Digital Services Supplier Manager
DfT
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
DVLA in Swansea is seeking a Digital Services Supplier Manager to lead a small team and oversee supplier‑delivered IT/digital services, ensuring performance and alignment with DVLA priorities.
You will manage service management processes, monitor performance, and drive improvements while collaborating with stakeholders across DVLA, including IT Service Managers, Product Owners, Architects and Commercial colleagues.
Qualifications
- Experience managing supplier‑delivered IT/digital services.
- Experience with ITSM frameworks and change management.
- Ability to work with diverse stakeholders across large organisations.
Responsibilities
- Lead, mentor and manage the Digital Services Supplier Management team, ensuring a customer‑centric approach and performance against DVLA services.
- Ensure supplier services meet business and customer requirements through ITSM functions, monitoring, and continual improvement.
- Engage with projects and major change activity to ensure effective transitioning into live status and ongoing operational management.
Skills
Job description
Swansea
Do you have experience in IT service management?
Are you a strong leader who can set direction, drive performance and build capability?
Do you enjoy working collaboratively with different business areas?
If so, we'd love to hear from you!
Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:
- Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
- 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the Kings birthday
- Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.
Read more in the Benefits section below!
Find out more about what it's like working at DVLA - Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency Civil Service Careers.
As a Digital Services Supplier Manager, you will perform a critical leadership role for the Agency, ensuring the effective management and governance of the suppliers and partner organisations that underpin DVLA's digital services. This includes both commercial suppliers and organisations providing services through data-sharing arrangements.
Leading a small team, you will ensure that supplier-delivered services meet business and customer needs through effective service management, performance monitoring and continual improvement. You will work closely with a wide range of stakeholders across DVLA, including other IT Service Managers, Business Service Owners, Product Owners, Architects, Delivery teams and Commercial colleagues, to ensure supplier services remain resilient, efficient and aligned to organisational priorities.
The role offers the opportunity to influence strategic supplier relationships, support major change and transformation activity.
Your responsibilities will include, but arent limited to:
- Lead, mentor and manage the Digital Services Supplier Management team, ensuring that both the team itself and the suppliers it manages adopt a customer‑centric support approach, focused on availability and performance of dependent DVLA services. This includes ensuring performance against all appropriate ITSM functions, such as listed below, aligned to industry best practice standards / frameworks:
- Service Level Management
- Service Transition
- Incident Management
- Problem Management
- Change Enablement
- Capacity and Performance Management
- Monitoring and Event Management
- Service Configuration Management
- Service Catalogue Management
- Service Continuity Management
- Continual Improvement
- Service Measurement and Reporting
- SSL/TLS Certificate Management
- Ensure that all service and support functions being provided by suppliers remain responsive to DVLAs customer needs. Hold service review meetings with suppliers as appropriate to measure performance, alongside day‑to‑day engagement to ensure effective performance against requirements.
- Ensure that all technical change is communicated and managed, with appropriate governance. This includes change performed by suppliers as well as that performed by DVLA which has a bearing on the services provided by suppliers.
- As part of Service Architecture and Transition, engage closely with projects and major change activity involving new digital service suppliers or changes to arrangements with existing ones to ensure all requirements are met for the effective transitioning into live status and ongoing operational management.
Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.
For further information on the role, please read the attached role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.
Would you like to find out more about the role, the team and what its like to work in our department? If so, we are organising an open session where you can virtually 'meet the team' on 16th October 2026 at 12pm.
To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:
You will have a passion for ITSM and enjoy working with and leading people in a dynamic, innovative way. You will be comfortable using your initiative, take pride in your work and lead by example. You will foster a positive and inclusive culture within your team, where everyone feels comfortable speaking openly and is encouraged to contribute.
You will be a confident and articulate communicator, who can converse effectively and professionally with a range of audience types, internal and external to the organisation. You will utilise your interpersonal skills to build positive relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, whilst being able to hold supplier organisations to account.
You will be a proactive individual who continuously looks to improve processes, with the confidence to question how things are currently done and self‑drive improvements.
At DVLA, licensing is just the start. Every project you implement, touch and deliver has a ripple effect thatll wash across the nation. Here the work youre doing has the capacity to change the way 53 million people interact with our services. As we aim to keep our roads some of the safest in the world, our innovative, transformative digital‑led services help optimise a nation of individuals and business every single day.
To see how our people are transforming our digital services, head over to our DVLA Digital Services Blogand, to understand more about the great opportunities and benefits of working at DVLA read our Inside DVLA blog.
Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week. Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 35 hours per week.
