Digital Transformation Specialist

Allen Lane are working with the National Audit Office (NAO) in their search for an excellent Digital Transformation Specialist on a permanent basis.

The NAO has established a Digital Hub as a centre of excellence for their work on examining the digital transformation of government services. The aim is to create additional expertise, knowledge and skills within the NAO so that they can provide the nuanced insights that the new NAO strategy calls for, thereby increasing our impact on outcomes and value for money.

The main purpose of this role is to manage the work of the Hub team and help build understanding and develop deep insight to drive improvements in public services and digital transformation projects through:

• Understanding what government is aiming for, how they are trying to do it, and why previous approaches have run into difficulties
• Providing specialist involvement to NAO studies and products with a significant digital component to drive improvement in our outputs
• Expanding our internal and external influence by producing our own digital knowledge products to drive improvements in the delivery of digital transformation in government

The skills for this role are:

• Thorough knowledge in the Digital Hub's areas of expertise in order to identify exact needs within individual government departments and organisations and across government as a whole. These areas are:
• Digital transformation - understanding strategically that digital transformation represents radical business transformation, fundamentally redesigning services and customer experience around the use of digital information and data. Authoritative and credible in evaluating departments' digital transformations in respect of: vision and strategy;
  governance, business model and architecture; and change management and implementation
• Cyber security - understanding the strategic context and links with wider information issues across government. Good awareness of current cyber threats and how they can be mitigated
• Cloud - understanding what cloud is, the different service and deployment models, and the implications for cost, security, lock-in and existing Legacy applications and data
• Identity - strong understanding of the issues concerned with identity, online verification and matching. Understanding of the practicalities of implementing and running systems involving identity components
• Data - understanding the fundamental components of an organisation's data strategy and the data and Legacy system issues that need to be addressed to drive sustainable impact in improving public services
• Architecture - broad methodology knowledge supplemented with a wide range of practical experience covering enterprise, business and data architecture
• Digital skills and capability - understanding the need for appropriate digital skills and capability at different levels within an organisation, and an understanding of current market conditions that make digital skills more difficult to source than more 'traditional' skills
• Change implementation - understanding different approaches for implementing digital change, the benefits, constraints and misuse of agile compared to other approaches; awareness of GDS standards and tools; understanding the key issues that should be included in a review of agile programmes and projects

Applicants should have excellent communication skills, a logical approach to problem solving and a proven ability to act with authority when advising others. You will be adept at building and maintaining effective relationships internally and externally. As a leader, you will be capable of motivating and inspiring a diverse team, helping your staff reach their potential.

Who are the NAO?: The NAO is the UK's main public sector audit body. Independent of government, they have responsibility for auditing the accounts of various public sector bodies, examining the propriety of government spending, assessing risks to financial control and accountability, and reviewing the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of programmes, projects and activities. The NAO employ circa 800 staff, most of whom are qualified accountants, trainees or technicians. They work in one of two main areas, financial audit or value for money (VFM) audit.

NAO are able to offer an attractive remuneration package, which includes access to an excellent pension scheme (30.3% employer contribution), 35 days annual leave and a salary up to £90,000 per annum for an outstanding applicant.

To register your interest in this role, please apply with an up to date CV - early applications are encouraged as the NAO are eager to appoint to this role quickly. A detailed job description is available. Applicants must be eligible to work in the UK.