Deputy Director, Data Maturity & Transformation

Help government make data part of everyday work.

Government has a data strategy, agreed standards and a growing set of shared platforms. What it doesn't yet have is a reliable way to make sure the whole public sector uses them in live services and everyday decisions, rather than leaving them on the shelf.

Your job is to turn our data ambitions into habits that stick across departments, arm's-length bodies and the wider public sector. You'll do it by helping teams stand on their own feet, not by doing the work for them.

What you'll do

• Roll up your sleeves, then leave: Give departments short, hands-on help to adopt data standards, architectures and governance.
• Back the places that matter most: Put your effort where the risk, the impact or the dependency is greatest.
• Get government ready for AI: Improve the data capability, organisational readiness and capacity for change that real-world AI needs.
• Measure how mature we are: Lead a government-wide approach to data maturity and readiness.
• Let the evidence steer the plan: Feed what you learn into the Strategic Data Roadmap.
• Grow people as well as platforms: Lead the development of data literacy, skills and communities of practice.
• Build once and reuse everywhere: Promote consistent approaches, so we end up with fewer bespoke solutions and less fragmentation.
• Help teams in sensitive places: Support teams working in national security and other sensitive areas.
• Turn insight into action: You're accountable for making sure what maturity and readiness work tells us leads to joined-up action across the system.
• Lead a great team: Build and lead multidisciplinary enablement teams that deliver well and enjoy working together.

What success looks like

• One joined-up approach to data transformation across government, and faster take-up of the agreed standards and services.
• Better data maturity, literacy and confidence in departments, arm's-length bodies and local government.
• Practical help that improves data quality, management and interoperability right at the source.
• Departments that are ready to use data and AI in operations, analysis and decisions.
• Strong communities of practice and learning pathways that keep improvement going.
• Proof that it has stuck: better use of data in live services and decisions, and a steady fall in reliance on central enablement.

The honest bit

Departments start from very different places, and you can't order them to change. You'll make progress by being useful, so expect to spend a lot of your time listening, persuading, showing the opportunities and removing blockers.

Benefits

• Flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• A Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• An extra day off for the King's birthday
• An in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• Career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• A focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• Job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• Advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• Death in service benefits
• Cycle to work scheme and facilities
• Access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• Volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• Access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning