Defence Business Services - DBS - AG Change & Release Manager Role
Ministry of Defence
Apply before 11:55 pm on Wednesday 30th October 2024
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Location
Tomlinson House, Norcross, Blackpool, Lancashire FY5 3WP -
Abbey Wood North, Stoke Gifford, Bristol, South West, BS34 8QW
About the job
Job summary
Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?
Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence?
Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.
- Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
- Our Mission – Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability.
DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society.
We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.
Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments. Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.
DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the North West, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2026.
Come and join the DBS community today!
Job description
DBS DIT provides digital capability that supports corporate services across the Ministry of Defence, including Finance, Commercial, Payroll and Human Resources for Military Personnel, Civilian Personnel and Veterans. Our digital solutions comprise enterprise resource planning systems, performance management, analytics, automation, low code applications and public facing services through Gov.uk. These are deployed via a number of core technologies including Oracle, Cognos, Microsoft and Blue Prism utilising cloud platforms (SAAS/PAAS/IAAS) and on-premise hosting.
As a Change and Release Manager in the Defence Business Services (DBS) Automation Garage (AG) you will be expected to work collaboratively in small, multi-disciplinary agile scrum teams to effectively manage the implementation of change to the AG products or services.
Key Responsibilities
A change and release manager ensures that technical changes to IT services are adequately assessed for impact, prioritised, scheduled, authorised and implemented. They ensure this is done in line with processes and using appropriate tools. At this role level, you will:
- Develop appropriate change management strategies, approaches and plans for the AG to aid the delivery of business transformation;
- Ensuring that effective change management processes are in place and documented to review and agree the identified deliverables with stakeholders;
- Produce and maintain the AG Release Timetable, including all development, test and release milestones, aligning with wider DBS Release Timetable, where required;
- Oversee deployments, coordinate with business and technical teams, ensuring all releases include operational assurance criteria and that each release package consists of a set of related assets and is adequately staffed;
- Ensure adequate checks are in place and completed ahead of any release (production) - including managing any risks that affect the release.
- Manage communication with internal stakeholders related to deployment activities;
- Work closely with Business Change and Communications Teams to ensure communication with external stakeholders and customers related to deployment activities are in place;
- Management of Automation Garage development and test environment;
- Managing the successful rollout of system fixes through test into the live environment;
- Producing accurate release data for customers and maintaining an accurate record of all Releases;
- Drive a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence ensuring that any failed changes are detected and reviewed with appropriate corrective measures applied;
- Adhere to and promote internal information security policies and procedures.
Person specification
Essential Criteria
You will need the following skills for this role, although the level of expertise for each will vary, depending on the role level.
Change management. You can manage service changes, configuration items, organisational change, supplier change and associated documentation. You can request changes in response to incidents or problems that provide effective control and reduction of risk to security performance and availability. You can ensure compliance of the business services impacted by the change. You can understand policy, principles and approach. You can apply understanding and knowledge in project or programme activities. You can develop experience in the use of change management tools and processes.
Community collaboration. You can contribute to the work of the community, building successful teams through understanding team styles and influencing and motivating team members. You can give and receive constructive feedback, enabling the feedback loop. You can moderate conflict resolution within teams. You can ensure that the team is transparent and that the work is understood externally. You can help teams maintain a focus on delivery while being aware of the importance of professional development.
Continual service improvement. You can identify and explore opportunities for service and business improvement. You can produce analysis and identify, prioritise and implement improvements and efficiencies, ensuring that the organisation derives maximum value from services. You can recognise the potential for automation of processes, determine costs and benefits of new approaches, and manage change or assist implementation where needed.
Continuity management. You can provide service continuity planning and support. You can identify information and systems that support critical business processes, and assess the risks to their availability, integrity and confidentiality. You can co-ordinate planning, designing, testing and maintenance procedures and contingency plans, to address exposures and maintain agreed levels of continuity.
