Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Child Maintenance Service - Senior Design Lead
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Please note that for candidates requesting to work in Newcastle, this role is based at Benton Park View and will relocate to 1 Pilgrim Place in Newcastle city centre by the end of 2027.
Job Summary
As the UK government’s largest public service provider, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policies.
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) supports parents who are unable to reach a private financial agreement by ensuring – and when necessary, enforcing – their legal responsibility to contribute to their child’s living costs. Our mission is simple: to get money to children, because it makes a real difference in their lives.
While we’ve made significant progress in transforming our service, we remain ambitious about what more we can achieve for the families who rely on us. CMS is a dynamic and rewarding place to work. Step into any of our service centres and you’ll find passionate, dedicated professionals committed to supporting our customers.
We are proud to foster an inclusive and diverse workforce where everyone can thrive. If you're looking to make a difference, this could be the career for you.
This is a fantastic opportunity to start or grow a fulfilling career in the Civil Service. We offer a flexible work-life balance, along with opportunities for growth, challenge, and personal development.
Job Description
The SEO Senior Design Lead’s main responsibilities are to lead and manage process improvements to both CMS’ business and system (I.T.) processes. Senior Design Leads will be required to deliver at pace, analysing as-is processes and complex data sets to identify opportunities to optimise business processes and performance.
Main Responsibilities / Accountabilities Include:
- Producing actionable recommendations using strong analysis skills, presenting findings to stakeholders with confidence.
- Visible and effective leadership, mentoring and providing guidance to junior business analysts, fostering professional growth and development.
- Engaging effectively and leading the collaboration between multi-disciplinary teams to drive innovation and service improvements.
- Collaborate closely with digital colleagues to support sprint planning activities, including development and testing of changes.
- Planning, development and management of all business requirement gathering activities including the creation of user stories.
- Communicating progress, issues and recommended resolutions to various forums and governance boards.
- Accountable for the management of performance within the team, identifying potential risks to achievement and driving forward continuous improvement.
- Act as a liaison between operational teams and technical teams to ensure alignment and successful delivery of changes.
- Identifying gaps in training/learning products, and working with the Learning & Development community to improve/develop.
- Ensure all security matters are dealt with promptly and sensitively, in line with DWP policies and procedures.
- Line management of small team
Person specification
Your personal statement will be assessed against the following essential criteria. Please ensure you provide specific, evidence-based examples that clearly demonstrate how you meet each one.
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Candidates Should Be Able To Demonstrate:
- Excellent Analytical Skills – Proven experience of critically analysing products, processes and management information, using proven application of best practices and methodologies, to draw conclusions and identify opportunities for improvements aligned to strategic objectives. (Lead Criteria)
- Leadership – Proven ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams to deliver far reaching, transformative and impactful improvements. Capable of working through complex challenges, motivating and co-ordinating across teams to ensure timely delivery.
- Strong Communicator – Adept at delivering complex analysis and recommendations with clarity and confidence to a variety of audiences including senior stakeholders and governance forums. Skilled in influencing decision making through persuasive arguments and well-supported recommendations.
- Adaptable and Agile – Can respond to shifting priorities and balancing multiple change initiatives simultaneously, meeting challenging deadlines whilst maintaining quality.
- User and Customer Centric Mindset – Strong commitment to enhancing service delivery for our Customers, focusing on process and improvements that achieves getting more money to children whilst maximising taxpayer value.
- Stakeholder Engagement – Experience in building and maintaining strong relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders, promoting a collaborative working environment that drives successful outcomes.
- Planning and Organisation – Proficient in managing significant change initiatives with complex requirements, ensuring structured planning, prioritisation and resource allocation to meet objectives within tight timescales.
- Business Analysis Certification – BCS Diploma in Business Analysis (or actively working towards it).
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Changing and Improving
- Making Effective Decisions
- Leadership
- Delivering at Pace
Alongside your salary of £44,447, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £12,876 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
Working for DWP will include benefits such as learning and development tailored to your role, an environment with flexible working options, a culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
Annual Leave
23 days annual leave rising with service to 30 days, plus public holidays.
Flexi Time
Access to flexible working hours scheme will be available.
Hybrid Working
This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.
If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.
If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.
Working Hours
The Department’s Contracted Working Hours Are:
- Monday to Friday: 07:45 to 20:00
- Saturday: 08:45 to 17:00
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Employees are contracted to work a set number of hours per week within these timeframes.
- For full-time employees, this is 37 net hours per week (equivalent to 42 gross hours, including meal breaks).
- For part-time employees, the number of hours will be proportionally less, based on their contract.
Employees are expected to work the full number of hours for which they are contracted.
See the Candidate Pack for more of the benefits available to as a Civil Servant.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements 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, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.
Eligibility
Visa Sponsorship
For these vacancies, we strongly recommend that applicants consult with an immigration specialist or qualified advisor to assess their eligibility for Visa Sponsorship before deciding to apply. Please note that while we consider sponsorship requests in accordance with current DWP guidance and Home Office policy, sponsorship cannot be guaranteed.
Location
Applicants should only apply for roles where they can reasonably commute to and from their selected home office location daily.
As part of the application process, you will be asked to submit a CV and 1250-word Personal Statement.
Important Information Regarding Anonymisation
When completing your application form, CV and personal statement you must remove any personal details that could be used to identify you. This includes name and contact details which might usually appear on a CV or personal statement.
Failure to do so will result in your application being withdrawn.
Personal Statement
Write an evidence-based statement demonstrating your suitability for the role, reflecting on the essential criteria outlined in the Job Description.
Your evidence-based statement should be no longer than 1250 words. Avoid generalised claims – focus instead on specific examples that highlight your achievements. For each example, explain the context, the challenges you faced, the actions you took, and the outcomes you achieved.
Sift
The sift panel will assess your evidence-based statement to evaluate your experience, skills, and knowledge against the essential criteria outlined in the job advert. To progress to the next stage of the application process, you must provide clear and sufficient evidence demonstrating how you meet these criteria.
If we receive a high volume of applications, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead criterion: Excellent Analytical Skills – Proven experience of critically analysing products, processes and management information, using proven application of best practices and methodologies, to draw conclusions and identify opportunities for improvements aligned to strategic objectives. Candidates who pass this initial sift may either proceed to a full sift or be invited directly to interview.
CV
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