Senior Service Operations Manager

Are you ready to be part of something that shapes the future of our nation? Do you thrive on variety, enjoy working with lots of teams, and want to make a real difference? If so, this could be the opportunity you've been looking for.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UKs 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.

Census 2031 represents our most ambitious data collection project 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 2021, we're pioneering new ways to reach every household and community, ensuring no one is left uncounted. This vital work will provide the foundation for policy decisions, resource allocation, and community planning for the next decade.

Your work will support delivery of this transformational project that will shape how we understand and support our nation's future. Youll be part of a team that ensures everyone is countedand every voice is heard. We're building a culture that values collaboration, fresh thinking, and respect for diverse expertise.  Whether you're a seasoned professional or bringing new perspectives, you'll be part of a team that welcomes bold ideas, works transparently, and thrives on solving complex challenges together.

The Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) is the largest profession in the Civil Service. ODPs 200,000+ members work in a wide range of operational delivery roles across government, providing essential services that support and protect UK citizens at home and overseas. They help to make ONS a great place to work.

As a member, ODP supports you by providing learning and development opportunities, career pathways, tools and resources to help develop your skills and progress your career. This is an exciting opportunity to join a modern, innovative and inclusive Civil Service profession that sits at the heart of public service delivery.

There are two roles available:

Role 1 Senior Service Operations Manager - Central Operations.

Role 2 - Senior Service Operations Manager - Print Services.

These roles sit within Census Service Delivery & Operations division and plays a key part in shaping the delivery and performance of Census services.

Each role will be part of one of the following services:

Print Services - This service prints and sends paper questionnaires and non questionnaire materials, such as letters and paper supplementary materials. It also covers postal services to collect, receipt, and return completed questionnaires for data capture.

Central Operational Management - Central Operational Management provides the oversight, coordination, and control needed to deliver complex services as a single, integrated operation. It ensures end-to-end service alignment, maintains operational readiness, and drives consistent performance through effective monitoring, quality assurance, and incident management. Acting as a central control function, it enables informed decision-making, rapid issue resolution, and continuous improvement, ensuring services are delivered safely, efficiently, and to required standards.

Youll work collaboratively with colleagues in Census Service Delivery and Operations, design teams, and delivery partners (internal and external) to bring services to life throughout the Census lifecycle.

Please note, while successful candidates will be aligned to a specific role, our intention is to rotate role holders through the different roles over the lifecycle of the programme. This will provide individuals with career development opportunities, a broader understanding of all areas of the census operations and enable the programme to flex resources to meet key demands.

We are offering informal drop-in sessions with panel members for candidates interested in learning more about these roles. If you would like to attend, please email [email protected] and we will arrange a Microsoft Teams meeting.

Responsibilities:

Design and Build Phase

• Lead and contribute to the detailed design, integration and documentation of one or more Census services, ensuring alignment with Census strategy, architecture and cross service dependencies.
• Gather, refine and document operational, functional and nonfunctional requirements, engaging with delivery partners, technical teams and subject matter experts.
• Support the development of service models, process maps, user journeys and workflows that underpin the delivery of your service area.
• Review proposed solutions, designs and supplier products, ensuring they meet agreed acceptance criteria, operational standards and user needs.
• Identify design risks, constraints and interdependencies early, escalating appropriately and contributing to mitigations and decision making.
• Participate in test planning and assurance activities, including scenario testing, UAT, failover checks, and operational readiness exercises.

Operational Delivery and Service Management

• Act as the first point of escalation for service specific operational issues, using judgement to resolve issues promptly or escalate to the Business Service Owner where required.
• Monitor day to day service delivery, identifying performance concerns, operational risks, blockers or failure points and ensuring timely resolution.
• Maintain effective relationships with suppliers and internal delivery partners, ensuring they meet SLAs, contractual obligations and performance expectations.
• Prepare, validate and submit accurate data and documentation required for supplier invoicing and payments.
• Ensure operational controls, policies, compliance requirements and quality standards are embedded and consistently followed.
• Maintain a clear understanding of interdependencies with other Census services, ensuring seamless end-to-end delivery.

Performance, MI and Assurance

• Monitor service performance using data, dashboards, trends and operational insights to support evidence-based decision making.
• Produce high quality MI and reporting for senior leaders, programme governance forums and cross service working groups.
• Assure the integrity, accuracy and completeness of operational data and support continuous improvement of MI processes.
• Track SLAs, KPIs and operational indicators, identifying root cause issues and feeding recommendations into service or system improvements.
• Contribute to internal and external audits, compliance reviews and assurance activities, ensuring your service meets legislative, security and operational standards.

Governance, Risk and Continuous Improvement

• Maintain and support service governance routines including action logs, risk registers, decision logs and change control processes.
• Identify improvement opportunities across processes, tools, training materials and service delivery, leading or contributing to continuous improvement initiatives.
• Champion learning from previous Census cycles and embed lessons learned into design, delivery and training documentation.
• Contribute to horizon scanning and forward planning, highlighting impacts of policy shifts, operational intelligence or programme changes.

Stakeholder and Partner Engagement

• Build and maintain strong collaborative relationships with key stakeholders including design teams, technical services, logistics, customer support, training providers and field operations.
• Represent your service area at internal and cross programme meetings, presenting updates, risks, dependencies and insight.
• Work with suppliers, partners and internal teams to resolve complex issues, negotiate priorities and ensure a joined up approach to service delivery.
• Support the cascade of information and guidance to operational teams, ensuring messages are consistent, accurate and timely.

Decommissioning and Evaluation

• Support structured decommissioning activity for your service area, ensuring data retention, knowledge capture and supplier offboarding are completed correctly.
• Contribute to post operational reviews, evaluations and lessons learned exercises, producing recommendations for Census 2031 and future programmes.

Essential Criteria:

• Strong operational management experience in complex or high‑volume service environments, with the ability to maintain consistent delivery under pressure.
• Ability to interpret and use data, MI and insight to ...