About us
At Lothian Pension Fund (LPF), we administer the local government pension scheme (LGPS) in Edinburgh and the Lothians and are one of approximately a hundred LGPS funds in the UK. We’re an asset-backed and multi-employer scheme with around £10.3 billion of assets and we were 157% funded at our last valuation in 2023. We’re proud to serve over 95,400 members and 58 contributing employers.
LPF is a growing, vibrant, and exciting place to work. We offer flexible working and a blended work model, working both from home and our spacious city centre office. We have many social and wellbeing initiatives to ensure we keep our sense of community alive even during challenging times.
The continued professional development of our colleagues is important to us, so we provide access to a wide range of resources to build their expertise, skills and confidence.
The Role
The Interim IT Service Design Consultant is fixed term role at LPF. This role will be responsible for leading the structured gathering, validation, and documentation of Lothian Pension Fund’s requirements for the re-procurement of its Managed Service Provider (MSP).
The primary output of the role is the production of a comprehensive, procurement-ready specification that clearly articulates LPF’s functional, operational, service management, security, governance, and contractual requirements, and which can be used as the foundation for a compliant public sector tender.
The role provides dedicated capacity and specialist expertise to ensure that the MSP specifical is robust, future-focused, auditable, and aligned with LPF’s IT strategy, service objectives and regulatory obligations.
This project role will be complete once the postholder has delivered:
- A complete, coherent MSP procurement specification, suitable for inclusion in a formal public sector tender, covering:
- Functional and non-functional service requirements
- Operational support and service quality expectations
- Service management processes and governance arrangements
- Information security, resilience, regulatory and assurance requirements
- Commercial, contractual, transition and exit provisions
- Supporting requirements documentation demonstrating:
- Stakeholder assumptions, constraints, and dependencies
- Current state vs future state considerations
- Key design decisions and trade-offs
- A clear audit trail demonstrating how requirements were identified, validated, and agreed with key stakeholders and assurance functions.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Requirements Discovery and Analysis
- Plan and run a structured requirements-gathering approach across IT, Information Security, Risk & Compliance, Finance, Operations, Investments, other support teams and key business stakeholders.
- Analyse existing MSP documentation, service catalogues, contracts, performance reports, and known issues to establish a robust baseline.
- Design and facilitate workshops, interviews, and working sessions to capture:
- Current-state challenges and risks
- Future-state service expectations and priorities
- Constraints, dependencies, and non-negotiable requirements
- Identify and document:
- Core service requirements (infrastructure, end-user computing, service desk, third-party coordination)
- Service levels, KPIs, reporting, and governance expectations
- Transition, service transfer, and exit management requirements, including regulatory considerations.
Act as an objective facilitator, reconciling differing viewpoints and challenging assumptions where appropriate.
- Ensure all requirements are clearly documented, traceable to stakeholders, and formally agreed at appropriate stages.2. Service Management and Operation Model Definition
- Define requirements for the future MSP operating model, including:
- ITIL-aligned processes (incident, problem, change, service request, capacity, continuity)
- Roles, responsibilities, and RACI expectations between LPF and the MSP
- Governance rhythms (service reviews, performance reporting, escalation)
- Ensure alignment with LPF’s wider IT service management processes.
- Explicitly document governance and assurance expectations so they are measurable and contractually enforceable.3. Security, Risk, and Compliance Requirements
- Work closely with Information Security and Risk & Compliance to embed:
- ISO 27001-aligned security requirements
- Regulatory expectations relevant to pensions and public sector outsourcing (including exit, resilience, and third-party risk management)
- Minimum security standards, assurance evidence, and audit rights.
- Ensure requirements are expressed in a way that enables meaningful evaluation during procurement.4. Specification Development and Validation
- Produce a single, coherent specification document (or structured set of documents) that:
- Is internally consistent, unambiguous, and proportionate
- Clearly separates mandatory requirements from desirable features
- Supports objective evaluation and quality scoring
- Ensure consistency across technical, operational, governance, and contractual elements of the specification.5. Project, Change & Decision Governance
- Establish project and change governance, including:
- Clear milestones, dependencies, and decision points
- Tracking of risk, issues, assumptions, and interdependencies
- Maintain a clear audit trail of decisions, trade-offs, and approvals.
- Provide structured progress updates to the Head of IT & Change and inputs to the Senior Leadership Team as required.
What experience are we looking for?
Minimum requirements:
- Proven delivery of complex IT procurement or re-procurement exercises, ideally involving Managed Service Providers or outsourced IT services.
- Demonstrable experience operating in public sector or regulated environments, with an understanding of compliance, auditability, and proportionality.
- Strong practical knowledge of IT service delivery and ITIL-aligned MSP models.
- Experience translating technical, operational, and security needs into clear, supplier-neutral procurement requirements.
- Excellent requirements elicitation, analysis, and documentation skills.
- Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to challenge, broker consensus, and maintain momentum across diverse groups.
- Ability to work independently, manage competing inputs, and deliver high-quality outputs within defined timescales.
- High level of attention to detail, clarity of written expression, and governance awareness.
- Clean standard vetting checks.
The following criteria is desirable:
- Familiarity with ISO 27001, third-party risk management, and information security assurance.
- Experience working in or with pensions / financial services organisations.
- Previous involvement in MSP transition, service transfer, or exit planning.
- Knowledge of UK public sector procurement frameworks and evaluation practices.
How to apply and the assessment process
Please upload your CV and a covering letter, which includes a supporting statement explaining why you’d be a great fit for the role. CVs on their own won’t be accepted as an application for the role.
Our core and flexible benefits
You’ll benefit from a highly competitive salary, a discretionary variable pay award and a wide range of colleague benefits, including:
- A generous defined benefit pension scheme
- A hybrid model of working, both from home and in our new office in the centre of Edinburgh
- Flexible working to support both your needs and those of our organisation
- An all-inclusive gender-neutral parent policy covering maternity, paternity, surrogacy, and adoption
- A free and confidential Employee Assistance Programme to support you and your family through any concerns or challenges you may face
- Award programme based on peer-to-peer nominations
- A cash bonus recruitment referral programme
- Access to the Salary Extras portal which offers to a range of amazing discounts and services such as a voluntary healthcare plan, gym and retailer discounts, bike to work and tech scheme
Equal Opportunities (including our support for Public Sector Equality Duty)
Lothian Pension Fund is committed to promoting a diverse, equal, and inclusive culture and welcomes applications from people of all sectors of the community.
We encourage people from under-represented communities to apply, including but not limited to those with disabilities, from minority ethnic groups, who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, and all those who feel their voices are not commonly represented.
If you need any adjustments to support your application, such as information in alternative formats or if you’re eligible under the Disability Confident Scheme please contact us and we’ll do everything we can to help.
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