This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.
The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.
If you have a question about hybrid working, part time/job share hours, flexible working, or require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Vacancy Holder during the recruitment process to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role (see below for contact details).
Please note that we do not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker Licence sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship. Candidates must ensure they have the appropriate rights to work in the UK before application.
- Leadership
- Managing a Quality Service
- Stakeholder relationship management (IT operations) (Skill Level: Working)
- Service Management Framework Knowledge (Skill Level: Working)
- Technical understanding (Skill Level: Working)
Alongside your salary of 45,900, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency contributes 13,297 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
Passionate, reliable and always willing to push yourself and those around you, youll continue to seek improvement in your own role and challenge us too. Because we pride ourselves on how we approach your development. From training courses to specialist skills workshops and opportunities to grow your expertise, we thrive when you thrive. You can find out more about all of the abovehere alongside a full list of our benefits:
- Best in class learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working optionswhere we encourage a great work-life balance
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues
- Generous employer contribution of 28.9%, depending on chosenpension scheme
- Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.
- Digital communities with clear career frameworks
- On-site gym plus personal training available (membership applies)
- On-site nursery, restaurants and coffee bar
- 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays), increasing by 1 each year (up to 30) & 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the Kings birthday.
- 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff.
- Free parking
Find out more aboutthe benefits of working at DfT and its agencies(opens in a new window).
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.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's qualifications, skills, and potential fit within our organisation.
The selection process for this role will be:
At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:
Experience you will be asked to provide a CV (unlimited wordcount) and personal statement (750-word count). Please provide evidence of your Experience of the following:
- Managing supplier‑delivered IT or digital services, including monitoring supplier performance, managing service issues and technical change, driving service improvements and ensuring services meet agreed business and customer requirements.
- Operating ITSM functions aligned to industry best practice and their interface to modern engineering practices such as DevOps, Lean and Agile within complex digital or technology environments.
- Assessing prospective new IT or digital suppliers as part of contract tenders and working on projects or major change delivery from an ITSM perspective, ensuring that service requirements are met.
The sift will take place from 26th October 2026.
Should we receive a high volume of quality applications, we may invite a shortlist of the highest scoring candidates to interview. This means that some applications that meet the required standard could be placed on hold after the sift and invited to interview if the vacant position(s) remain unfilled. You will be notified if your application is being put on hold once the sift has been completed. Following interviews, any applicants remaining on hold will be notified by the panel of the next steps regarding their application.
At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:
- Behaviours Leadership, Managing a Quality Service
- Technical Stakeholder relationship management (IT operations) (Skill Level: Working), Service Management Framework Knowledge (Skill Level: Working), Technical understanding (Skill Level: Working)
- Experience
The interviews will take place from 5th November 2026.
This interview will be conducted in person at our Swansea office (DVLA, Longview Road, Swansea, SA6 7JL). Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.
Appointments for this position will be made in order of merit. If you are successful in the selection process but there are no further available posts for the advertised role, you may be contacted to discuss an offer for a lower graded role (with similar experience and responsibility requirements). If you are unsuccessful in the selection process, your application may be considered for a lower graded position if your demonstrated skills and experience meet the requirements of the alternative position. Candidates will be considered in order of merit.
You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site (opens in a new window).
Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change.
We will also hold a 12‑month reserve list for this role, which may lead to potential opportunities beyond the role you applied for.
As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non‑visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
Complete the Assistance required section in the Additional requirements page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if youre deaf, a Language Service Professional.
If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert or the information on our website, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.
If your application is successful but you have been dismissed from the Civil Service, your application could be removed at the pre-employment checking stage depending on the nature of the dismissal.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicants details held on the IFD will be refused employment. A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5‑year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
All external applicants and current employees of accredited non‑departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will be required to undergo a Social Media Check. A Social Media Check is a review of your publicly available online activity, typically across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and others. The purpose is to identify any public posts or content that could raise concerns for employers, such as:
- Hate speech or discriminatory behaviour
- Threats or acts of violence
- Illegal activity or substance misuse
- Sexually explicit material
- Extremist views or affiliations
Importantly, this check does not involve hacking into your accounts or accessing private messages. It only considers content you have chosen to make public. Employers use this kind of screening to help ensure their workplace remains safe, inclusive, and aligned with company values. Its not about judging your personality or lifestyle - it's about checking for potential red flags that might affect the role or company culture. If you have questions or concerns about the social media check, we would be happy to explain in more detail whats being looked at and how your data is handled securely and fairly.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in a new window) checks.
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 (
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