Head of Operational Management
Requirements
Proven experience leading complex operational services in large-scale delivery environments with strong skills in governance and risk management. Must demonstrate a track record of building inclusive, high-performing teams and managing senior stakeholder relationships.
Job Description
This role requires regular attendance at an ONS office, with a minimum of 2-3 days per week worked on site. The postholder will be expected to work in the office on a regular basis to undertake in‑person activities. This level of attendance will apply for most of the programme, although requirements may vary at different stages, with periods of increased or reduced on-site working in response to census priorities, delivery phases and business need.
The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.
Please refer to attachments for further terms and flexibilities.
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.
Be at the heart of one of the UK's most significant data transformation programmes.
Census 2031 represents our most ambitious data collection programme 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 Census 2021, we're pioneering new ways to reach every household and community, ensuring no one is left uncounted. The insights generated will inform policy decisions, guide funding, and support the planning of services and communities across the country for years to come.
Working at the heartbeat of Census 2031, you'll be right in the middle of the action, acting as a central point within the programme and helping to connect people, services, and delivery partners. You'll work closely with senior leaders and colleagues across operational delivery, digital, data, policy, communications, and programme management, providing leadership that ensures activities are aligned, risks are understood, and delivery remains on track. This is a unique opportunity to gain exposure to a high-profile national programme while helping shape a project of national importance.
As a visible senior leader, you will be expected to build strong relationships across teams and stakeholders, leading collaboration and driving delivery in a complex environment. The role requires regular office attendance, participation in meetings, workshops, and key programme events, and being present where important decisions are made. Your leadership, judgement, and influence will be critical in bringing teams together and maintaining momentum across multiple workstreams.
Job Description
As Head of Operational Management, you will provide strategic leadership across complex operational services, ensuring delivery teams, suppliers, and stakeholders work together effectively to deliver high-quality outcomes. You will be responsible for shaping and planning operational services, establishing governance, performance, and assurance frameworks, and ensuring risks, resources, budgets, and operational priorities are managed effectively.
Working across multidisciplinary and matrix-managed teams, you will drive operational performance, readiness, and continuous improvement while providing insight and assurance to senior leaders. You will identify emerging risks and opportunities, ensure decisions are informed by evidence and data, and help shape the strategic direction of the Directorate to support wider organisational objectives.
As a senior leader, you will set the vision and direction for teams, champion inclusive leadership, and build capability to deliver both current priorities and future ambitions. For Grade 6 roles, there is an additional focus on leading long-term operational improvement, strengthening leadership capability, and implementing new operating models and organisational change, while maintaining the delivery of critical operational services and strategic objectives.
As a visible senior leader at the heart of the programme, this role is based in Titchfield. Regular office attendance is required to provide leadership and support to teams, lead workshops and engagement activities, strengthen collaboration across workstreams, and ensure the successful delivery of this high-profile programme.
Responsibilities
- Set the strategic direction for operational delivery, ensuring services are designed, integrated and delivered effectively to achieve organisational objectives.
- Establish and oversee operational performance management frameworks, ensuring management information, insight and analysis are used to drive operational performance, inform strategic decisions and support delivery outcomes.
- Provide leadership and assurance across operational governance, controls and decision-making arrangements, ensuring effective oversight and accountability across services and suppliers.
- Lead the management of significant operational risks, issues and dependencies, ensuring appropriate mitigations, escalation and senior decision-making.
- Establish and maintain operational readiness, resilience and business continuity frameworks, ensuring services are prepared to respond effectively to changing demands and disruptive events.
- Provide strategic leadership during major operational incidents and service disruptions, ensuring effective coordination, recovery and organisational learning.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with senior stakeholders, devolved governments, delivery partners and suppliers to enable integrated, effective and efficient service delivery.
- Lead the development and implementation of operational communication strategies, ensuring stakeholders and senior leaders receive timely, accurate and actionable information.
- Drive a culture of continuous improvement, innovation and learning, using operational insight, assurance activities and lessons learned to improve organisational performance and service outcomes.
- Lead, inspire and develop high-performing, inclusive teams, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, wellbeing and continuous professional development.
