Digital Operations Manager in Edinburgh

Business Area/Directorate – Directorate for Corporate Operations

Location – Saughton House, Edinburgh

Working Arrangement – Staff in roles compatible with hybrid working should aim to spend 40% of their contracted working time working in person at their contractual workplace. More information can be found within Hybrid Working Policy.

Grade – C1

Advert type – SG Wide Lateral EOI

Duration - Permanent

Eligibility - Expressions of interest are invited from eligible staff at substantive C1 grade. Please note that level transfers are only open to individuals who are Core Scottish Government Staff.

Sponsorship: This role has been assessed as eligible for Skilled Worker sponsorship and is therefore being advertised with the option of sponsorship where required. Any offer of sponsorship remains subject to the individual meeting all other relevant Home Office eligibility and compliance requirements at the time of appointment.

Overview:

Lead the delivery and continuous improvement of critical digital services that support thousands of users, driving operational excellence across corporate systems.

Join our Digital Operations team within iTECS as a Digital Operations Manager, where you will provide strategic leadership for the delivery, support and continual improvement of critical corporate services across the organisation. The Digital Operations team is responsible for the live running, development and maintenance of a diverse portfolio of applications. Our mission is to deliver reliable, secure and user-focused technology services that enable business priorities, drive operational excellence and provide outstanding outcomes for colleagues and customers.

Reporting to the Head of Digital Operations, as Digital Operations Manager you are responsible for major aspects of application support for corporate systems such as Oracle Cloud, Staff Directory and eRDM making recommendations for the improvement of support operations and economies, wherever and whenever possible. This includes reviewing support costs, managing contracts, leading change programmes, coordinating the branch’s projects and setting the strategy for overall budgetary control of services.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead, motivate and develop teams of technical specialists to deliver continual service improvements across Oracle Cloud and various other corporate systems.
• Demonstrate a strong understanding of relevant technical concepts and articulate how they fit within the wider technology landscape.
• Evaluate and establish requirements for the implementation of change through the development of policies, standards and best practices.
• Take ownership of issues and incidents, proactively identifying and addressing potential risks and problems and ensuring they are clearly communicated.
• Manage configuration management across the organisation, ensuring value for the business and compliance with organisational policies.
• Lead the IT service management function, ensuring appropriate resources, capability and capacity are in place.
• Represent the IT service management function at a senior level in the Corporate Operations Directorate and act as an escalation point for business stakeholders.
• Analyse and interpret large volumes of complex and sometimes conflicting information to develop effective solutions.
• Determine and communicate the strategic vision and direction for digital operations and service management.
• Build and maintain effective relationships, positively influencing senior stakeholders and decision-makers.
• Ensure changes to IT assets are recorded, controlled and governed appropriately.

Qualifications

Success Profile

Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of behaviours, experience and technical criteria (if applicable) that candidates will be assessed on.

Experience:

• Demonstrable experience supporting and managing Windows-based and/or Oracle Cloud applications and infrastructure, with a solid understanding of IT service management disciplines, including incident, change, and problem management.
• Good analytical skills to be able to scrutinise service delivery metrics vs requirements to identify opportunities to meet customer needs through technological solutions.
• A demonstrable knowledge of methods and techniques for risk management, business impact analysis, countermeasures and contingency arrangements relating to the serious disruption of IT services.
• Experience of developing and managing services which deliver value to customers, and the ability to build and manage relationships experience across varied stakeholders; with an ability to communicate the benefits to be gained from IT and where it can be utilised to meet business challenges.
• A commitment to continual service improvement; you will be willing to challenge established practices, using evidence to develop and deliver a better service to your customers. This will include streamlining processes to ensure you can focus on delivering support for new business critical technologies. You will have a proven ability of delivering customer focused service improvements which have measurable additional value for customers.

Experience is assessed at sift, along with a more in-depth assessment at interview.

Behaviours:

• Changing and Improving (Level 4)
• Working Together (Level 4)

You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours, here. Behaviours are assessed at interview. Full details will be shared in advance with all candidates invited to this stage.

Technical Skills:

This role is aligned to the IT Service Manager role within the IT Operations Job Family.

