Deputy Director – Employee Experience in Manchester

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Join to apply for the Deputy Director – Employee Experience role at Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Manchester
Job Summary
For the Deputy Director Employee Experience role at DSIT , we are seeking a visionary and dynamic leader who is passionate about transforming the employee journey and helping us reimagine how people connect, grow and thrive at work. In this pivotal role you will:

• Champion bold, human-centred and inclusive strategies that elevate every stage of the employee lifecycle
• Ensure we have the capability and leadership to deliver on the UK’s most ambitious science and technology goals
• Lead with empathy, creativity and data to design experiences that empower and engage
  

This is a chance to shape the future of work in a forward-thinking, purpose-driven organisation.
Job Description
Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate across the organisation to lead and deliver HR Projects that drive civil service reform and enable DSIT objectives and people strategies.
• Work closely with senior leaders, Networks, HR colleagues and cross-government partners to ensure our people strategies are bold, inclusive and impactful.
• Build digital and future-ready capability across the department to meet evolving technological and policy demands.
• Leadership of an enhanced people development offer aligned to departmental skills gaps, ensuring it is accessible, relevant and builds upon strategic workforce planning.
• Responsible for career development and working collaboratively on the Places mission so that colleagues\' careers can grow and progress in their communities.
• Maximise talent through strategic talent management, succession planning and robust talent pipelines, as well as entry routes including apprenticeships and fast stream.
• Design and deliver leadership development that equips our current and future leaders to thrive in a complex, fast-paced environment.
• Work closely with senior leaders, Networks, HR colleagues and cross-government partners to ensure our people strategies are bold, inclusive and impactful.
• Drive initiatives that foster a positive work environment, promoting wellbeing, productivity and employee satisfaction and monitoring and evaluating regularly.
• Champion the HR agenda as a trusted advisor, working alongside the People Director and the senior leadership team to shape the future of our workforce and influence the broader Government People Group community and wider partner organisations.
• Build a culture of innovation, leveraging technology to automate and streamline processes, unlock new solutions, and deliver exceptional results.
• Embed diversity, equality, and inclusion into workstreams, championing a culture where everyone can thrive.
• Inspire a culture of continuous improvement, creativity, and high performance, ensuring our people are empowered to deliver their best.
  

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate across the organisation to lead and deliver HR Projects that drive civil service reform and enable DSIT objectives and people strategies.
• Work closely with senior leaders, Networks, HR colleagues and cross-government partners to ensure our people strategies are bold, inclusive and impactful.
• Build digital and future-ready capability across the department to meet evolving technological and policy demands.
• Leadership of an enhanced people development offer aligned to departmental skills gaps, ensuring it is accessible, relevant and builds upon strategic workforce planning.
• Responsible for career development and working collaboratively on the Places mission so that colleagues\' careers can grow and progress in their communities.
• Maximise talent through strategic talent management, succession planning and robust talent pipelines, as well as entry routes including apprenticeships and fast stream.
• Design and deliver leadership development that equips our current and future leaders to thrive in a complex, fast-paced environment.
• Work closely with senior leaders, Networks, HR colleagues and cross-government partners to ensure our people strategies are bold, inclusive and impactful.
• Drive initiatives that foster a positive work environment, promoting wellbeing, productivity and employee satisfaction and monitoring and evaluating regularly.
• Champion the HR agenda as a trusted advisor, working alongside the People Director and the senior leadership team to shape the future of our workforce and influence the broader Government People Group community and wider partner organisations.
• Build a culture of innovation, leveraging technology to automate and streamline processes, unlock new solutions, and deliver exceptional results.
• Embed diversity, equality, and inclusion into workstreams, championing a culture where everyone can thrive.
• Inspire a culture of continuous improvement, creativity, and high performance, ensuring our people are empowered to deliver their best.
  

