GDS looking to hire a digital marketplace director who will also run G-Cloud

Director will get a £90,000 salary and report to government CTO Andy Beale

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is hiring a Digital Marketplace director who will also act as the programme director for G-Cloud.

They will earn a salary of £90,000 on an initial two-year contract, and report in to the government CTO, who is currently Andy Beale.

Whoever does get hired will have a big challenge on their hands; just last week founder of hosting provider Memset, Kate Craig-Wood, suggested that the G-Cloud dream was "dying" due to a "broken Digital Marketplace".

The postholder will be responsible for leading and delivering initiatives which reduce costs to the taxpayer by using technology in government effectively, and for increasing the value delivered by technology vendors. He or she will be responsible for the overall success of the government's Digital Marketplace, a procurement transformation initiative.

The postholder will be helping the public sector buy what it needs to deliver digital services through G-Cloud and Digital Outcomes and Specialists, according to the job spec, and the director will do this by being accountable for and leading a team of multi-disciplined experts responsible for the ongoing development and growth of the Digital Marketplace.

The successful candidate will have to ensure that they focus relentlessly on meeting user needs, help to create an open and competitive market so that the right suppliers get the chance to provide services to government, and help to build collaborative and constructive relationships with a range of digital and technology suppliers.

The selected candidate will have to champion and implement open standards and improved data quality in public procurement and contracting, and support broader government reforms in digital and technology.

The postholder will be accountable for supporting the delivery of the ministerial target to increase central government spend with SMEs, directly or through the supply chain to 33 per cent by 2020, and for ensuring that the digital commercial programme set out in the GDS business plan is delivered within the agreed budget of £3.9m.

GDS is looking for someone who has experience delivering live service transformation in large complex organisations, excellent leadership skills, ability to establish and maintain stakeholder relationships, and some procurement experience ideally within the technology field.