Ministry of Justice on the look-out for new director to set digital and technology vision

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is on the hunt for a new Head of Digital Capability and Engagement, who will take on a wide-ranging role within the Department and be responsible for setting and embedding its digital and technology strategy.

The position commands a salary of up to £117,800 and the chosen candidate will join a management team that is aiming to drive and instil a “culture of continuous improvement”.

The MoJ is an interesting Department in terms of its digital development. It and its executive agencies are responsible for some very ambitious programmes - including the HM Courts and Tribunals Service’s £1.2 billion transformation programme - and it has also recently revealed that it is planning to move thousands of its systems to the public cloud.

In a recent blog posting, the MoJ said that moving to the cloud meant both saving money and being better “able to manage, change, improve, and secure our systems and the data they hold, as well as making it easier to make them more resilient to failure”.

The MoJ’s Digital and Technology team is made up of approximately 900 specialists, who are located throughout the UK, and support 70,000 staff working across the Department.

As well as making use of technologies such as AWS and Azure, the Department has introduced new ways of working through Office 365 and Google Docs, as well as agile development and “data-driven thinking”.

Commenting on the new role, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Tom Read, said:

“Our vision is a digitally-enabled end-to-end justice system which can adapt and respond to changing needs. Can you help us get there?

“Why should you work for us? First and foremost, because we build things that matter. There are millions of people interacting with our services every year, often at the most difficult times of their lives. We want to provide them with simple to use, effective services which are built around their needs and help to improve access to justice.

“The Ministry of Justice is in the process of establishing a functional model for Digital and Technology. These roles will be fundamental to the success of the functional approach. It is be vital that we form a collaborative and innovative leadership team to both drive change and enable the excellent work of the Ministry of Justice's agencies as they transform some of the most fundamental services offered by government.”

The role

The MoJ has said that one of the significant challenges that lies ahead will be the embedding of an ‘insourcing’ approach to technology strategy and expanding internal capability. The chosen candidate will join the operations team, which will be responsible for enabling employees to get on with delivery, as well as instilling a culture of accountability, value for money and “commerciality”.

Ultimately, the role has also been formed to raise the profile of digital and technology professions and will take overall responsibility for large scale recruitment of digital and technology specialists.

The successful candidate will be responsible for setting the strategic vision for digital and technology capability within the MoJ, ensuring alignment with the departmental and Civil Service strategic aims. They will work in partnership with the Government Digital Service and be responsible for “workforce planning, ensuring the appropriate mix of civil servants, contractors, outsourced arrangements, apprenticeships and internships”.

There is also an engagement element to the position, as whoever is chosen will develop an engagement strategy, with the aim of building the MoJ’s digital and technology brand both inside and outside of the department.

In terms of the specifications of the people applying, the MoJ said it is looking for an “outstanding, empathetic and inclusive leader” that can display:

• Experience in shaping and building digital and technology capability
• Delivering digitally enabled organisational transformation programmes
• Building an engagement strategy
• Excellent leadership skills with experience of leading performance in an inclusive culture and geographically dispersed teams
• Understands the digital and technology talent market
• Understands business change concepts
• Rapidly understand user needs and deliver appropriate solutions
•  Highly developed interpersonal and influencing skills, with the ability to establish and maintain effective relationships with senior stakeholders, aligning views and goals, and quickly building credibility
• Commercial acumen and ability to negotiate with both suppliers and staff

Applicants have until the 18th November to submit their applications online and a shortlist is expected to be announced by Friday 23rd November. Interviews will take place in London on Monday 3rd December.