Person specification
This is a role where your skills and expertise will provide lasting impact, shaping the workforce of tomorrow and having a direct influence on the delivery of key government priorities. If you’re passionate about people, driven by data, and ready to lead at scale, we want to hear from you. Bring your vision. Build our future. Lead with purpose.
Essential Skills

• Extensive background in HR and a proven track record in leading, communicating and implementing people initiatives or projects in line with both government and departmental objectives.
• A proven ability to influence stakeholders at all levels and deliver user-focused and people-centric initiatives.
• Experience in building capability across an organisation, aligned to departmental and people strategies and enhancing the employee value proposition.
• Strong leadership skills, capable of navigating ambiguity, complexity and motivating teams through change.
  

Desirable Skills

• Expertise in data-driven decision making and people analytics.
• Experience in automating services to enhance user experiences as well as utilising AI tools to deliver them.
• Experience of leading People Development across an organisation.
• Experience of leading and managing complex and impactful HR projects.
• Chartered Fellow/fully qualified member (Level 7) of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or willing to work towards this within a year of being in post.
  

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
  

Alongside your salary of £76,000, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £22,017 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
  

Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.Senior Civil Servant (SCS) staff are expected to aim for closer to 60% of the time at an office or non-home based location over the accounting period.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application via the CS Jobs website by no later than 23:55 on Wednesday 9th July 2025 .
As part of this process, you will be asked to provide:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential and desirable criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages and you should insert your CV into the \"Job History\" section on Civil Service Jobs on the Civil Service Jobs application form.
• A Statement of Suitability (max 1000 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential requirements highlighted.
  

Applications will be sifted on the CV and statement of suitability.
Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only has limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.
As part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select \'prefer not to say\'. The information you provide when submitting your application will help us monitor our progress towards the Civil Service becoming the most inclusive employer.
BRIEFING SESSION
The department would like to offer candidates the opportunity to attend a briefing session with the hiring manager, Helen Mills to discuss the role and responsibilities. This will be held on Tuesday 1st July at 14:00 - 14:30, please click the link below to join:
1st July - 14:00 - 14:30
SHORTLIST
Applications will be sifted to select those demonstrating the best fit with the post against the criteria set out in the person specification. Please ensure you keep this in mind when writing your CV and supporting statement.
The timeline later in this pack indicates the date by which a decision is expected to be made, and all candidates will be advised of the outcome as soon as possible thereafter.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.
ASSESSMENT
If you are shortlisted, you will be asked to take part in a Staff Engagement Exercise in advance of the final panel interview. This assessment will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, it is designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.
INTERVIEW
Shortlisted Candidates Will Be Invited To Attend a Panel Interview To Have a More In-depth Discussion Of Your Previous Experience And Professional Competence In Relation To The Criteria Set Out In The Person Specification. Candidates Will Also Be Assessed Against Strengths And The Following Behaviours At Interview

• Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
  

As part of the process there will be an assessment of skills by a presentation with follow up questions. Full details of the requirements will be given to shortlisted candidates ahead of their interview.
Full details of the assessment process will be provided to shortlisted candidates at the earliest opportunity.
For further information regarding the assessments please visit - .
EXPECTED TIMELINE
We will try and offer as much flexibility as we can, but it may not be possible to offer alternative dates for assessments or interviews. You are therefore asked to note the below timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process, to meet the dates given. Please note that these dates are only indicative may be subject to change. If you anticipate any difficulties attending, please alert upon application
The Anticipated Timetable Is As Follows
Advert closing date: 23:55, Wednesday 9th July 2025
Shortlist: w/c 21st July 2025
Assessments: w/c 28th July 2025
Panel Interviews: w/c 4th August 2025
Further Information
Reasonable Adjustment
We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.
Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in ourDSIT Candidate Guidance. ADSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.
We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the \'Contact point for applicants\' section.
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.
This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.
As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.
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 : SCS Recruitment Team
• Email :
  

Recruitment team

• Email :
  

Further information
Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages at:

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Director

Employment type

• Employment type

  Part-time

Job function

• Job function

  Human Resources

• Industries

  Government Administration

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