Digital Deputy Directors, Migration and Borders Group (4 posts) - PB1

Home Office Digital designs, builds and runs the technology and services that deliver, at scale, some of the UK’s most critical and well-used public services. The digital capability plays a critical part in every part of the Home Office in delivering its mission from how we secure the border and control immigration to issues passports and reducing and preventing crime, supporting these services that impact millions of people every year.

The Home Office Digital estate consists of more than 600 systems, enabling critical services such as;

• 13 million Electronic Travel Authorisations since launch
• 3 million visa applications annually
• 130 million border checks each year
• 7 million passport applications annually
• 140 million police checks on people, vehicles, and property

Migration and Borders Digital (M&B Digital) is part of Home Office Digital. We are a Portfolio of around 3,500 dedicated professionals made up of civil servants and suppliers working together to develop some of the most challenging and transformative technology products, supporting critical programmes within the Migration and Borders system. Working closely with colleagues in the Migration and Borders mission, we also support a number of the Home Office's capabilities such as Citizenship Services, Immigration Enforcement, Border Force and the Asylum Group. We jointly design services, build, run and sustain them to enable some of the government’s most important strategic outcomes, notably the legitimate movement of people and goods to support economic prosperity.

There are four roles available:

• Asylum Independent Immigration Appeals Authority Digital Deputy Director - This role provides strategic leadership and programme delivery of the Independent Immigration Appeals Authority (IIAA) Programme. This role leads the design, development and delivery of the Programme including all related products and digital services across Home Office Digital, overseeing a blended team of approximately 50 Civil Servants, Managed Suppliers, and managing an annual budget of circa £60 million. The programme scope and budget continues to develop and be defined.
• Asylum Transformation Digital Deputy Director – This role provides strategic leadership, programme delivery, and continuous improvement of digital services across the totality of Asylum Group Directorate and Programmatic structures, part of the wider Migration and Borders system. This role leads the development and delivery of Asylum related programmes and projects, products and digital services, overseeing a blended team of approximately 150 Civil Servants, Managed Suppliers, and managing an annual budget exceeding £150 million.
• Borders, Compliance and Enforcement Digital Deputy Director – This role provides strategic leadership, programme delivery, and continuous improvement of digital services across the Border Security Command (BSC) including Home Office Intelligence (HOI), Immigration Enforcement (IE) and Border Force (BF), all as part of the wider Migration and Borders system. This role leads the development and delivery of BSC, IE and BF related programmes and projects, products and digital services, overseeing a blended team of approximately 150 Civil Servants, Managed Suppliers, and managing an annual budget exceeding £150 million
• Passports, Citizenship & Civil Registration Digital Deputy Director – This role provides strategic leadership, programme delivery, and continuous improvement of digital services across the UK’s passport and civil registration domains, all as part of the wider Migration and Borders system. This role leads the development and delivery of Passports and Civil Registration products, platforms and digital services, overseeing a blended team of approximately 600 Civil Servants and suppliers, and managing an annual budget exceeding £100 million.

Key responsibilities:

The posts will report into the Migration & Borders Digital Directors and will be part of senior leadership team as well as part of the wider Home Office Digital leadership.

• Strategic Digital leadership: Set and drive a compelling digital strategy, vision and roadmap. Balance immediate operational priorities with long-term transformation, future trends and wider Home Office and government objectives.
• Product, Programme and Service Delivery: Lead delivery of high-priority programmes and product portfolios. Embed end-to-end product lifecycle management and ensure services are user-centred, secure, robust, scalable and aligned across policy, operations and digital.
• Live Service and Continuous Improvement: Ensure effective service management, operational resilience and cyber security. Use performance data, user feedback and emerging technology to improve quality, accessibility and public value.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Build strategic relationships across business areas, government, suppliers and industry. Translate complex digital issues clearly, build consensus, secure buy-in and provide transparent reporting on progress, risk and challenge.
• People Leadership: Provide inspirational leadership to multidisciplinary, distributed and blended teams. Empower decision-making, create an inclusive culture of curiosity and experimentation, develop talent and actively support succession planning.
• Financial, Commercial and Supplier Leadership: Prioritise digital investment, people and projects in line with strategic goals. Manage budgets, contracts and supplier relationships with clear accountability, propriety and value for money.
• Strategic Alignment: Working with Policy, System Design and Home Office Analysis and Insight to deliver systemic change, recognising the inter-dependencies across the system and delivering across multiple delivery roadmaps alongside Home Office Digital teams and wider Migration and Borders domains.
• Data, Ethics and responsible Innovation: Champion data ethics and AI governance, ensuring new technology is adopted responsibly and supports public and organisational interests.

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)

Online application

Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online by 23:55hrs on 25th October 2026.

You will be asked to provide:

• A CV – (3 pages max) setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role. Please provide reasons for any gaps within the last two years.​​
• A Statement of Suitability – (limited to 1250 words) providing examples of how your experience meets the essential criteria.​​ This is your opportunity to give examples and show how your skills and experience fit the job requirements.

When writing a supporting statement, it is important that you:

• Read the job specification so you are clear about the job requirements. Structure your personal statement to reflect the essential criteria listed in the advert.
• Make sure you provide evidence against each of the listed criteria - i.e. ‘experienced in leading high performing and diverse teams and promoting inclusivity.’ When have you led a team, how large, what did you do to promote inclusivity, how did you handle diversity?
• Ensure any evidence you provide demonstrates the impact of your actions in that situation, provide statistical evidence where relevant.

For more information on how to write a personal statement, click here.

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