• Asset and configuration management - Expert
• Continual service improvement - Practitioner
• Ownership and initiative - Practitioner
• Relationship Management - Expert
• Service reporting - Practitioner
• Strategic thinking - Expert
• Technical understanding - Practitioner

You can find out more about the skills required, here: IT service manager - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. These skills are assessed by technical assessment, designed to represent the role. Candidates reaching this stage will receive a Technical Assessment Candidate Pack which outlines the specific skills to be assessed, plus the method of assessment.

Working Pattern

This post is a full-time role, but we welcome applications from staff with different working patterns, proposed working patterns will be assessed against the business requirements for this post.

How to apply

Apply online, providing a CV and Supporting Statement (of no more than 750 words) which provides evidence of how you meet each of the 4 Experience criteria listed in the Success Profile above. Candidates will have their applications assessed against all Experience criteria.

Vacancy closes at 23:59pm on Sunday 6 September.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application, but all statements and examples provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Please see our candidate guidance for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment.

If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and GDD Technical assessment where the behaviours, experiences and technical skills outlined in the Success Profile will be assessed. The sift is scheduled for w/c Monday 7th September. Interviews and Technical assessments are scheduled for w/c Monday 21st September, please note that these dates could be subject to change.

Recruitment Principles

As a government organisation, we adhere to the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles and we investigate any complaints received in relation to recruitment cases.

About us

The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland. We have responsibility for a wide range of key policy areas including: education, health, the economy, justice, housing and transport. We offer rewarding careers and employ people across Scotland in a wide range of professions and roles.

Our staff are part of the UK Civil Service observing the Civil Service Code and working for Ministers and senior stakeholders to deliver vital public services which improve the lives of the people of Scotland. We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment along with a wide range of employee benefits. Find out more about what we offer.

As part of the UK Civil Service, we uphold the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

Working pattern

Our standard hours are 35 hours per week and we offer a range of flexible working options depending on the needs of the role, including Flexi-leave. Scottish Government staff in hybrid-compatible roles should aim to work in-person 40% of the time, either in an office or other agreed work location.

If you have specific questions about the role you are applying for, please contact us.

If you have specific questions about the role you are applying for, please contact Digitalcareers@gov.scot.

Security checks

Successful candidates must complete the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), before they can be appointed. BPSS is comprised of four main pre-employment checks – Identity, Right to work, Employment History and a Criminal Record check (unspent convictions). You can find out more about BPSS on the UK Government website, or read about the different levels of security checks in our Candidate Guide.

Government Digital and Data (GDD)

The Government Digital and Data (GDD) Profession is a UK-wide group of over 24,000 civil servants dedicated to driving digital transformation in government through more efficient, data-driven public services. This community oversees a wide range of responsibilities, including architects, data scientists, engineers, and content designers, across different, multidisciplinary teams. The profession, sponsored by the Government Digital Service (GDS), offers the frameworks, skills, and development routes necessary for these individuals to thrive and produce improved outcomes for the public.

Equality Statement

We are committed to equality and inclusion, and we aim to recruit a diverse workforce that reflects the population of our nation. Find out more about our commitment to diversity and how we offer and support recruitment adjustments for anyone who needs them.

Further information

Find out more about our organisation, what we offer staff members and how to apply on our Careers Website. Read our Candidate Guide for further information on our recruitment and application processes.

Information & Technology Services (iTECS) is a Division within Scottish Government and part of Corporate Operations Directorate. Having responsibility for:

• Delivering corporate ICT and information services for Scottish Government.
• Delivering shared ICT services (SCOTS Connect) to paying customers across the central government community in Scotland – shared services customers now make up around 50% of the 22,000-user base.
• Protecting Scottish Government’s information and ICT assets.
• Contributing to the delivery of Digital Public Services by ensuring that our people and businesses are making the most of the digital opportunity; and that ICT public services are customer-centric, collaborative, integrated, efficient, and continuously improving by making best use of digital technology.

iTECS provides IT support services for over 100 applications used by the Scottish Government and its Agencies on the SCOTS network. The range of applications supported include critical corporate applications such as Oracle Cloud, Oracle E-Business Suite (legacy SEAS and E HR), Electronic Records and Document Management (ERDM), and Ministerial Correspondence Systems.