Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds or Manchester Office With an element of working from home. (Due to workforce restrictions London will only be available to existing employees of Acas who are currently based in our London Stratford office. These employees should select 'Any' as a location preference and confirm they are London based as a further location preference).
This role may require occasional travel to other Acas offices.
Please be aware that this role can only be worked in Great Britain and not overseas. You will be asked to express a location preference during the application process. Informal hybrid arrangements are available and the balance between home and workplace working is to be agreed with the line manager to achieve the right balance between collaboration, in-person engagement and flexibility.
Job Summary
The Technology Team is in place to provide consumers with access to IT services, including applications, data storage and devices, ensuring compliance with policies, internal and external regulations.
The Head of Technology is responsible for technology strategy, service delivery and operational excellence. They will need to ensure the right technologies are in place and that digital and legacy services are always available and performing as expected.
The role manages services required to deliver to the business including how it is delivered, costs and charges. It provides direction to core delivery teams and is the single point of accountability for those services. It provides essential support to DDaT, guiding and supporting the delivery of ITIL aligned Service Management. It oversees the delivery of services ensuring that what is delivered is what the consumer requires and to an agreed standard. The Team cover a variety of activities, including the day to day delivery of the Service Desk, end user device management, telephony and an Azure hosted cloud service and working with multiple independent suppliers, adopting new digital capabilities whilst retiring older ones. Our work is fast paced to address the new challenges of Acas transformation and the emerging digital opportunities. Acas DDaT seeks to maximise opportunities, working with DBT and GDS governance teams.
The position forms part of the Acas DDaT Senior Leadership Team, leading and delivering the Digital Strategy and enabling Acas to deliver its strategic business aims. You will be accountable for a multi-disciplinary team, providing leadership direction and management support to ensure the service managers and their teams are equipped, enabled and motivated. The role reports directly to the DDaT Director.
The Directorate
The Acas Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) team are committed to continuously improving the digital and technology experience of everyone using Acas IT services. The Acas DDaT team is in place to work professionally with all stakeholders (ICT suppliers, employers, employees and Other Government Departments).
Core roles include ongoing improvement of the existing systems, software and hardware, transitioning to new digital technology services and assuring performance.
Increasingly Acas DDaT's remit involves working with multiple interdependent suppliers and adopting new digital capabilities whilst retiring older ones. Our work is fast paced to address the new challenges Acas faces and emerging digital opportunities. Acas DDaT seeks to maximise these opportunities, working alongside the streamlined Government Digital Service governance system.
Job Description
Main Responsibilities:
Planning and executing the Acas Digital Strategy as a key member of the DDaT Senior Leadership Team;
Accountable for the overall delivery and quality of operational services, ensuring service is being delivered as expected, meeting agreed SLA targets, including all hosting services, networks and communications, service support and applications. Monitoring and reporting on the quality of the service;
Communications to staff, audit committee and executive board;
Supporting the development and execution of test scenarios designed to validate functionality. Responsible for the monitoring of stakeholder acceptance/rejection of solutions. Identification of process and solutions requirements to Technical Architecture Team;
Management of critical out of hours incidents and be a visible point of contact, as required. This may involve on-call responsibilities and collaborating with service both internal and external service providers,
Financial management of the Service Delivery finances including forecasting demand and controlling the income and expenditure within the team, fully accounting for the way the money is spent.
Overall leadership and management of the Service Delivery Teams, including direct management of team leaders.
Coaching and assisting the team and senior management and demonstrating commitment to the development of the ITIL/ITSM solution, by providing specialised expertise.
Main Job Activities:
Proactively act to improve services and processes, initiating service improvements when deficiencies are found.
Coordinate activities across all IT Support and Delivery Teams.
Build and lead virtual teams spanning internal and external resource pools across technology, enterprise IT and wider business teams,
Ensure desktop tools and services meet the strategic needs of the business by coordinating the product selection when inputting into the design. Supporting cross team launching and ensuring tool integration.
Establish agreements with other IT providers, both internal and external.
Represent the Service Delivery Team at meetings and communication and team events.
Provide consultative support to project teams, assisting in the creation of project deployment strategies, ensure that the implementation and design requirements are adequately addressed.
Oversee the day to day operational responsibilities, reporting on service status and quality of services.
Be the first point of contact for incidents beyond service desk and oversee the management of the incident, through to resolution.
Provide consultation on all changes as required.
End to end service management to ensure quality in service delivery on incident, request, problem and change management.
Providing extended business hours Service Desk coverage, plus management of out of hours incidents.
Ensure that both services and policies/behaviour comply with Cyber Security, Information Assurance and Data Protection requirements.
Who We Are
Acas exists to make working life better for everyone in Britain. We are the experts in workplace matters, we're impartial, so we're not on anyone's side. That means we're working for everyone to help prevent, manage and resolve workplace issues.
Acas helps employers and employees by providing information, advice, training, conciliation and other services that prevent, manage or resolve workplace problems.
