AMS PSR

G7 Innovation Capability Lead

Disclosure & Barring Service

Details

Reference number

446762

Salary

£60,380 - £64,882

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

Grade 7

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

Technology & Innovation

Type of role

Business Management and Improvement
 Information Technology
 Other

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Part-time

Number of jobs available

1

Location

This role is available on a remote, hybrid, or office basis. Initially, all DBS employees' contracts are office-based at one of our two sites (Liverpool and Darlington). Employees can apply for remote or hybrid work from day one. If approved, the arrangement will start after six months for transfers from Home Office or after completing probation for new joiners. Requests will be considered based on business needs and role requirements. Informal hybrid working arrangements are also available from day one, subject to business needs and role requirements and will be discussed further following any job offer.

About the job

Job summary

Reporting to the Associate Director of Innovation, Automation and AI, this role delivers and manages innovation activities within the organisation. The role involves developing solutions using the Innovation Lab and Emerging Technology function to support decision making and change requests. Additionally, the role holder will provide technology insights by collaborating with industries to explore new technologies and opportunities for DBS delivering against our strategy. The role will manage a team to organise, plan and support strategic activity, drive a culture of innovative thinking and support other teams and directorates to deliver against their strategic aims.

Job description

Corporate Duties:

Promote DBS as a safeguarding organisation with internal and external stakeholders.
 Be an active member of the Heads of Service group, promoting leadership and collaboration with peers.
 Work collaboratively with directorates at all levels and stakeholders to deliver innovative change.
 Work with the wider directorate of Technology and Innovation to support the organisational delivery of change.
 Support the Associate Director in creating joined-up innovation plans that have positive impact and are aligned to the DBS’s overarching strategy.
 To be prepared to work flexibly and to change priorities and workloads quickly and effectively dependent upon the requirements of the role.

Key Responsibilities:

Manage and support innovation as a service to the organisation.
 Maintaining that service and providing key statistics on the performance of the service. 
 Lead on evaluating and implementing innovative opportunities as and when they arise and provide full guidance to the business on the impact on processes, policies and operating models.
 Monitor the external environment to gather intelligence on emerging technologies, products, services, methods and techniques.
 Provide clear direction, effective leadership and development support to colleagues within the team.
 Facilitate Innovation workshops with stakeholders and external parties where appropriate to explore opportunities for innovation.
 Provide specialist innovation expertise that supports a change request or opportunity that has emerged.
 Continually improve Innovation practices and processes to deliver value for money through data analysis.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

Ability

Can simplify complexities and articulate rationale to influence and gain agreement at senior level.
 Can create and present a compelling vision and motivate others to work towards a common goal.
 Remain calm but decisive under pressure and in challenging circumstances.
 Create and maintain positive, collaborative and trusting working relationships with a wide range of people within and outside the organisation.
 Shows organisational skills to be able to prioritise workload and prioritise delivery.
 Committed to the seven principles of public life.
  Manage competing priorities effectively.

Experience

Experience of successfully delivering innovative solutions as part of a cross-functional team in complex organisations.
 Experience and proven track record in leading and facilitating thought leadership activities.
 Evidence of effective influencing others within a challenging environment to successfully deliver against key priorities.
 Experience in managing teams to deliver against set objectives.

Technical

Track record of developing and testing hypotheses to deliver recommendations around the viability of proposals.

Desirable Criteria:

Experience

Proven experience in leading an innovation capability within a large organisation.
 Experience at a senior level in a regulated organisation.
 Six sigma and continuous improvement experience.

Technical

Excellent research and analytical skills 

Further Information:

To View the DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice, please click the link below:

DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

This privacy notice covers personal data collected during the recruitment, security clearance and on-boarding process.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Leadership
• Developing Self and Others
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £60,380, Disclosure & Barring Service contributes £17,492 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The DBS offers a number of excellent benefits for its employees. These can include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement
• Excellent maternity, paternity and adoption schemes (after a qualifying period)
• Commitment to the health and wellbeing of our employees
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Flexible working opportunities
• Eyecare voucher scheme
• Occupational Health Service including referrals for counselling and physiotherapy
• 24/7 Counselling and Wellbeing Service
• A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

The DBS vision and purpose is to make people safer by being a visible, trusted and influential organisation, providing an outstanding quality of service to all our customers and partners, where our people understand the important safeguarding contributions they make and feel proud to work here. To do this, the DBS is committed to being an employer that is able to attract, develop, retain and engage diverse talent that is representative of the communities we serve, and to be an organisation providing outstanding service to all our existing and new customers, who are diverse and have a range of different needs. We want all our staff to be able to bring their ‘whole self’ to work.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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

*** Please do not apply for this role if you have previously applied under the campaign 25.75***

To apply for this role:

Please provide a CV along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words, outlining how your skills and experience meet the requirements of the role, including all essential and desirable criteria.

In addition, please provide, in no more than 500 words examples demonstrating the behaviours: 

Communicating & Influencing

Developing Self & Others

The CV and Personal Statement will be sifted first for all candidates. Those candidates who achieve the pass mark for the CV and Personal Statement, will progress to a further sift on the behaviours. In the event that we receive a large number of applications, the sift pass mark may be raised.

AT INTERVIEW: For all candidates who are successful at the initial sifting stage, you will be invited to a Microsoft Teams virtual interview. 

The aim of the panel interview will be to assess your ability to demonstrate the following behaviours: 

Leadership

Changing & Improving

Making Effective Decisions

Delivering at Pace

The STAR (Situation, Task, Action and Result) technique is a useful method to help structure your answer:

• Situation - provide some brief details about the situation.
 • Task - outline what your objective or purpose was during that situation.
 • Action - describe what you did in that situation and how you approached it.
 • Result - state the outcome, for example: Were the objectives met? What did you learn/gain from being in that situation?

 Sift and interview dates
 The following timetable outlines indicative dates. Please note, these dates may be subject to change without prior notice.

Closing date: Monday 16th February 2026 at 10am
 The initial sift to shortlist applications is the week commencing: Monday 16th February 2026

Interviews are due to take place the week commencing: Monday 23rd February 2026
 Interviews will be held via Microsoft Teams.

Whilst we will endeavour to provide some flexibility with regards to dates wherever possible, it is unlikely that we will be able to offer an alternative date once an appointment has been scheduled.        

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
 
 We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Alan Yates
• Email : alan.yates@weareams.com

Recruitment team

• Email : psrpermapplications@weareams.com