Thank you for your interest in this exciting role with the Technology Services Directorate

I’m delighted to introduce the role of Deputy Director (DD) - Digital Infrastructure & Security Operations (DISO). This position sits at the centre of our modernised Technology Services Directorate, supporting one of the largest and most complex estates in government.

Technology Services has expanded significantly in recent years, taking on direct ownership of critical services across networks, security operations, infrastructure, and end‑user technology.

This DISO role reflects this growth, evolving from earlier network‑focused leadership into a broader remit that brings together digital infrastructure, operational resilience, identity and security operations.

As DD for DISO, you will provide strong operational leadership, ensure secure and reliable services, and help shape the future direction of our digital foundations.

Technology Services within the Service Transformation Group (STG), which means stepping into one of the Ministry of Justice’s most forward‑looking and impactful areas. STG brings together our Digital, Data and Service Transformation functions to reshape how people experience justice services — making them simpler, more accessible, and better connected across the system. It’s a place for leaders who want to make a tangible difference to the lives of citizens and colleagues.

This is a fantastic opportunity to make a real impact across the Ministry of Justice, enabling our people and strengthening the services that support delivery of justice across the UK.

Best wishes,

Nava Ramanan

Director of Technology

The Ministry of Justice is a major government department at the heart of the justice system. We deliver some of the most fundamental public services including courts, tribunals, prisons, legal services, youth justice, probation services, and attendance centres.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) works to protect and advance the principles of justice. Our vision is to deliver a world-class justice system that works for everyone in society.

The justice system plays a crucial role in our success as a nation - keeping people safe, emphasising fairness, guaranteeing individual rights and giving businesses confidence to flourish.

The delivery of our three strategic outcomes are central to doing this:

Punishment that cuts crime: to rebuild confidence in the criminal justice system by protecting the public and reducing reoffending with a sustainable and effective prison and probation service.
Swifter justice for victims: to rebuild confidence in the criminal justice system by ensuring timely, just outcomes for victims and defendants through a modern and efficient criminal courts system.
A beacon for justice and the rule of law: to uphold the rule of law at home and abroad; promote our world-leading legal services, which contribute to economic growth; and deliver accessible and timely civil, family and administrative justice.

For more information on who we are and what we do, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice.

Job Title

Deputy Director - Digital Infrastructure & Security Operations (DISO)

Location

National

The MoJ is working to open more Justice Collaboration Centres and Justice Satellite Offices over time. Click here to learn more about where our currently open Justice Collaboration Centres and Justice Satellite Offices are, to identify where you may be based.

Please note the requirements for travel and level of flexibility available as set out in the FAQs section.

Salary

The salary for this role is set within the MoJ SCS PB1 range (£81,000 - £117,800).

Civil Servants will be appointed in line with the Civil Service pay rules in place on the date of their appointment.

Contract Type

This role is being offered on a 12 month fixed term basis.

The Role

This is a senior role at Deputy Director level, reporting directly to the MoJ’s Director of Technology within the CDIO team.

The Deputy Director of Digital Infrastructure & Security Operations will be responsible for the delivery of networking, Hybrid Cloud and voice & video services that meet the changing needs of all MoJ business areas.

Services include:

Core networking services
WAN, LAN, Voice and Video services across more than 1200 sites
Wi-Fi in courts, office buildings, prisons and probation service buildings
Hosting services in legacy datacentre and Cloud environments
Secure video services connecting police stations, courts and prisons
Corporate telephony, video and mobile services
Prisoner facing LAN, Wi-Fi and telephony and video services
Security Operations Centre services for Justice Digital.