Incident management. You can co-ordinate the response to incident reports, ensuring relevant prioritisation and detail to allow effective investigation. You can identify the correct procedures or channels for resolution, and monitor resolution activity and progress updates for customers. You can understand the relevant change management tools and processes.
Ownership and initiative. You can take ownership of problems and proactively resolve technical problems, ensuring that technical solutions continue to meet business requirements. You can take full accountability for the actions taken and decisions made.
Problem management. You can understand and identify problems, analysing and helping to identify the appropriate solution. You can classify and prioritise problems, document their causes and implement remedies.
Service focus. You can maintain focus on the whole life of service delivery (designing, developing, delivering and operating). You can ensure that a set of IT products, suppliers and vendors come together to deliver an IT service.
Service management framework knowledge. You can show an in-depth understanding of service management framework principles and processes. You can apply the technical knowledge in project or programme activities.
Technical understanding. You can demonstrate knowledge of the specific technologies necessary to fulfil the responsibilities and tasks of the role. You can apply the required breadth and depth of technical knowledge. You can actively keep informed of industry developments to make cost-effective use of new and emerging tools and technologies.
User focus. You can understand users and identify who they are and what their needs are, based on evidence. You can translate user stories and propose design approaches or services to meet these needs. You can engage in meaningful interactions and relationships with users. You can show that you put users first and can manage competing priorities.
Desired Criteria
- Experience of working in a corporate services or shared services environment.
- Experience and/or involvement of working across multiple Agile teams;
- Experience and/or involvement of delivering with DevOps teams.
- You will hold a recognized technical certification appropriate to the role or be prepared to obtain this while in post.
- Knowledge and experience of using any of the following technologies: Microsoft PowerPlatform, Microsoft Azure, Blue Prism, RPA, PowerPlatform, APIs.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Communicating and Influencing
- Making Effective Decisions
- Changing and Improving
- Delivering at Pace
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Digital, Data & Technology Profession Capability Framework - Working/Awareness Level
Benefits
- An environment with flexible working options Monday-Friday
- 25 days paid annual leave rising (1 day per year) to 30 days upon completion of 5 years’ service (pro rata). In additional to 8 public holidays per year, you will also receive leave for HM The Sovereign's birthday
- Hybrid working where role permits
- An opportunity to be considered for Reward and Recognition - £250-£5000 per year
- Family-friendly policies including - parental leave and adoption leave
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- Professional and personal development of skills
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- Minimum of 15 days special leave in a rolling 12 month period for volunteer reserve commitments
- Special paid leave to volunteer up to 6 days per year
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
Allowances
The post does not offer relocation expenses.
Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.
External recruits who join the MOD who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.
Employment Hours
This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.
Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.
Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on your
Primary: Technical - Digital, Data & Technology Profession Capability Framework, Secondary: Experience - Personal statement. In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview.
At application stage you will be assessed against the following:
Experience:
- CV
- Personal Statement
Technical:
- Digital, Data & Technology Profession Capability Framework
At interview you will be assessed against the following:
Behaviours:
- Leadership
- Communicating and Influencing
- Making Effective Decisions
- Changing and Improving
- Delivering at Pace
Technical:
- Digital, Data & Technology Profession Capability Framework
In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:
- Technical - Digital, Data & Technology Profession Capability Framework
- Behaviour - Leadership
- Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing
- Behaviour - Changing and Improving
- Behaviour - Delivering at Pace
- Behaviour - Making Effective Decisions
If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the below order or priority:
- Technical - Digital, Data & Technology Profession Capability Framework
- Experience - CV
- Experience - Personal statement
We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months.
Application sifting to take place week commencing: 04/11/2024
Interviews are currently taking place via Ms Teams and will be conducted week commencing: 18/11/2024
A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews.We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk
MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.
As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.
The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.
To assist with your application please find attached -
DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
(26) UK Ministry of Defence: Life , LinkedIn
Technical skills Framework guide -https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/role/change-and-release-manager#change-and-release-manager
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
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).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Kay Sharp
- Email : kay.sharp455@mod.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk
Further information
