning (Expert) - Lead a continual planning process in a very complex environment. Plan beyond product delivery. Identify dependencies in plans across services and coordinate delivery. Coach other teams as the central point of expertise.
- Maintaining Delivery Momentum (Expert) - Optimise the delivery flow of teams. Actively address the most complicated risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team or no clear ownership exists. Identify innovative ways to unblock issues.
- Life Cycle Management (Practitioner) - Work and consult with the right people at the right time to move through the life cycle and deliver value. Use evidence to decide when a team should continue, change direction or stop. Identify tools and techniques required at different phases of the life cycle. Guide colleagues and stakeholders through different phases of the life cycle.
- Communicating between the technical and non-technical (Expert) - Mediate between people and strengthen relationships, adopting the appropriate communication method with stakeholders at all levels, manage stakeholder expectations and moderate difficult discussions about high risk and complex topics, even within constrained timescales, speak on behalf of, and represent the community to, large audiences inside and outside the organisation.
- Agile and Lean practices (Expert) - Coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean good practices. Create and tailor the right approach for a team, challenging, evaluating and iterating the approach through the life cycle, experiment with new and innovative ways of working to improve delivery across the organisation, act as a recognised expert and advocate for Agile and Lean approaches.
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Delivering at Pace
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Changing and Improving
The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.
Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.
Benefits
This role is part of the cross-government Government Digital and Data (formerly DDaT) profession framework. As a role within Government Digital and Data (formerly DDaT) at the ONS, we also offer benefits such as:
- Protected Learning Time to spend on your personal development and side-projects.
- A supportive and active Community of Practice which you will be expected to contribute to, helping ensure you and your colleagues get the training, development and opportunities you need to progress your careers.
Inclusion & Accessibility
At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.
If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Security Clearance
For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.
If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.
At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:
- Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
- UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
- Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
- Security Services records
ONS may be able to provide visa sponsorship where the role meets ONS sponsorship criteria and all relevant Home Office requirements. Applicants must hold, or be eligible to obtain, the right to work in the UK before employment commences.
Right To Work And Nationality Requirements
To work at ONS, applicants must meet the Civil Service nationality requirements, satisfy UK right to work requirements and, where applicable, meet the relevant security clearance requirements.
If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.
For full guidance in relation to the use of AI through the recruitment process, please read A candidate’s guide to artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment
Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.
Application Process
Number of Stages: 2 stage process
Stage 1: Application
Stage 2: Interview
Stage 1 – Application
The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, skills, experience, CV, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.
A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1250, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.
When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.
Stage 2 – Interview
If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.
Interviews will be in person from either our Newport to Fareham location.
A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.
The Sift will be conducted from 14/09/2026
Interviews will be conducted from 06/10/2026
Near Misses
We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours and essential skills.
For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.
Curious about Government Digital and Data? Dive into the Candidate Pack to learn more
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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.
Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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
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.
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).
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job Contact
- Name : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk
- Email : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk
- Email : About.You@ons.gov.uk
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission
Skills
About Office for National Statistics
We’re the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics. The statistics we gather make a real difference, helping people make important decisions for the nation and our communities on everything from health and education to the environment and the cost of living. We’re responsible for the census that happens every ten years and share information and analysis about some of the UK’s most topical issues. To find out more about how you can join us at the ONS, email talent.acquisition@ons.gov.uk or call 01633 455556. We don't monitor LinkedIn for messages, for general and statistical enquiries contact https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/contactus/generalandstatisticalenquiries
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