Head of Operational Management

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.

Be at the heart of one of the UK's most significant data transformation programmes.

Census 2031 represents our most ambitious data collection programme yet: a once-in-a-decade opportunity to capture a complete picture of everyone living in England and Wales. Building on the digital success of Census 2021, we're pioneering new ways to reach every household and community, ensuring no one is left uncounted. The insights generated will inform policy decisions, guide funding, and support the planning of services and communities across the country for years to come.

Working at the heartbeat of Census 2031, you'll be right in the middle of the action, acting as a central point within the programme and helping to connect people, services, and delivery partners. You'll work closely with senior leaders and colleagues across operational delivery, digital, data, policy, communications, and programme management, providing leadership that ensures activities are aligned, risks are understood, and delivery remains on track. This is a unique opportunity to gain exposure to a high-profile national programme while helping shape a project of national importance.

As a visible senior leader, you will be expected to build strong relationships across teams and stakeholders, leading collaboration and driving delivery in a complex environment. The role requires regular office attendance, participation in meetings, workshops, and key programme events, and being present where important decisions are made. Your leadership, judgement, and influence will be critical in bringing teams together and maintaining momentum across multiple workstreams.

As Head of Operational Management, you will provide strategic leadership across complex operational services, ensuring delivery teams, suppliers, and stakeholders work together effectively to deliver high-quality outcomes. You will be responsible for shaping and planning operational services, establishing governance, performance, and assurance frameworks, and ensuring risks, resources, budgets, and operational priorities are managed effectively.

Working across multidisciplinary and matrix-managed teams, you will drive operational performance, readiness, and continuous improvement while providing insight and assurance to senior leaders. You will identify emerging risks and opportunities, ensure decisions are informed by evidence and data, and help shape the strategic direction of the Directorate to support wider organisational objectives.

As a senior leader, you will set the vision and direction for teams, champion inclusive leadership, and build capability to deliver both current priorities and future ambitions. For Grade 6 roles, there is an additional focus on leading long-term operational improvement, strengthening leadership capability, and implementing new operating models and organisational change, while maintaining the delivery of critical operational services and strategic objectives.

As a visible senior leader at the heart of the programme, this role is based in Titchfield. Regular office attendance is required to provide leadership and support to teams, lead workshops and engagement activities, strengthen collaboration across workstreams, and ensure the successful delivery of this high-profile programme.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategic direction for operational delivery, ensuring services are designed, integrated and delivered effectively to achieve organisational objectives.
• Establish and oversee operational performance management frameworks, ensuring management information, insight and analysis are used to drive operational performance, inform strategic decisions and support delivery outcomes.
• Provide leadership and assurance across operational governance, controls and decision-making arrangements, ensuring effective oversight and accountability across services and suppliers.
• Lead the management of significant operational risks, issues and dependencies, ensuring appropriate mitigations, escalation and senior decision-making.
• Establish and maintain operational readiness, resilience and business continuity frameworks, ensuring services are prepared to respond effectively to changing demands and disruptive events.
• Provide strategic leadership during major operational incidents and service disruptions, ensuring effective coordination, recovery and organisational learning.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with senior stakeholders, devolved governments, delivery partners and suppliers to enable integrated, effective and efficient service delivery.
• Lead the development and implementation of operational communication strategies, ensuring stakeholders and senior leaders receive timely, accurate and actionable information.
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement, innovation and learning, using operational insight, assurance activities and lessons learned to improve organisational performance and service outcomes.
• Lead, inspire and develop high-performing, inclusive teams, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, wellbeing and continuous professional development.
• Provide strategic leadership across complex operational services, ensuring alignment between organisational priorities, operational delivery, commercial arrangements and supplier performance.

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)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Security Clearance

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services records.

Visa Sponsorship

ONS may be able to provide visa sponsorship where the role meets ONS sponsorship criteria and all relevant Home Office requirements. Applicants must hold, or be eligible to obtain, the right to work in the UK before employment commences.

Right to Work and Nationality Requirements

To work at ONS, applicants must meet the Civil Service nationality requirements, satisfy UK right to work requirements and, where applicable, meet the relevant security clearance requirements.

If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, CV, skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1250, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be undertaken using the lead Essential Criteria, which you will address through Stage 3 of the process. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to interview.

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert.

This assessment will consist of a scenario-based presentation exercise. Candidates will be provided with a scenario and supporting information and will have 15 minutes to review the information and prepare their response.

Candidates will then deliver a 5-minute presentation outlining their response to the scenario.

Following the presentation, the panel will move on to the formal interview, where candidates will be asked the remaining interview questions.

Interviews will take place in person at our Titchfield (Fareham) Office. Please note that travel expenses will not be reimbursed. You will also be required to bring valid photo identification to your interview.

Our main locations are Newport (South Wales), Darlington and Titchfield.

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Important Dates:

The Sift will be conducted from 04/09/2026

Interviews will be conducted from 18/09/2026

Dates are subject to change.

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

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