- Provide strategic leadership across complex operational services, ensuring alignment between organisational priorities, operational delivery, commercial arrangements and supplier performance.
Working across multidisciplinary and matrix-managed teams, you will drive operational performance, readiness, and continuous improvement while providing insight and assurance to senior leaders. You will identify emerging risks and opportunities, ensure decisions are informed by evidence and data, and help shape the strategic direction of the Directorate to support wider organisational objectives.
As a senior leader, you will set the vision and direction for teams, champion inclusive leadership, and build capability to deliver both current priorities and future ambitions. For Grade 6 roles, there is an additional focus on leading long-term operational improvement, strengthening leadership capability, and implementing new operating models and organisational change, while maintaining the delivery of critical operational services and strategic objectives.
As a visible senior leader at the heart of the programme, this role is based in Titchfield. Regular office attendance is required to provide leadership and support to teams, lead workshops and engagement activities, strengthen collaboration across workstreams, and ensure the successful delivery of this high-profile programme.
Responsibilities
- Set the strategic direction for operational delivery, ensuring services are designed, integrated and delivered effectively to achieve organisational objectives.
- Establish and oversee operational performance management frameworks, ensuring management information, insight and analysis are used to drive operational performance, inform strategic decisions and support delivery outcomes.
- Provide leadership and assurance across operational governance, controls and decision-making arrangements, ensuring effective oversight and accountability across services and suppliers.
- Lead the management of significant operational risks, issues and dependencies, ensuring appropriate mitigations, escalation and senior decision-making.
- Establish and maintain operational readiness, resilience and business continuity frameworks, ensuring services are prepared to respond effectively to changing demands and disruptive events.
- Provide strategic leadership during major operational incidents and service disruptions, ensuring effective coordination, recovery and organisational learning.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with senior stakeholders, devolved governments, delivery partners and suppliers to enable integrated, effective and efficient service delivery.
- Lead the development and implementation of operational communication strategies, ensuring stakeholders and senior leaders receive timely, accurate and actionable information.
- Drive a culture of continuous improvement, innovation and learning, using operational insight, assurance activities and lessons learned to improve organisational performance and service outcomes.
- Lead, inspire and develop high-performing, inclusive teams, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, wellbeing and continuous professional development.
- Provide strategic leadership across complex operational services, ensuring alignment between organisational priorities, operational delivery, commercial arrangements and supplier performance.
Essential Skills Criteria:
- Proven experience leading complex operational services, programmes, or functions within a large-scale delivery environment, with the ability to navigate change, manage competing priorities, and deliver outcomes in a fast-paced and complex environment. (Lead)
- Strong experience of operational governance, assurance, risk management and performance management, driving delivery through effective oversight and control.
- Ability to use management information, data and insight to inform decision-making, improve performance and support the delivery of organisational objectives.
- Experience working across organisational boundaries, building effective relationships with senior stakeholders, suppliers, delivery partners and devolved administrations.
- Strong leadership skills with a track record of building, developing and inspiring inclusive, high-performing teams.
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Delivering at Pace
- Making Effective Decisions
- Managing a Quality Service
- Leadership
- Seeing the Big Picture
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.
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.
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, CV, skills, experience, 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.
Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be undertaken using the lead Essential Criteria, which you will address through Stage 3 of the process. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to interview.
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.
This assessment will consist of a scenario-based presentation exercise. Candidates will be provided with a scenario and supporting information and will have 15 minutes to review the information and prepare their response.
Candidates will then deliver a 5-minute presentation outlining their response to the scenario.
Following the presentation, the panel will move on to the formal interview, where candidates will be asked the remaining interview questions.
Interviews will take place in person at our Titchfield (Fareham) Office. Please note that travel expenses will not be reimbursed. You will also be required to bring valid photo identification to your interview.
Our main locations are Newport (South Wales), Darlington and Titchfield.
A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.
Important Dates:
The Sift will be conducted from 04/09/2026
Interviews will be conducted from 18/09/2026
Dates are subject to change.
For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.
Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.
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 : Lisa Moore
- Email : Lisa.Moore@ons.gov.uk
- Email : Recruitmentoperations@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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