You will:

Build, lead and motivate a team of Service Owners, Technical Architects, Engineers, Operations Managers, Budget Managers and Delivery Managers
Work with the technology operations, live service operations and customer services teams to ensure a customer-focused support function
Set the strategy and roadmap for transformation to ensure services meet the needs of our users both now and into the future
Work as part of the leadership team to create a progressive and inclusive culture and drive performance

Lead a team of over 270+ staff across multiple locations
Manage a budget of c.£110m, including responsibility for identifying efficiencies in outsourced technology and reducing the level of legacy IT systems

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Influence & Cross-Government Leadership

This role does not operate only within Justice Digital. It holds influence across:

MoJ executive leadership
Operational agencies (HMPPS, LAA, OPG, CICA)
Cross-government architecture, security and networking forums
Industry partners and strategic suppliers

Accountability for Critical National Infrastructure

DISO services directly support:

Prison estate safety systems
Court operations and video hearings
Probation and offender management systems
Secure connectivity for 90k+ end users
Multi-agency public protection services

Risk Ownership & Security Responsibilities

SIRO-delegated responsibilities for infrastructure risk
First-line ownership of several high-rated departmental risks
Oversight of incident response, including major cyber events
Ensuring compliance with National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) guidance, Public Services Network (PSN) exit, and government security standards

Supplier & Commercial Leadership

Leadership of major suppliers
Accountability for contracts worth £100m+
Ensuring value for money and contract performance
Oversight of SLAs, KPIs, service credits, and dispute resolution

Change & Transformation Leadership

Leading organisational redesign, skills uplift, and workforce planning
Setting strategy for automation, AI-enabled operations, and modern tooling

Driving the transition to cloud-first, SASE, and zero-trust architectures

People Leadership (beyond the 270 staff)

Leading a community of ~300+ including contractors, partners and suppliers
Setting culture, capability development pathways, and talent strategy
Responsibility for health, safety, wellbeing and resilience across teams.

It is important through the recruitment process that you give evidence and examples of proven experience of each of the essential criteria.

Later on in the pack you will be told what is being assessed at which stage of the process.

Essential Criteria:

Skills and experience needed:

Running complex technology services at scale.
Developing a vision, strategy and service roadmaps for Digital Infrastructure services.
Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to build consensus where there are multiple and conflicting priorities.

Strong commercial acumen, constantly seeking to enhance understanding to deliver business benefit.

In depth knowledge of infrastructure technologies, preferably supported by an engineering background.

Managing large budgets, suppliers and contracts.

Experience of building and leading a diverse, collaborative and high-performance working culture.

You will also be assessed against the following areas of Success Profiles during the interview process:

Strengths

Strengths may be assessed at interview, but these are not shared in advance. We are looking to understand what motivates and energises you.

MoJ SCS Pay Band 1 Behaviours:

Leadership
Changing and improving
Making effective decisions
Communicating and influencing

Technical Skills

Your technical skills will be tested during interview either in the form of a presentation or a technical question.

Read more in the Civil Service Success Profiles Section.

Recruitment Process

The selection process will be chaired by Nava Ramanan. The other panel members will be confirmed at a later date.

Support during the selection process

If you need any support or have any questions during any stage of the selection process, please contact the SCS Recruitment Team scsrecruitment@justice.gov.uk.

Stages of the selection process

Internal Stakeholder Conversations

You are invited to arrange an informal discussion with Nava Ramanan to learn more about the role and the organisation before applying. This is not part of the assessed elements of the selection process.

Application

You will need to complete the online application process accessed via the advertisement for this role.

This should be completed no later than 23:55 on 3^rd March 2026. As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

Responses to the eligibility questions to check you are eligible to apply for the role.

A response to whether you would like to request reasonable adjustments during the selection process. The Disability Support section explains how adjustments can be made to the selection process to accommodate a disability.
You will also need to complete a CV and Statement of Suitability. It is important that your CV and Statement of Suitability give evidence and examples of how you meet the essential experience set out on page 9. The Statement of Suitability should be no more than 750 words and your CV no more than 2 pages.

Find out more information about our application process here.

After the Application Stage

You will be advised whether your application has been shortlisted for the next stage of the selection process. If you are shortlisted, we will contact you to arrange the next stage of the selection process.

Unfortunately, due to the anticipated number of applicants for this role, we are unable to provide feedback to those not successful at shortlist stage. Candidates who are shortlisted and attend an interview will be offered verbal feedback from a member of the interview panel.

Other Assessments

Panel Interview and Presentation

You will be invited to attend an interview with the selection panel. You will be asked to prepare a verbal 5-minute presentation based on a topic that will be provided in advance. The interview and presentation will last for approximately 45/50 minutes.

What is being assessed?

