Finance Functional Product Owner - Salford - Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Description

Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Salford

Job Summary


DSIT
At
DSIT we're all about improving people's lives by maximising the potential of science & technology.

We accelerate innovation, investment and productivity through world-class science, research and development.

We use technology for good by ensuring new and existing technologies are safely developed and deployed across the UK, with the benefits more widely shared.

We are driving forward a modern digital government which gives citizens a more satisfying experience and their time back.

We do all this to enable the Government's 5 national missions: kickstarting economic growth, making Britain a clean energy superpower, taking back our streets, breaking down barriers to opportunity and building an NHS fit for the future.

Above all, we focus on improving people's lives.

Whether it's researching new treatments for disease, developing better batteries, reducing burdens through better public services, keeping children safe online, and much more, outcomes for citizens are at the heart of what we do.

Our Inclusive Environment

We offer flexible working benefits, employee well-being support and a great pension. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process.

Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Find Out More

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Job Description

The Matrix Programme is a transformation initiative involving 9 Departments (listed at end).

It is a unique cross-government collaboration that will unlock simpler, better, and more joined up working by bringing together the systems, processes, and ways of working for key government functions such as HR, Finance or Procurement, commonly known as Shared Services.

The Programme is part of the Shared Services Team, a fantastic team passionate about improving the existing shared services experience for
DSIT and its partners whilst working to deliver the strategic objectives of the new Government Shared Services Strategy

We will deliver the Government's three overarching objectives for shared services:

Better experience for all users - intuitive systems that are easy to use and mobile-enabled.
Efficiency and value for money - better systems and services which support productivity and seek to reduce costs.
Standardised processes and data - support interoperability, making it easier to understand and compare corporate data.

Departments forming the Matrix Programme:

Cabinet Office (CO), Department for Science Innovation and Technology (
DSIT), Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), Department for Business Trade (DBT), Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Department for Education (DfE), Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Attorney's General Office (AGO) and His Majesty's Treasury (HMT).

The Matrix Programme is a transformation initiative involving 9 Departments (listed at end).

It is a unique cross-government collaboration that will unlock simpler, better, and more joined up working by bringing together the systems, processes, and ways of working for key government functions such as HR, Finance or Procurement, commonly known as Shared Services.

The Programme is part of the Shared Services Team, a fantastic team passionate about improving the existing shared services experience for
DSIT and its partners whilst working to deliver the strategic objectives of the new Government Shared Services Strategy

We will deliver the Government's three overarching objectives for shared services:

Better experience for all users - intuitive systems that are easy to use and mobile-enabled.
Efficiency and value for money - better systems and services which support productivity and seek to reduce costs.
Standardised processes and data - support interoperability, making it easier to understand and compare corporate data.

Departments forming the Matrix Programme:

Cabinet Office (CO), Department for Science Innovation and Technology (
DSIT), Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), Department for Business Trade (DBT), Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Department for Education (DfE), Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Attorney's General Office (AGO) and His Majesty's Treasury (HMT).

Person specification

We are looking for someone who is personable and can fit into the team; someone who is enthusiastic, proactive, adaptable and keen to engage across the business and effectively represent our products.

You will be able to successfully work in a project delivery environment and be able to hit the ground running.

You will provide visible and effective leadership, lead the business change management activity, working with the programme team and seniors to develop a clear vision and standards and champion the use of best practice business change management standards, tools and processes.

You will build strong networks both internally and externally to support and facilitate the change. You will assess and understand the impact on stakeholders to improve the likelihood of their adoption of the change.

You must be a confident communicator, with the ability to inspire, influence and cultivate culture change both with HMG wide seniors and cross functional teams.

Please note:

we expect this role to be somewhat hybrid between Product Owner and Product Manager when, in the future, the design nears completion and the design team move into the business as usual activities, including ongoing iterative transformation post go-live.

Product Owner Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities include but not limited to:

Problem Ownership:
understands and identifies problems, analysing and helping to identify the appropriate solution.

System
Analysis:

lead on the work of systems analysis to ensure business needs are translated into solutions against identified timelines, and work with technical leads to ensure business needs are translated into the technical solutions.

Product Ownership / Change Planning:
Captures and translates user needs into deliverables. Establish and maintain change and transition plans.

