Service Owner

We are MHCLG

This is an exciting opportunity to lead one of the Government's most visible and impactful digital services. As Service Owner for the Registration Service, you will shape the future of voter registration, lead multidisciplinary teams, and drive improvements that help millions of citizens engage with democracy.

The Elections Directorate is a welcoming and inclusive team responsible for a challenging and dynamic portfolio that is frequently in the public eye, covering electoral policy and law and development and delivery of a suite of digital services, including Register to Vote. We are working on an exciting programme of work to implement key manifesto commitments, through primary and secondary legislation, and digital and operational delivery. The commitments include:

• Increasing engagement of young people by enfranchising 16- and 17-year-olds.
• Improving voter registration so that more people are correctly registered to vote.
• Reforming voter identification rules to improve accessibility for all electors.

This programme includes some significant developments around electoral registration - moving towards a more automated approach to registration, making better use of central and local data and integrating voter registration into other government services, with the overall goal of making it as easy as possible for citizens to be correctly registered. In addition, extending the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds also requires changes to the existing Register to Vote service, and we are also exploring what can be done to reduce the volume of duplicate applications that are submitted, particularly in the run up to a general election. Alongside these large-scale changes, the live Register to Vote service also serves thousands of users every day, and we are continuing to iterate and improve the existing service.

Given the volume of changes, we are recruiting a Service Owner role for our registration services, which includes our flagship Register to Vote service, plus two other services, one for overseas electors and one which supports local authorities with their annual review of the electoral register.

This role will be accountable for the end-to-end delivery, performance, and continuous improvement of our registration services, and leading and co-ordinating the planned changes to ensure the services continue to work for users.

Find out more about our Digital teams and what they are working on through our MHCLG Digital blog. Please note that MHCLG do not offer visa sponsorship and applicants will need a valid visa for the duration of your employment.

As a Service Owner, you'll:

• Own the vision, strategy, and roadmap for the Registration Service, ensuring development is prioritised in alignment with user needs, policy goals and business requirements
• Own the success and quality metrics for the service and focus delivery on the intended outcomes and benefits
• Lead multidisciplinary teams across product, UCD, delivery, operations and data, to deliver significant changes to the service and continuous improvement, creating the right culture and environment for the team to do their best work
• Engage with in-house teams and third-party suppliers, working across organisational boundaries to ensure positive service outcomes. This includes ensuring all parties are aware of their roles and contractual obligations and are held accountable for delivery
• Champion user-centred design, accessibility, and data integrity throughout the service lifecycle
• Develop close working relationships with a range of stakeholders including policy, strategy, engagement and analytical colleagues within the Elections Directorate, Digital colleagues across MHLCG and stakeholders in the wider elections sector, building consensus around the vision and strategy for the Registration Service
• Ensure that work on the service complies with all the required governance processes, including internal programme management within the Elections Directorate and spend approvals and service assessments led by the Digital Directorate
• Work closely with our Elections Operations team to oversee risk management, including cyber security posture and IT Health Check remediations

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)

Application and Selection

The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Experience , Technical

Please ensure your CV does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Note: We do not consider direct CV applications. All applications must be submitted via the provided application link.

Important: Your CV and Cover Letter must be merged into a single document before uploading.

Stage 1: Sift (CV & Cover Letter)

Experience & Technical: Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the job description.

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Communicating and Influencing, Working Together, Leadership
• Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.*
• Candidates will be asked to prepare a 5-10 minute presentation, further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 26th October 2026.

Interviews are envisaged to take place shortly after and are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

How We Recruit

Find out everything you need to know before applying here..

• Applying
• Sifting
• Interview
• Interview Results & Feedback
• Reserve List
• Near Miss
• Civil Service Grades
• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer
• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

What you need to know before applying.

• Security Clearance Requirements
• Civil Service Nationality Requirements
• Right to Work
• Artificial Intelligence
• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles
• CV Declaration
• Sponsorships
• Salary and Grade
• Existing Civil Servants
• Conflict of Interest
• Location and Flexible Working
• Fixed Term Contracts
• Internal Fraud Database - Internal Fraud Register
• Appeals and Complaints
• Conflict of Interest

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office: BPSS + SC

London Office: BPSS + SC

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