Digital skills and capacity uplift into DTU of FCO - Associate Product Manager

Tender description

Summary of the work The skills will be required for analysis, design, build, implementation and management of digital transactional services, driven by the Digital Transformation Unit, aligned to FCO's Digital Strategy. Specialist role Product manager Expected Contract Length 3-4 months Latest start date Monday 2 July 2018 Maximum Day Rate £650-800 per day. Early Market Engagement The FCO has engaged specialists with these skills in the past but has not done any specific market engagement for the skills outlined in this document. Who Speclialist Work With The FCO's Digital Transformation Unit is a small team and the specialist will be working across the whole unit. Each individual service they will work on will have its own set of stakeholders and they are likely to be working with managers, delivery teams and processing staff in each instance. What Specialists Work On The FCO Digital Transformation Unit (DTU) aims to recruit specialist skills to meet needs, including flow from the tech sector to build deeper expertise. The recruited specialist may be asked to backfill members of the team, to fill an immediate short term need for a skillset not in the team, or to staff a whole project as appropriate. The recruited specialists will continue to implement the ambitious digital transformation agenda of the FCO by identifying opportunities for new transactional services, designing and building them, transitioning them into business as usual environment and managing them whilst applying continuous improvement methodologies. Skills & Experience • Demonstrable experience using Microsoft Dynamics • Demonstrate knowledge of the technologies used to build and operate digital services • Understand the social and technological context for government services • Demonstrate experience in technologies used in web production including Office applications, scrum applications, portfolio management tools, service and cloud management software and other role-specific software as appropriate. • Working in an agile team to deliver transactional software based on user requirements; • Breaking up epics into manageable user stories • Developing prototypes to test out ideas, then iterating them based on user feedback. • Demonstrable experience using the GOV.UK prototype kit Nice to Haves • User research • Business analysis Work Location Work will be done in the FCO's London office in King Charles Street London, and also in the Milton Keynes offices where the processing/development teams are based. Some work can be done off site if the specialist wants or needs to. Working Arrangments We would like the individual to: Be comfortable talking to non-technical staff and translating their requirements into technical terms. Be a good listener. Where appropriate, propose changes to processes. We would like to be able to send the specialist unaccompanied to meet technical and non-technical staff, confident that they will be respectful, productive, and represent the Digital Transformation Unit effectively. Security Clearance FCO offices are secure buildings. Therefore, SC clearance will be a competitive advantage at the selection process. However, FCO will consider organising security clearance for suitably qualified candidates. Additional T&Cs Possibility of a 3 month extension to contract. No. of Specialists to Evaluate 3 Cultural Fit Criteria • Have an ability to work with technical and non-techincal staff to understand requirements • Build good relationships and trust with teams both with and without departmental sponsors • Quickly join teams and understanding their needs, and transferring knowledge when offboarding • Have experience working in an agile manner. Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 15% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. Can the Authority confirm whether it will deem this role to be inside or outside of IR35? Further discussions shall take place with the successful supplier at the appropriate time as it is possible for contractors who are both in and out of scope of the off payroll working rules to be engaged through DOS. The successful supplier / contracting authority will need to check the status in accordance with the HMRC online tool prior to contract commencement. A link to this tool can be found here: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-employment-status-for-tax/setup. 2. Re IR35 it is the responsibility of the public body to make the determination and that can be done now using the tool. Leaving the determination undecided until a supplier is appointed doesn't make sense as suppliers have to provide a day rate on application. Please can you make a determination now and publish. Provided the candidate is an employee of a registered company then IR35 will not apply. Prior to contracting a questionnaire will be completed in order to confirm this. 3. Is there a current incumbent? There is no current incumbent for this role. 4. Re IR35 you have stated, "Provided the candidate is an employee of a registered company then IR35 will not apply." So if the candidate is an employee of their PSC (personal service company) which contracts via a DOS supplier to the FCO, are you stating you will deem that IR35 does not apply? Correct – IR35 will not apply. To be clear, if the candidate (who delivered the work on behalf of a DOSS Supplier) has their own company (paying their own tax and insurance) than this will fall outside the scope of IR35. 5. Would you like candidate’s CVs. If so, when is the best time to send these? CV’s of candidates should be provided with supplier responses. Please check that you provide responses to cultural fit questions at the same time. 6. Who should CV's be sent to? Please send your CV to hugo.delamain@fco.gov.uk