Director of Corporate Services

Local Government Chronicle; Coventry; Hybrid; GBP 82,000 - 87,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government authority in the UK is seeking a Director of Corporate Services to lead and manage essential functions including HR, IT, and policy development. This strategic role is crucial for improving local governance and enhancing public services. Ideal candidates should possess strong analytical and leadership skills, along with experience in public sector procurement and team management. An inclusive and supportive work environment is offered along with a competitive salary and benefits including pension and work-life balance options.

Benefits

Pension scheme

Flexible working arrangements

Learning and development programs

Family-friendly policies

Season ticket loan

Wellbeing programs

Cycle to Work Scheme

Qualifications

• Proven ability to manage corporate functions with a customer focus.
• Experience leading large scale programmes and projects.
• Extensive experience in public sector procurement and contract management.

Responsibilities

• Shape the function's evolution and enhance service effectiveness.
• Lead Human Resources, IT, Policy and Communications functions.
• Oversee management of around 25 colleagues.

Skills

Excellent analytical skills

Risk management skills

Compliance management skills

Excellent leadership skills

Education

Degree or equivalent

Job description

Director of Corporate Services

Location: Hybrid working - allocated to offices in Coventry, London or York. Based in Coventry, York and London.

Position: Director of Corporate Services

Hours: 35

Salary: £82,239 for Coventry and York or £86,866 for London

Holiday: 27 days rising by 1 day with three years' service and a further 2 days with five years' service

Role

A new opportunity has arisen for an outstanding individual to join the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman's Executive Team as Director of Corporate Services. This new role gives you the opportunity to shape the evolution of our functions, making sure we are effective in our service to the public and ensuring we use our insight to support the improvement of local government and social care services across England.

You will be joining a national organisation with a dedicated and inclusive team, working in a rapidly changing policy environment. We are committed to bringing fairness, addressing injustice, enabling public services to get better and improving people's lives: if you share our values then we want to hear from you.

We are seeking a talented and motivated leader focused on delivering the highest quality of services to the people who seek our help, the organisations we oversee, our stakeholders and our colleagues. You should be able to bring ambition, innovation and fresh thinking to our services and how we deliver them.

The Director of Corporate Services reports directly to the Chief Executive and is a member of the Executive Team. The role leads and manages the Human Resources, IT, Policy and Communications, Operational support, Projects and Programmes and the committee and governance functions, overseeing around 25 colleagues.

If you have the extensive experience of managing corporate functions and highly effective leadership skills we are looking for, with an ethos of continuous improvement and customer focus, then we look forward to your application.

Requirements

Education

Degree or equivalent

Skills

• Excellent analytical skills.
• Risk management skills across a range of functions.
• Compliance management skills.
• Excellent leadership skills.

Experience

• Experience of delivering successful improvements to operational business processes.
• Experience of leading and running large scale programmes and projects.
• Experience of public sector procurement and contract management, in line with legal requirements and best practice.
• Experience of managing professional or managerial staff at Head of Service level.

Benefits

• We are an ambitious, focused, inclusive and friendly organisation which is recognised for the important work we do. There are a range of benefits for all our staff enjoy.
• Pension: You'll be entitled to join the Local Government Pension Scheme which is a career average scheme.
• Work/life balance: We encourage all employees to have a healthy work/life balance and offer flexible working arrangements, such as agile working and flexi‑time, together with a wide range of different working patterns. All are subject to business needs.
• Learning and development: We provide our staff with access to a learning and development programme to enable them to succeed in their role. Where membership is relevant to your role in the organisation, we will also pay the annual membership fee for you to be a member of your professional body.
• Family‑friendly: We offer generous maternity, adoption, paternity and parental leave, and provide for paid and unpaid special leave.
• Season ticket loan: We offer our staff the ability to have a loan for their annual travel season ticket.
• Wellbeing: We have a programme which includes an Occupational Health Service and access for you to an excellent, confidential Employee Assistance Scheme. This is a free 24‑hour counselling service for advice about your work and personal life challenges.
• You will be able to join the Civil Service Sports Club.
• As well as reimbursing the cost of your eye tests, we will subsidise your eye care where a prescription is for VDU usage and we will cover the cost of an annual flu jab.
• Bike loan: We run a Cycle to Work Scheme which allows you to pay for the cost of your bike (up to a limit) as a loan which is deducted from your salary.
• Reasonable adjustments: We recognise how important it is to make reasonable changes for staff where appropriate.

About The LGSCO

For 50 years we've been the voice of the public. Our free and impartial service helps people put things right with their local council or adult social care provider. We use what we learn from complaints to improve local public services and independent adult social care provision. We act with impartiality and make fair decisions after listening to both sides of the story and weighing up all the evidence. So, if you want to make a difference and have the perspective we're looking for, please get in touch.

Contact

Local Government Ombudsman
Coventry, UK
Permanent

Published on 1 Dec 2025