Associate Director for Solutions

DBS was established under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 on 1 December 2012, working

from two sites, which are Liverpool and Darlington. We operate on behalf of government

delivering Disclosure functions in England, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and

Barring functions for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We function within a framework of

legal and regulatory requirements and that includes work with a range of external organisations

including other government departments, regulators, and trade bodies.

We provide a service that enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to

make better informed, safer recruitment and other decisions. We do this by providing information

to enable them to determine whether individuals are unsuitable or unable to undertake certain

work, particularly with occupations involving regular contact with vulnerable groups, including

children.

Our Strategy

Our current Strategy sets out our purpose, vision, and the impacts we want to achieve. Our

strategy was co-created with our staff and has been supported by insight from our various

partners, and throughout, you will find our ambitions to be achieved. Everything that we do within

DBS, from developing our strategic intent, to the day-to-day operational delivery of our services,

is underpinned by constant considerations of safeguarding, quality, sustainability, value for

money, and diversity and inclusion. Our strategic objectives aim to enhance our effectiveness,

influence, and customer satisfaction while fostering a supportive environment for everyone.

Equality, Diversion, and Inclusion at DBS

DBS is committed to fostering an environment that values individual differences and ensures fair

treatment to unlock the full potential of staff and better support customers. Equality, diversity,

and inclusion (EDI) are core to driving organisational success and we have developed specific

equality objectives for DBS.

Every decision and activity will be considered through an EDI lens, aiming to build an inclusive

culture, improve policies and practices, gain external assurances, and become a leading voice of

good practice in EDI.

Read More

For further information, please see below for a collection of DBS strategies and business plans:

• DBS strategies - GOV.UK
• DBS business plans - GOV.UK

Job Purpose:

The Associate Director for Solutions provides senior leadership for the design and delivery of

DBS’s future technology and business solutions, leading the charge on major change,

continuous improvement and enterprise architecture.

The role is accountable for turning strategy, the target operating model and business priorities

into integrated, deliverable solutions that modernise services, strengthen operational resilience

and build the foundations for DBS’s future digital capability.

Working across Technology and Innovation, the wider business, Home Office partners and

suppliers, the postholder will set direction, provide challenge and ensure solution decisions are

coherent, sustainable and aligned to the long-term transformation journey.

This is a pivotal role in ensuring DBS moves beyond individual programme delivery into a more

mature, enterprise-wide capability. The postholder will bring together solution design, testing,

data strategy and architectural assurance so that services are not only delivered, but proven to

be safe, robust, interoperable and ready to operate at scale.

The role will also take senior responsibility for the testing function, ensuring DBS has a clear,

disciplined and proportionate approach to quality assurance across change, live service and

supplier delivery. This includes setting expectations for test strategy, test governance, defect

management, acceptance criteria and the evidence required before services move into

operation.

The postholder will lead the development of DBS’s data strategy with a clear focus on “fixing

the plumbing”: establishing the data foundations, standards, ownership, quality controls,

architecture and interoperability needed for others to deliver value from data. This role will not

own AI, innovation or data insight outcomes directly, but it will create the trusted, well-governed

and accessible data environment that enables those functions to succeed.

Corporate Duties:

• Play an active part as a member of the directorate management team (DMT), leading the

organisation and undertaking corporate duties on behalf of DMT.

• As an Associate Director within the DBS Corporate Leadership Team (CLT)), take a lead role

in developing the organisation, ensuring a continued focus on VFM.

• Fully engage and participate in the change programme.
• Support the DBS Board and its committees as required.
• Work as part of a wider directorate management, bringing together skills and expertise into a

single, coherent and enabling directorate.

• Represent the Directorate, Group and Department as a leader in creating an innovative place

of work to both internal and external audiences and driving forward the positive public image

to all.

• Lead end-to-end solution design across major change programmes
• Translate strategy and TOM into deliverable solutions
• Ensure integration across business processes, technology and data
• Act as the senior T&I lead for future solution design, representing the directorate in strategic

decisions about what is best to build, buy, reuse or transform for DBS’s long-term service

model

• Provide authoritative, evidence-based advice at senior governance forums, ensuring

enterprise architecture, technology choices and delivery plans are aligned to DBS’s future

operating model and transformation outcomes

• Set and maintain the architectural direction and design principles for future services, ensuring

decisions are coherent, scalable, user-centred, secure and sustainable across the enterprise

• Lead the enterprise architecture function, ensuring future services are designed around user

needs, operational outcomes, accessibility, security and long-term sustainability, rather than

being driven by technology choices alone

• Lead the testing function, setting the strategy, standards and governance needed to provide

confidence that new and changed services are safe, resilient, compliant and fit for

operational use

• Ensure testing is embedded early in solution design and delivery planning, with clear

acceptance criteria, traceability, defect management and evidence-based assurance before

services are released

• Own and mature the DBS data strategy by fixing the underlying data foundations, including

data architecture, quality, standards, governance, ownership and interoperability, so that

data can be trusted, accessed and used safely across the organisation

• Enable, but not directly own, the delivery of AI, innovation and data insight outcomes by

providing the reliable data infrastructure, governance and standards those specialist

functions depend on

• Provide assurance through governance and design forums
• Support business readiness and adoption
• Engage and influence stakeholders across DBS, Home Office and suppliers
• Provide direction and challenge to delivery partners
• Manage risks to service continuity and safeguarding

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

DBS has appointed executive search specialists Gatenby Sanderson to support us with this appointment.

To apply for this please click the link below:

https://dbs.gs-attract.com/

Your application should include:

• A current CV, including your educational and professional qualifications and full employment history (explaining any gaps), with details of budgets and teams managed and highlighting key achievements.
• A covering letter, no more than two A4 pages, explaining why this appointment interests you and how you meet the criteria set out in the candidate profile (please note that references and open-source due diligence checks (including into social media accounts) may be undertaken for all short-listed candidates)

The anticipated timetable is as follows:

Closing Date: 9am on Monday 5 October 2026

Long Listing: Week commencing 12 October 2026

Preliminary Interviews: Weeks commencing 19 and 26 October 2026

Short Listing: Week commencing 2 November 2026

Informal Discussions: Week commencing 9 November 2026

Final Panel: Week commencing 16 November 2026

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.