Deputy Director, Learning Operations

Government Skills (GS), part of Government People Group, was created in 2020 to improve the coherence and quality of learning and development in government through better training, knowledge and networks.

The aim was to accelerate the development of the skills, knowledge and networks of all civil servants, reaching across the wider public sector and delivering better public services for citizens across the country.

This is an exciting period of growth for Government Skills as we build the capacity and capability of the team to enable us to move to a new operating model, to transition the externally-delivered training components toward internal delivery.

Job description

Government Skills is transforming the way learning and development operates, to enable Civil Servants to develop the skills and experience they need to deliver great public services and support the Government to deliver the Plan for Change. This includes developing a more targeted curriculum so people know what they need to learn and can find it easily, and reducing our reliance on externally purchased training.

A major part of the new skills model is putting in place operational and physical infrastructure that will allow the civil service to design and deliver more training itself and to make better use of the government’s estate for training.

This role will lead on designing, sourcing and running the new infrastructure using funding that has been secured as part of the Spending Review.

There are two major elements to the role: setting up the operational infrastructure to support effective internal design, delivery and evaluation of learning and development and; establishing a network of training venues that make best use of available Government estate.

For the operational infrastructure, the aims are to:

• Define the systems, tools and processes needed to support higher volumes of internal learning design and delivery.
• Develop, implement and operationalise the new learning operations infrastructure, bringing in changes alongside the existing infrastructure in a considered way
• Deliver and continuously improve ‘business as usual’ learning operations, meeting agreed service standards

For the network of training venues, the aims are to:

• Identify and develop venues for training civil servants across the country, making best use of existing government estate and aligned to the government location strategy.
• Identify and develop a flagship headquarters for in person training excellence, serving as a central hub for high-quality public sector wide training.
• Enable shared use of training venues across the public sector where possible.

You will be responsible for the overall design, sourcing and delivery of the infrastructure for learning operations. This includes leading work to develop a network of training venues.

Your work will include:

• Shaping strategies and plans in your areas, and contributing to the development of the overall operating model
• Working closely with Government Skills colleagues to make sure operational systems support our varied needs.
• Building consensus among government organisations on our approach and liaising with public sector organisations to identify opportunities for collaboration.
• Developing business cases, to secure the necessary approvals for significant expenditure.
• Sourcing end to end learning operations systems that support the whole Civil Service.
• Leading the implementation of the new operational systems and processes, while keeping existing learning operations going effectively through a transition.
• Managing a multi-million-pound budget and ensuring value for money.
• Monitoring programme progress, identifying potential issues, and implementing corrective actions.
• Facilitating collaboration and communication among project teams and stakeholders.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Strong operational leadership and management of multidisciplinary teams delivering operational services to customers in a complex system, at scale.
• Excellent communication , influencing and collaboration skills , working with a broad set of senior stakeholders to shape and deliver excellent services.
• Strategy skills needed to shape new systems, structures and ways of working in a complex organisational landscape Experience of developing end to end operational systems (as well as running them) and making the best use of data and technology.
• Experience of leading and delivering operational or infrastructure projects, with a range of diverse stakeholders, and a wider customer base.
• Experience of procuring/sourcing and service management: sourcing services and systems, including ongoing service management and change management.

Highly Desirable:

• Experience in a training or educational setting.

Behaviours

• We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
• Managing a Quality Service
• Changing and Improving
• Leadership
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Cabinet Office contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career within the Department and wider Civil Service.

It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead, and you’ll benefit from regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing. As a Civil Service employee, you’ll be entitled to a large range of benefits.

This includes:

• 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service. This is in addition to 8 public holidays and one privilege day to mark the King's birthday.
• A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire.
• Flexible working patterns including part-time or term-time working and access to Flexible Working Schemes allowing you to vary your working day as long as you work your total hours.
• Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers.
• Childcare benefits (policy for new employees as of 5 April 2018): The government has introduced the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. Working parents can open an online childcare account and for every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2000 a year for each child or £4000 for a disabled child. Parents then use the funds to pay for registered childcare. Existing employees may be able to continue to claim childcare vouchers, so please check how the policy would work for you here .
• Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket or a new bicycle.
• The opportunity to use onsite facilities including fitness centres and staff canteens (where applicable); Occupational sick pay.

Closing date: 7 September 2025