Acas: Britain's Workplace Experts
Acas has been recognised for its Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace from the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion awards – Disability Confident Highly Commended; Pay Gap award winner and Overall winner for public sector organisations. Acas is committed to providing services and developing policies which embrace diversity, promote equality of opportunity and eliminate unlawful discrimination.
Who We Are
Acas exists to make working life better for everyone in Britain. We are the experts in workplace matters, we're impartial, so we're not on anyone's side. That means we're working for everyone to help prevent, manage and resolve workplace issues.
Acas helps employers and employees by providing information, advice, training, conciliation and other services that prevent, manage or resolve workplace problems.
Acas: Britain's Workplace Experts
Acas has been recognised for its Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace from the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion awards – Disability Confident Highly Commended; Pay Gap award winner and Overall winner for public sector organisations. Acas is committed to providing services and developing policies which embrace diversity, promote equality of opportunity and eliminate unlawful discrimination.
Person specification
Technical
Essential Criteria:
Creation and delivery of digital/technology strategies and roadmaps (Lead).
A strong track record of leadership in technology and operations in a complex digital environment (Lead).
Service Management or support in a large scale and diverse environment of incident management, escalation and related disciplines.
Experience in managing 3rd party delivered services.
An exceptional ability to manage stakeholders and remain calm under pressure.
Desirable Criteria:
Excellent communication and negotiation skills, both verbally and written with the ability to explain.
Excellent leadership and management skills with experience of managing a multi-functional team. Capability to build high performance teams.
Experience of working in a fast-paced environment.
Qualifications
Desirable Criteria:
ITIL v3 Expert and/or ITIL4 Managing Professional, with experience of implementing ITIL in practice.
Any other industry relevant qualifications.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
Managing a Quality Service
Delivering at Pace
Alongside your salary of £76,123, Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service contributes £22,052 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
We're Big Believers In Rewarding People For The Amazing Work They Do, Take a Look At Some Of The Fantastic Benefits We Offer:
Learning and Development
Health and wellbeing
Pension scheme
Cycle to work scheme
Interest free season ticket loans
Volunteering opportunities
Could you ask for any more?
You'll have access to a Life style website, were you'll be able to grab savings over a wide range of products from holidays to your weekly shop.
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Working for Acas
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 and Experience.
How To Apply
Please click on the 'Apply now' button.
As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:
An evidence-based Personal Statement and CV reflecting the Technical Criteria requirements as listed in the Job Description. Your Personal Statement should be no longer than 1,000 words. It should avoid generalised assertions, instead including specific examples of achievements, explaining the degree of challenge, what you did and the outcomes.
A separate 250-word statement reflecting the desirable criteria. Desirable criteria will only be assessed in the event of a tiebreak scenario at interview.
Only the following Technical Criteria should be addressed in your application:
Creation and delivery of digital/technology strategies and roadmaps.
A strong track record of leadership in technology and operations in a complex digital environment.
Service Management or support in a large scale and diverse environment of incident management, escalation and related disciplines.
Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the:
Lead Criteria:
Creation and delivery of digital/technology strategies and roadmaps.
and
A strong track record of leadership in technology and operations in a complex digital environment.
Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift of all the above requirements or progressed straight to assessment/interview.
If a large number of applications meet the minimum standard an interview wait list may be created for this position. This means that if you have met the minimum requirements at sift you may be placed at a 'Hold' status for up to 12 months and if we are able to invite you to an interview we will be in touch.
Interview Details
If You Have Successfully Passed Sift, You Will Be Invited To An Interview Via MS Teams Likely To Take Place The Week Commencing 16 March 2026. The Interview Will Be a Behaviour And Technical Interview And Will Also Include a Presentation Which Will Be Used To Assess The Following Technical Criteria:
A strong track record of leadership in technology and operations in a complex digital environment.
Service Management or support in a large scale and diverse environment of incident management, escalation and related disciplines.
The Behaviours which Will Be Assessed Are:
Managing a Quality Service
Delivering at Pace
All essential Technical Criteria which will be assessed at interview.
A reserve list will be created for this position, this means that if you have passed the interview, but we couldn't offer you this position, you'll be on a reserve list for 12 months and may be considered for similar positions.
As a Disability Confident Leader, Acas Is Committed To Creating An Inclusive Recruitment Process. If You Have a Disability And Feel That Any Part Of The Recruitment Process Puts You At a Disadvantage, We Will Aim To Make Reasonable Adjustments That Support Your Needs Where Possible. If You Require Any Changes To Help You Apply:
Contact Acas HR Recruitment Service via as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the "Assistance required" section in the "Additional requirements" page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need accessibility considerations to enter the building or interview room, for communications or adjustments for testing procedures.
Find out more about the Disability Confident Scheme and Reasonable Adjustments.
Want to learn more about Civil Service recruitment? You can find out more on Civil Service Careers - including information on Success Profiles, writing a Personal Statement, acceptable use of Artificial Intelligence and what to expect at Interview.
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 and Experience.
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 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.
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).
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 : HR Recruitment
Email :
Recruitment team
Email :
Further information
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Code and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact us on in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from us, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.