Director General, Chief Operating Officer

Location

Bristol, Leeds, London, Manchester

About The Job

Job summary

We are recruiting for a Director General, Chief Operating Officer, to provide leadership across GLD’s legal operations and corporate functions

including strategy, finance, HR and digital. This is a new role and an early priority for the successful candidate will be to ensure the appropriate structure and portfolio for this new Directorate.

The post-holder will lead circa 650 staff, currently led through Directors, based across our offices. The post holder will be a member of the GLD Board, Executive Committee (ExCo), the Ministerial Strategic Board chaired by the Attorney General, and will chair GLD’s Investment and Portfolio Management Committee.

This is a significant and highly visible leadership role across GLD and wider Government, with the DG responsible for providing leadership of GLD’s legal operations and the use of autonomous legal technology and other improved digital systems.

This will include the discovery and implementation of new legal technology and practices which will enhance the pace of delivering legal services to

clients, as well as the commissioning and performance management of private sector legal services, which form part of GLD and Government’s wider legal resourcing model.

This includes responsibility for ensuring GLD sustains its individual professional and regulatory standards and its corporate practice certification, for example LEXCEL.

As such, this role will be accountable within GLD for our ability to meet the needs of customers (clients), front line delivery lawyers and the essential

legal operations and delivery services required for GLD to succeed.

Responsibilities, objectives and deliverables for this role will include:

• The development and continuous improvement of a functional strategy to underpin the growth and capability of Government Legal Profession, supporting the Head of Profession (the Treasury Solicitor and Permanent Secretary).
• Providing the senior leadership and visible integration/fusion between GLD’s legal delivery capability needs (people and places, data and analysis and technology) and its corporate service providers and commercial partners.
• Fostering an enhanced culture of customer excellence, value, and effectiveness including driving improved value from the shared procurement of legal services across Government (value c£50m per annum.)
• Overseeing, on behalf of the Crown’s nominee (the Treasury Solicitor) GLD’s Bona Vacantia operation, which is the administration of the estates of people who die intestate (without a Will) and without known kin (entitled blood relatives) and collect the assets of dissolved companies and other various ownerless goods in England and Wales.
• The development and continuous improvement of a functional strategy to underpin the growth and capability of Government Legal Profession, supporting the Head of Profession (the Treasury Solicitor and Permanent Secretary).
• Ensuring that the shared corporate services GLD provides to the Attorney General’s Office and HM CPS Inspectorate are providing a high performing service and ensure that GLD is ready to transition into wider Shared Services arrangements across Government and other collaborative arrangements.
• Ensuring GLD’s operational and legal capability is structured and modernised to meet the requirements of clients and our legal delivery teams enabling GLD to sustain the delivery of outstanding legal services.
• Lead the delivery of GLD’s National Organisation programme, including the relocation of its London HQ in 2026 and fulfilment of its commitment to becoming a national organisation under the Government’s Places for Growth programme (moving significant numbers of posts, including SCS, to Leeds, Bristol, Salford and London) whilst sustaining the delivery of legal services.
• The development of the next iteration of GLD’s overall Corporate Strategy and annual business cycle including overall responsibility for corporate planning, performance, governance, and risk management and the workforce and capability design and delivery to achieve it;
• Overseeing a budget of £65m and ensuring that GLD’s financial planning for its £300m budget is aligned with the delivery of its corporate strategy, business plan and is underpinned by an ongoing commitment to efficiency in how it delivers its legal services.
• Driving forward the outcome of a Corporate Services review, as Senior Responsible Officer, including the delivery of existing corporate, people, knowledge and operational services across the GLD and establishing a GLD Corporate Services strategy aligned with wider Government and Civil Service Shared service and functional agendas.

Person specification

To be successful in this role you will need to be an exceptional transformational leader with deep understanding of legal practice and operations, who also brings a breadth of experience in complex organisations to enable leadership of a broad portfolio of corporate functions in a high profile and constitutionally significant service delivery environment.

It is important through your CV and Statement of Suitability that you provide evidence and examples of proven experience of the selection criteria below.

Essential Criteria

• Extensive experience of providing visible strategic leadership of the delivery and transformation of best practice legal service delivery, or similar, at scale and across a broader corporate portfolio, at C-suite or equivalent level.
• High intellectual capability and a capacity to move between strategic thinking and technical detail.
• Ability to build trusted relationships with senior decision makers, including at Ministerial level, with the ability to lead through challenging cultural and operational change, securing buy-in from demanding stakeholder groups, winning the trust of those who may have differing or conflicting views.
• A high level of personal credibility based on first class judgement and integrity, a collaborative style and professional excellence.
• The confidence, presence and resilience to influence and engage within a complex, highly scrutinised environment, garnering the respect and support of your staff, colleagues and counterparts in other organisations.
• Excellent people leadership skills with the ability to attract, lead, motivate and develop staff at all levels to the highest standards, to enhance staff performance and to promote a culture of respect, equality, diversity, and inclusion, able to prioritise resources efficiently and drive a culture of continuous improvement.

Desirable criteria

• A legal qualification would be advantageous but is not essential.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £127,000, Government Legal Department contributes £34,290 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 30%
• Learning and development tailored to your role
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• An environment with flexible working options

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Full details of the selection process can be found in the attached candidate pack.

Applications should made be through the online application process, using the following link www.gatenbysanderson.com/job/GSe100321. If you require support to apply, please contact [email protected] .

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window) . See our vetting charter (opens in a new window) .

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

Nationality Requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

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.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

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 : Duncan Ewart
• Email : [email protected]

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]