Behaviours, as listed on page 7.
Strengths (You will be informed at interview which strengths you are being assessed against).
Technical Skills

After the Panel Interview

Following the interview, the performance of all candidates will be reviewed, and the successful candidate identified. All candidates will be notified of the outcome as soon as possible after the conclusion of all interviews. If you are not the successful candidate but you meet the standard required, you may be invited to have your details retained on a merit list to be considered for future SCS roles.

What are Behaviours?

The Civil Service recruits using Success Profiles and Behaviours are an element of Success Profiles used to see whether candidates are able demonstrate specific Behaviours associated with the role they are applying for during the selection process.

In this process the below Behaviours are most relevant to this role and will be assessed during the interview stage of the process. The definitions of Behaviours are set out below:

Communicating and Influencing

You communicate clearly and with confidence, both verbally and in writing. You are open, honest and transparent in your communications. You communicate effectively with internal and external senior stakeholders to present information in a convincing and influential manner. You tailor your communication methods and content to the audience, simplifying strategic messages.

Leadership

You visibly demonstrate the organisation’s values in all your activity, leading authentically. You seek to engage staff in the aims of the organisation and communicate the organisation’s strategy in an inspiring way. You create an inclusive and fair culture which creates a sense of belonging by treating staff as individuals and actively valuing diversity within the organisation. You empower teams and individuals to excel by creating a shared vision and objectives and demonstrate trust in staff by giving autonomy.

Changing and Improving

You create an environment of continuous improvement and change. You see the benefit of change and promote this within your area of responsibility. You identify business needs, both current and future, and use this to identify opportunities for change, utilising innovative solutions that benefit the end user. You are able to embed change, managing risks. You evaluate the impact of change against the expected outcomes for service users and the public.

Making Effective Decisions

You make defensible, objective and fair high-impact decisions, considering the impact on the service user and wider organisation. You are willing to take ownership of your decisions, being transparent and open about the reasons for them. You effectively analyse data to make evidence-based decisions, whilst being comfortable taking considered risks based on the best evidence available. You consult with others to incorporate views and professional expertise, ensuring appropriate individuals are involved in the decision-making process.

Please click here for more information on Behaviours and Success Profiles.

As part of the application process, you need to submit a Statement and CV. Both your Statement and CV should demonstrate how you meet the essential experience outlined in the Person Specification section.

Ensure you read through the role information thoroughly and identify the essential criteria for each area. You should ensure you provide evidence for each of the essential experience which are required for the role in your Statement and CV. You may not be progressed to the next stage of the assessment process if you do not provide this evidence.

When structuring your Statements try to:

Group evidence of the same experience and skills together by using subheadings and paragraphs. This will help to ensure you are writing about the experience that is directly relevant for the role you are applying for.
You should ensure that you detail recent and relevant examples of the essential experience required for the role and describe the outcome that came from this.

Using AI in your application

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.

Providing a name-blind CV and Success Profile Statements

In both your CV and Success Profile Statements please remove references to any personal information that could identify you.

For example:

Name and title
Educational institution names
Age and gender
Email address
Postal address and telephone number
Nationality and immigration status.

This will help us to recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not on your background, gender or ethnicity. Recruiting this way is called name-blind recruitment.

For more information on how to write your Statement and CV please visit the Civil Service Careers Website

Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing

Our departmental values - purpose, humanity, openness and together - are at the heart of our commitment to create a culture where all our people are able to thrive and flourish in the workplace.

We want to attract and retain the best talent from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. We want everyone to be the best of themselves, to feel supported and have a strong sense of belonging in the workplace. Our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce is reflected in all of our people policies and strategies.

Benefits

As a Ministry of Justice employee, you’ll be entitled to a large range of benefits which include but are not limited to:

Pension

The Civil Service Pension Scheme is one of the best workplace pension schemes in the UK public sector. Visit www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk for more details.

Generous Annual Leave and Bank Holiday Allowance

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. This will be complemented by one further day paid privilege entitlement to mark the King’s Birthday.

Flexible Working

While not every type of flexible working will be suitable for every role and business area, flexible working can take many forms and The Ministry of Justice is committed to delivering its business effectively and sustainably by creating modern and inclusive workplaces that enable smart, flexible and hybrid working.

