Senior IT Service Manager

The locations for this role 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.

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

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.

Our Digital Services (DS) Directorate develops and operates much of the technology and service that ONS uses to deliver. Demand for data and statistics are increasing, and DS has a critical role in enabling the business to meet these demands.

We are seeking an experienced Senior IT Service Manager to join the Statistical Business Register division within the Digital Services Directorate.

The Statistical Business Register (SBR) is currently being developed to replace the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). The SBR will hold a comprehensive list of UK businesses and will be used as the main sampling frame for surveys of businesses carried out by ONS and other government departments. It will be made up by a collection of different products. The transition from IDBR to SBR will be delivered through a number of different transition phases.

Job Description

In this role as a Senior IT Service Manager for SBR and will be heavily involved in the development of the support wrapper needed for the service when it starts its operational journey later this year. The IT Service Manager will be responsible for ensuring that the support processes and procedures are owned and matured inline with the different transition phases. They will be responsible for ensuring adequate resources and capacity is available across the relevant support teams to provide a comprehensive support wrapper for SBR. This includes user support, incident and problem management as well as standard maintenance, etc.

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of secure, reliable and high-performing IT services that meet business needs and organisational priorities.
• Provide strategic leadership to technical teams, service functions and third-party suppliers, ensuring accountability, performance and service excellence.
• Own and govern IT Service Management processes, including incident, request, change, release, asset and configuration management.
• Establish, manage and report on SLAs, OLAs and KPIs, using performance data and management information to drive improvements.
• Act as a senior escalation point for major incidents and service issues, ensuring timely resolution and minimal disruption to live services.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, delivery teams and suppliers to ensure services remain aligned with organisational requirements.
• Manage day-to-day service delivery while balancing operational performance, risk, service improvement and project delivery activities.
• Drive continual service improvement through automation, data analysis, user feedback, best practice sharing and effective governance and compliance.
• Manage service risk, resilience and performance, acting as a senior escalation point for major incidents while ensuring robust reporting, compliance and informed decision-making.
  
  

In this role as a Senior IT Service Manager for SBR and will be heavily involved in the development of the support wrapper needed for the service when it starts its operational journey later this year. The IT Service Manager will be responsible for ensuring that the support processes and procedures are owned and matured inline with the different transition phases. They will be responsible for ensuring adequate resources and capacity is available across the relevant support teams to provide a comprehensive support wrapper for SBR. This includes user support, incident and problem management as well as standard maintenance, etc.

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of secure, reliable and high-performing IT services that meet business needs and organisational priorities.
• Provide strategic leadership to technical teams, service functions and third-party suppliers, ensuring accountability, performance and service excellence.
• Own and govern IT Service Management processes, including incident, request, change, release, asset and configuration management.
• Establish, manage and report on SLAs, OLAs and KPIs, using performance data and management information to drive improvements.
• Act as a senior escalation point for major incidents and service issues, ensuring timely resolution and minimal disruption to live services.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, delivery teams and suppliers to ensure services remain aligned with organisational requirements.
• Manage day-to-day service delivery while balancing operational performance, risk, service improvement and project delivery activities.
• Drive continual service improvement through automation, data analysis, user feedback, best practice sharing and effective governance and compliance.
• Manage service risk, resilience and performance, acting as a senior escalation point for major incidents while ensuring robust reporting, compliance and informed decision-making.
  
  

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Strategic Leadership, Stakeholder Relationship Management – A strong and proactive leader with broad technical understanding, capable of leading multi-disciplinary teams, driving continuous improvement, and developing team capability and performance. They will provide strategic leadership and clear direction across IT service functions, developing service strategies, driving organisational change, and ensuring services align with business objectives. They will build, manage, and influence relationships across organisational boundaries, including senior stakeholders and 3rd party suppliers, acting as a senior escalation point, shaping engagement strategies, and fostering effective collaboration to achieve successful business and service outcomes.
• User Focus – demonstrate a real drive and passion for excellent user experience, employee enablement and continuous improvement by leading service excellence and user-focused delivery, applying insight into evolving user needs, selecting effective tools and methods, and ensuring high-quality services are delivered across multiple channels.
• Business Analysis - Able to identify risks, owning and providing plans for mitigation, considering the impact on the wider organisation. They will use data, analytics and business insight to inform decisions, monitor service performance, evaluate risks, identify trends, and drive improvements that enhance business outcomes.
• Ownership & Initiative - A driven individual, that takes accountability for issues that occur, through to resolution and is proactive in searching for potential problems and analysing trends. They will also own service risks, issues and continuous improvement activities, implementing mitigations, improving resilience, and proactively identifying opportunities to optimise services.
• Apply a strategic view across the wider service landscape, balancing operational delivery with long-term service development, team performance, governance requirements, and organisational priorities.
  
  

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
  
  

Alongside your salary of £56,861, Office for National Statistics contributes £16,472 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

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.

ONS are committed to flexible ways of working that support a healthy work-life balance. ONS has already considered how this job could be right sized for applicants working flexibly and we are happy to explore options with you about working part time, in a job share or flexibly, in line with our hybrid working policies.

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
  
  

Please note we will reach out to you once the advert has closed to confirm eligibility for this role, this will be via an e-mail. Please check your junk e-mails for any correspondence.

Visa Sponsorship

ONS can offer visa sponsorship as part of this recruitment campaign. However, applicants must still hold valid right to work in the UK at the point employment commences.

To work at the ONS, candidates must meet both UK right to work and security clearance requirements (where applicable).

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 word count 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.

In instances where a high number of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted, and candidates will be invited to interview based on merit order, i.e., those with the highest scores.

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.

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.

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.

You will be required to provide a 10 minute presentation at interview. The presentation topic will be emailed to candidates who have passed the initial online application stage, 1 week prior to interview. This presentation will assess candidates against the Success Profiles Behaviour Managing a quality service.

Interviews will be via Microsoft Teams.

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Important Dates

• Eligibility Security Clearance checks from 07/08 - 14/08. Please be aware that we will be sending you an e-mail with a form to fill out.
• Sift will be conducted from 17/08/2026
• Interviews will be conducted from 07/09/2026
  
  

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 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 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.

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
• Email : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk
  
  

Recruitment team

• Email : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk
  
  

Further information

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