Service Delivery Manager (Grade M1) in Edinburgh

Application Deadline: 8 February 2026

Department: Corporate Services

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Edinburgh - Hybrid

Compensation: M1 Grade £64,659 - £76,260. Civil Service Pension. Flexible Working Hours. Hybrid Working.

Description: To lead and develop the successful delivery of projects that supports Scottish Funding Council’s (SFC’s) mission within the digital environment. As the champion of Agile and innovative project management practices, this role will work collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders to deliver high quality projects, on time, within budget, ensuring they are operating to contract and their delivery is optimised for SFC.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop the service delivery for designated digital products and platforms, including meeting SLAs, security and accessibility standards.
• Plan and deliver change using agile methods (Scrum/Kanban), maintain product backlogs, roadmaps and release plans and embed continuous improvement.
• Champion user‑centred design (Digital Scotland Service Standard) through discovery, prototyping and usability assurance.
• Turn strategy into outcomes, align roadmaps and investment cases to CIO priorities and Scotland’s public service reform agenda.
• Drive data‑informed decisions, define service KPI’s/Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) using analytics and feedback loops to prioritise and improve.
• Deliver strong governance risk management, aligned with SFC’s risk management framework.
• Manage supplier delivery to contracted outcomes and co-ordinate cross‑agency dependencies (e.g. Scottish Government, colleges, universities and SDS).
• Partner with internal and external teams to ensure robust, secure, cost‑effective digital services.
• Contribute to financial planning, benefits tracking and value for money across the portfolio of SFC’s digital services.
• Coach teams and senior leadership in agile and service management, promote an inclusive, learning‑oriented digital culture.
• Lead and develop pragmatic roadmaps that demonstrate SFC’s evolution in digital maturity.
• Lead and develop the digital project team.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise:

It is important through your CV / Cover Letter that you give evidence of proven experience of each of the following essential criteria:

Essential:

• Proven end‑to‑end ownership of digital services, delivering to defined outcomes through an evidence-based approach.
• Demonstrable agile delivery experience coordinating multidisciplinary teams and suppliers, clear backlog, sprint and release management, ideally using Scrum or Kanban.
• Strong user‑centred design orientation experience running or using discovery, user research, prototyping and usability testing.
• Strong experience in designing and delivering projects against KPI’s/OKR’s, using analytics, feedback and insight to prioritise and improve.
• Risk, incident & change management in a live service context, familiarity with ITIL or equivalent service management practices.
• Excellent stakeholder management experience across business and technology with the ability to negotiate and persuade non-technical experts, translating needs into roadmaps and executable plans with clear written and verbal communication.
• Strong organisation and project management, ability to balance strategic priorities with day‑to‑day delivery in a dynamic and changing environment.

Terms and Benefits:

• Normal full-time hours of work are 35 per week. We will consider flexible working arrangements. A flexi-time system is in operation.
• Annual leave entitlement of 26.5 days pro-rata, rising to 30 days pro-rata after 2 years’ continuous service. Public and privilege holiday entitlement of 13 days pro-rata.
• A flexible approach to hybrid working, giving you flexibility to work from home anywhere in the UK for some of the time while also maintaining regular in-person contact with colleagues.
• Annual pay review: approved within the framework of the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Policy and negotiated with our recognised trade union, Unite. Salaries are reviewed annually in April for employees who commence employment prior to 1 October in the preceding year.
• Eligibility to join the Civil Service Pension Scheme. With its low member contribution rates and generous employer contributions, this gives you a secure, inflation-proof pension for life with no investment uncertainty.