Head of Digital Operations

Job description Job Title: Head of Digital Operations
Location: London & Newcastle
Employment type: Full time & Permanent
Salary: £80k more may be available for exceptional candidates

About the National Audit Office
The National Audit Office (NAO) is the UK’s main public sector audit body. Independent of
government, we 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. We report directly to Parliament, through the Committee of Public
Accounts of the House of Commons which uses our reports as the basis of its own
investigations. We employ approx. 1, people, most of whom are qualified accountants,
trainees, or technicians. The organisation comprises two service lines: financial audit, and
value for money (VFM) audit and has a strong core of highly talented corporate teams.
The NAO welcomes applications from everyone. We value diversity in all its forms and the
difference it makes to our organisation. By removing barriers and creating an inclusive culture
all our people can develop and maximise their full potential. As members of the Business
Disability Forum and the Disability Confident Scheme we guarantee to interview all disabled
applicants who meet the minimum criteria.

The NAO supports flexible working and is happy to discuss this with you at application stage.

Introduction:
Head of Digital Operations is a newly created role within the NAO’s Digital Services (DS)
function. Leading a newly created team bringing together; Service Management, technology &
cloud operations, the management of all digital strategic support managed service providers,
including service desk, 2nd -4th line support, End User & Infrastructure Computing (EUIC),
network & connectivity management and leading an internal technical operations team.

The Head of Digital Operations is responsible for the operational effectiveness of all the NAO’s
digital estate. This includes ensuring the availability, accessibility, reliability, security and
operational effectiveness of all NAO digital systems, services, and networks. This also includes
ensuring that all digital service provision meets or exceeds the performance targets, service
standards and the digital needs of the organisation.

This role reports into the Head of IT.

This team consists of circa ten permanent team members and a number of externally
managed support service providers. Managed support contracts boost support capacity and
capability and cost in the region of £1.5m annually. The digital estate comprises circa 1,
users in offices in London, Newcastle, and remote users anywhere in the world.

This role requires regular attendance to the office in Victoria, London, and occasional
attendance in the NAO’s office in Newcastle Responsibilities Head of Digital Operations is a newly created role within the NAO’s Digital Services (DS)
function. Leading a newly created team bringing together; Service Management, technology &
cloud operations, the management of all digital strategic support managed service providers,
including service desk, 2nd-4th line support, End User & Infrastructure Computing (EUIC),
network & connectivity management and leading an internal technical operations team.
The Head of Digital Operations is responsible for the operational effectiveness of all the NAO’s
digital estate. This includes ensuring the availability, accessibility, reliability, security and
operational effectiveness of all NAO digital systems, services, and networks. This also includes
ensuring that all digital service provision meets or exceeds the performance targets, service
standards and the digital needs of the organisation.

This role reports into the Head of IT.

This team consists of circa ten permanent team members and a number of externally
managed support service providers. Managed support contracts boost support capacity and
capability and cost in the region of £1.5m annually. The digital estate comprises circa 1,
users in offices in London, Newcastle, and remote users anywhere in the world.

This role requires regular attendance to the office in Victoria, London, and occasional
attendance in the NAO’s office in Newcastle Skills required Personal skills
• Self-starter with energy and enthusiasm for driving continuous improvement and
organisational learning.
• Organised and structured, with excellent attention to detail and the ability to prioritise
and plan.
• Good emotional intelligence skills, ability to empathise with customer, team, and
supplier challenges and to coach internal teams and external suppliers to effective
delivery.
• Well-developed negotiating skills, applied in a supplier management environment.
• Strong communication and inter-personal skills with the ability to work effectively and
collaboratively with colleagues and external parties, together with the ability to lead
teams within a distributed/hybrid environment.
• Ability to influence outcomes and gain buy-in for new initiatives and ways of working.
• Able to work under pressure and within tight deadlines both independently and with
others demonstrating flexibility and resilience.
• Strong commercial awareness, including procurement, tendering, and supplier
relationship management.
Business and technical skills
• Leading NAO Digital Operations: Leading technical teams and suppliers to maintain,
sustain, secure, and support the NAO’s digital estate. Overseeing demand-led service
delivery, ensuring a thorough knowledge of the service requirements and expectations
of the NAO and of the commensurate resources, services, and tools necessary to
meet that demand.
• Leading continuous improvement & problem management: Leading investigative
work into problems and opportunities in existing processes for optimisation. Managing
and leading the collection of information and creation of recommendations for
improvements
• Contract & commercial management: Experience in complex contract management,
contract commercial terms, service levels and contract negotiation. Function as the
escalation point and resolve large or high-risk commercial management issues relating
to key managed service contracts within NAO Digital Operations
• Technology landscape: Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the technologies
and technical concepts required and how these fit in to the wider technical landscape
both internally and externally. A good awareness & knowledge of:
o All Microsoft tools, operating systems, and platforms – from desktop through to
M and Azure cloud capabilities
o ServiceNow architecture, systems, integrations, and wider ecosystem
o Conferencing & networking technologies – ideally Cisco & Microsoft Teams
Rooms
o Monitoring, alerting, packaging, and exposure management tools.
o Experience of infrastructure management within a cloud-based environment.
o Experience of modern Information Security Operations, from backup & patching through to identify management and data loss prevention. Educational requirements

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