Leadership and Delivery:

Provide visible and effective leadership; lead key business change management activity and work with the programme team to deliver the business case benefits and outcomes.

User focus / Requirements gathering:
Understands users and can identify who they are and what their needs are. Coordinate requirement activities, their validation and sign off, ensuring that the needs of stakeholders are articulated.

Change identification and communication:

Assess and understand the impact of changes on stakeholders to improve the likelihood of their adoption of the change.

Collaborate on Business Change messaging, draft content, and work closely across the cluster to explain the change.

Analysis:

Lead on identifying potential consequences of a change; qualify, and update the business readiness criteria and ensure that stakeholders are aware and involved before implementation.

Benefits:

work across the programme to ensure that identified benefits analysis is developed and disseminated to key stakeholders; plan for benefits realisation as part of Business Change activities.

Stakeholder Management and Engagement:
Lead on engagement with key contacts, both within the cluster and across Government. Ensure that stakeholder management is an ongoing process. Cultivate stakeholder relationships needed to make the transition.
Develop clear vision and standards and champion the use of best practice business change management standards, tools and processes.

Additional Functional Design Team Responsibilities

Input to the planning of Workstream activities within the parameters of the Integrated Programme Plan
Input to the engagement of Process experts across the Cluster
Day-to-day management of the design of a defined set of end-to-end functional processes in the new technology solution
Coordinating Process SME inputs and contributions in working groups and workshops
Primary point of contact to partner with Systems Integrator configuration leads
Accountable for engagement across government with respect to their areas of the global design
Raising delivery Risks as appropriate
Responsible for interfacing with other workstreams around dependencies, including Change and Comms
Acting as an escalation point for Design Decisions
Input to the entry and exits of phase gateways during the implementation lifecycle
Responsible for progress tracking and reporting for their respective functional areas against the Integrated Programme Plan
Oversight of functional design elements within systems and user testing phases
Assurance that business change and service products are aligned to the functional design
Day-to-day responsibility for RAID management.

The above list is not exhaustive, with the lead working alongside other functional, technology, data and people leads to deliver the end to end system and service model.

Required


Essential Criteria:
Experience working across a broad range of finance areas

Outstanding communication and listening skills, with the ability to clearly communicate to several different types of professionals at all levels.

Experience working on IT/digital projects and/or delivery of digital services throughout a product life cycle.
Experience, skills and techniques to lead service teams and deliver results.
Experience and passion for continuous and business improvement.
Experience working with project delivery professionals, and understanding their needs.

Desirable Criteria

Full or part-qualified accountant

Broad range of expertise, working with finance systems

ERP implementation and back-office transformation experience is desirable; drawing upon experience of delivering within successful and highly complex cloud ERP implementation and transformation projects.

Be a confident facilitator, taking onboard the views of a range of stakeholders and making decisions that align to a common goal.

Be an innovative thinker able to help develop, and deliver against, a critical path to a strategic outcome.

Demonstrate knowledge of a range of project management techniques and use of project management tools such as MS Visio and MS Projects.

Understanding of the Shared Service Strategy for Government and wider cross Government programmes within
Understanding and awareness of cloud technology products.
It would be beneficial for the post holder to hold one of the following qualifications or demonstrate willingness to work towards it within their first year of employment:

APM Project Management (or equivalent), or APMG Change Management Practitioner (or equivalent)

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Changing and Improving
Making Effective Decisions
Seeing the Big Picture

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

Business Change and Implementation

Alongside your salary of £54,415, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £15,764 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.

A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.

An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK.

The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home-based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Please use your personal statement (in no more than 750 words) to outline how your skills and experience align with the essential criteria outlined in the advert.

Applications will be sifted on CV and Personal Statement.

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the CV.

Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

The interview will consist of behaviour and technical questions.

Interviewees will be asked to deliver a presentation; further details will be provided nearer the time.

Sift and interview dates

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Further Information

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our
DSIT Candidate Guidance.

A
DSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers.

This includes moves between government departments.

You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).


DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign.

DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service /Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct.

If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre- stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD).

This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences.

This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued.

Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs).

Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process.

In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant.

This includes grade on return.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.

To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact


Name :
Val Petkute


Email :
Recruitment team


Email :
Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance .

If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages:
Click here to visit Civil Service Commission/Complaints.