For more information on our amazing benefits including our Civil Service Pension Scheme, annual and special leave, and our Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing schemes please visit our Senior Civil Service website.

What reasonable adjustments can be made if I have a disability?

We are committed to supporting all candidates to take part in the recruitment process. This includes supporting individuals who have a disability by making reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

If you feel you require any kind of support and/or would like to discuss this with someone, please indicate ‘yes’ to requesting reasonable adjustments in your application form and ensure that you respond to the Reasonable Adjustments Scheme team by email.

How we can support you

There are many types of reasonable adjustments that can be made during assessment processes.

Examples of some types of adjustments include:

Extra time to complete assessments.
Providing a break within an assessment.
Providing interview questions in a written format at the interview as well as orally.
An interview at a certain time of day.

This is not an exhaustive list but rather some examples of how we can support you during the SCS Recruitment Process.

Whilst we aim to confirm all adjustments requested, there may be occasions where this isn’t possible. If an adjustment cannot be provided, the reasons for this will be explained to you.

Help with your application

It is important you contact us as early as possible by email if you would like to request reasonable adjustments so that the recruitment process runs smoothly for you.

If you do decide during the process that you do require adjustments and you have not completed all your assessments, please contact the SCS recruitment team in advance of your next assessment.

If you have any questions in advance of making your application regarding reasonable adjustments, please contact the SCS recruitment team at scsrecruitment@justice.gov.uk.

Do you offer a Disability Confident Scheme for Disabled Persons?

As a Disability Confident employer, the MoJ offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. This could be in terms of the advertised essential skills and/or application form sift criteria. Within the application form, you will be asked if you would like to be considered for an interview under this scheme, so please make us aware of this when prompted.

Can I apply if I am not currently a civil servant?

Yes.

Is this role suitable for part-time working?

This role is available for full-time or flexible working arrangements (including job shares). To discuss your needs in more detail please get in touch with the SCS Recruitment Team.

Where will the role be based?

If successful you will be based Nationally. Relocation costs will not be reimbursed.

This role will also require travel to London and other national locations.

Can I claim back any expenses incurred during the recruitment process?

Unfortunately, we will not be able to reimburse you, except in exceptional circumstances.

Am I eligible to apply for this role?

For information on whether you are eligible to apply, please visit Gov.UK.

Is security clearance required?

Yes. If successful you must hold, or be willing to obtain, security clearance to SC level. More information about the vetting process can be found here.

Will this role be overseen by the Civil Service Commission?

No. However, the recruitment process will still be governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

What do I do if I want to make a complaint?

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

Should you feel that the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact scsrecruitment@justice.gov.uk in the first instance.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order.

To Shared Service-Connected Ltd (0845 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 08.00 - 18.00) or e-mail Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com)
To Ministry of Justice Resourcing (resourcing-services@justice.gov.uk)
To the Civil Service Commission (https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/contact-us/)

What should I do if I think that I have a conflict of interest?

If you believe that you may have a conflict of interest you must declare it by contacting SCS Recruitment on scsrecruitment@justice.gov.uk before submitting your application.

We will ensure that we will treat all personal information in accordance with data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018.

Data Sharing

To process your application your personal data will be shared with the Ministry of Justice SCS Recruitment Team, campaign Panel Members and anyone else necessary as part of the recruitment process.

The legal basis for processing your personal data is:

Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. Personal data are processed in the public interest because understanding civil servant experiences and feelings about working in the Civil Service can inform decision taken to improve these experiences, and ultimately organisation performance.

Sensitive personal data is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation.

The legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data is:

Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown, or a government department: it is important to know if groups of staff with specific demographic characteristics have a better or worse experience of working for the Civil Service, so that appropriate action can be taken to level this experience;

Processing is of a specific category of personal data and it is necessary for the purposes of identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between groups of people with a view to enabling such equality to be promoted or maintained.
Please note if you are successful in your application your sensitive personal data will be used as part of the on-boarding process to build your employee record.

For further information please see the GDPR Privacy Notice.

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

Advert Closing Date	3^rd March 2026
Outcome of CV and Statement of Suitability	11^th March 2026
Panel Interview and Presentation	19^th March 2026