Digital Workforce Manager (Ref: 20957) in Edinburgh

Location: Staffordshire, UK; Elgin Ave., London W9 2NR, UK; Scotland; Wales, UK

Salary: 42,914 - 53,081 per year

Employment: Flexible

Category: HR

Posted: 2026-08-15

Valid to: 2026-08-28

Apply: Application Link

Employer: Ministry of Justice

This is a Nationally based role.

Digital Workforce Manager

Closing Date: 27th August 2026

Interviews: w/c 7th September 2026

Grade: SEO (MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary: London: 49,325 - 53,081 National: 42,914 - 46,182

Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working

Contract Type: 2 Year Fixed Term appointment (with the potential for the role to become permanent - subject to review)

Number of vacancies: 1

Vacancy number: 20957

We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office.

The Role

We’re recruiting for a Digital Workforce Manager here at Justice Digital, Data and Science to be part of our warm and collaborative Enabling Services team. When our managers want to recruit great people for their team, working on some of the largest technology programmes in the Civil Service, they will come to you looking for expert advice, solutions and guidance. You will enjoy partnering and crafting relationships and will be someone who takes pride in providing a slick, great hiring experience.

As a Digital Workforce Manager, you will belong to a warm and welcoming team that works at pace, collaborating and contributing to a range of exciting change projects and sit as part of our broader Strategy & Operations team. We are responsible for enabling our colleagues to get on with delivery by instilling a culture of accountability, value for money and commerciality across Justice Digital and we want to make it a great place to work.

What will your day look like?

You’ll be blending your people management skills and passion for delivering an outstanding customer experience with your love of data and information. It’s crucial that you’re confident in spreadsheet analysis and turning this into engaging and informative content for our senior management and directors. Your advice will shape and influence the creation of robust Workforce Plans across the department, and you’ll use this data to ensure our recruitment delivery is strategically aligned, smooth and efficient.

Every day is slightly different from the last, with new and exciting projects to get involved with; we’re a team that pride ourselves on welcoming and encouraging change and innovation, so someone with big ideas and bold goals will surely succeed.

You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:

• A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
• 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours. Designed to support a positive work–life balance.
• Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
• A 1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!

Key Responsibilities:

• Workforce Planning: Working with the Senior Management Team (SMT), Heads of Profession (HoPs)/Leads & Managers at all levels across Justice Digital, Data and Science to support them in determining their people needs; “the who, the how and the when”. Collaborate with these partners, and with the Recruitment Team, to plan, monitor and deliver hiring objectives within agreed timeframes, proactively identifying and managing risks.
• Manage and support the end-to-end cycle of annual workforce planning; from collection during annual budget planning to tracking and governance throughout the plan year, including headcount to support business objectives.
• Work with SMT and Finance to forecast workforce growth, establish targets and provide monthly reports on progress and risk.
• Develop and implement wider workforce planning and demand forecasting processes in partnership with SMT, HoPs/Leads, Managers, Budget/Finance teams and recruiters.
• Provide relevant tools and processes, and partner with the Recruitment Team, to drive strategic recruitment that delivers the right people at the right time, and at the right cost.
• Contingent Labour: Support the continued development of the Business Case Writing process for Contingent Labour requests, critically assessing current procedures and constantly iterating improvements. Ensure compliance with governance and approval processes to provide the best value for money when deploying a contingent labour resource.
• Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of Contingent Labour resources within Justice Digital, monitoring tenure lengths and highlighting risks. Ensure contingent labour usage is effective, within framework and compliant in use.
• Provide expert advice to Directors and Deputies, ensuring their contingent labour workforce remains sustainable and within forecast.
• Support and facilitate the fortnightly Business Case review meeting, reporting outcomes and delivering responses back to the business in a professional, supportive and engaging manner.
• Reporting: Create and develop new reporting tools and dashboards to support business decision-making and provide ad-hoc analytics to SMTs, HoPs/Leads and Managers.
• Develop and produce a range of regular reports that support the wider Recruitment & People Teams.

Person Specification

Essential:

• Experience in a workforce planning, finance, reporting or similar data-related function.
• Experienced in data analysis, using high volumes of data to create informed recommendations to seniors.
• Experience managing stakeholder relations at senior levels.
• Identify and implement improvements to processes, services, or ways of working.
• Communicate clearly and build effective working relationships with a range of stakeholders at senior levels.
• Deliver high-quality, efficient, and customer-focused services.
• Understand organisational priorities and align work to support wider objectives.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for clearance.

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor. Our values are Purpose, Humanity, Openness and Together.

To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

How to Apply

In Justice Digital, Data and Science, we recruit using the Success Profiles Frameworks. We shall assess a combination of your Experience and Behaviours during the assessment process.

Stage 1 - Application and sift: To apply for this position, you must submit the following as part of your application:

• A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). Your CV will be assessed against the essential criteria outlined within the Person Specification of this advert.
• A Personal Statement (no more than 750 words) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken. It should specifically address the following 2 criteria listed below, using a separate paragraph for each.

Experience in a workforce planning, finance, reporting or similar data-related function.

Experienced in data analysis, using high volumes of data to create informed recommendations to seniors.

Candidates who do not adhere to the Personal Statement directions above may be rejected on this basis.

A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and Personal Statement to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement do not include your name or any other identifying details.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on "Experience in a workforce planning, finance, reporting or similar data-related function” will be conducted before the sift.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks.

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)
• 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.

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.

Apply and further information: 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: SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team Email: moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk Telephone: 0345 241 5359