Incident Manager

Job summary

Are you at your best when managing critical incidents and restoring services under pressure?

Can you lead incident responses that minimise disruption and keep services running smoothly?

Do you thrive on solving problems, coordinating teams and driving continuous service improvement?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

This is an exciting time to join the Digital, Information and Security Directorate within the Department for Transport as we restructure our directorate to ensure we are ready for future challenges, building a more sustainable, skilled and in-house capability.

Resolve incidents. Restore services. Drive improvement.

Play a vital role in keeping the Department for Transport running by leading incident responses, minimising disruption and identifying opportunities to strengthen service performance and resilience.

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 a privilege day for the King’s 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  Department for Transport Central - Department for Transport Careers and within the Government Digital and Data Profession.

Job description

As an Incident Manager, you'll play a key role in ensuring critical digital services remain available, reliable and resilient. You'll coordinate responses to service disruptions, minimise the impact on users and help restore normal operations as quickly as possible.

Working within the Essentials Service Line, you'll lead the management of significant incidents, bringing together technical teams, service providers and stakeholders to coordinate effective responses and maintain clear communication throughout the incident lifecycle. You'll ensure incidents are managed in line with best practice, provide guidance to teams and support the continuous improvement of incident management processes.

You'll also work closely with problem management and operational teams to identify trends, investigate root causes and implement improvements that reduce the likelihood and impact of future incidents. Through effective stakeholder engagement, you'll provide timely updates and help ensure services continue to meet business and user needs.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone who enjoys problem-solving, working under pressure and making a tangible difference to operational service delivery.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Managing significant outages and crises, handling communication to ensure our user base is informed whilst restoration in is progress.
• Working closely with all stakeholders, including Building services, applications operators, first line Service Desk and change and communications managers.
• Ensuring queues are actively managed.
• Provide guidance on incident best practice and collaborate with problem management to reduce future service impact.
• Identifying opportunities for improvements and exploitation of available tooling.

For further information on the role, please read the 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.

Person specification

To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:

• ITIL V4, ITIL Expert or ISO 20000 Knowledge • Hold, or be willing to work towards, ITIL V4 Foundation (or higher) or ISO 20000 accreditation. Demonstrate a strong understanding of IT Service Management principles and their practical application to delivering high-quality, customer-focused IT services.
• IT Event Management Experience • Experience of monitoring, managing and responding to IT events across complex technology environments. Ability to identify trends, assess business impact, coordinate response activities and ensure appropriate escalation to maintain service stability and minimise disruption.
• Problem Management Experience • Demonstrable experience of leading or contributing to Problem Management activities, including root cause analysis, identification of recurring issues, development of permanent fixes and implementation of preventative measures to improve service reliability.
• Line and/or Task Management Experience • Experience of leading people and/or managing the delivery of work within a team environment. Able to prioritise activities, coordinate resources, monitor progress and support colleagues to deliver high-quality outcomes in a fast-paced operational environment.
• Stakeholder Management Experience • Stakeholder engagement and relationship management skills, with the ability to build trust and credibility across technical and non-technical audiences. Confident influencing decisions, managing expectations and communicating complex information in a clear and accessible way.
• Major Incident Management Experience • Experience coordinating or supporting the management of high-priority incidents within a live operational environment. Able to work effectively under pressure, lead cross-functional response activities, communicate with senior stakeholders and drive rapid service restoration.
• Service Improvement Experience • Experience of identifying, leading and/or implementing service improvements that enhance performance, efficiency and customer satisfaction. Ability to use data, customer insight and continuous improvement methodologies to drive measurable service outcomes.

Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

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 30 hours per week.

Occasional travel to other offices will be required, which may involve overnight stays. 

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/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. 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, travelling for work, 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).

Visa Sponsorship

DfTc does not offer Visa Sponsorship for this role.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,663, Department for Transport contributes

£10,331 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).

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits:

• 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).
• 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King’s birthday.
• Access to the staff discount portal.
• Excellent career development opportunities and the potential to undertake professional qualifications relevant to your role paid for by the department, such as CIPD, Prince2, apprenticeships, etc.
• Joining a diverse and inclusive workforce with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues.
• 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff.
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Find out more about the benefits of working at DfT and its agencies .

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

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.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Sift of CV and personal statement

Stage 2: Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

Stage 1: Sift

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:

• Major Incident Management Experience • Experience coordinating or supporting the management of high-priority incidents within a live operational environment. Able to work effectively under pressure, lead cross-functional response activities, communicate with senior stakeholders and drive rapid service restoration.
• Service Improvement Experience • Experience of identifying, leading and/or implementing service improvements that enhance performance, efficiency and customer satisfaction. Ability to use data, customer insight and continuous improvement methodologies to drive measurable service outcomes.
• Stakeholder Management Experience • Stakeholder engagement and relationship management skills, with the ability to build trust and credibility across technical and non-technical audiences. Confident influencing decisions, managing expectations and communicating complex information in a clear and accessible way.

The sift will take place from Monday 14 September.

Stage 2: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours – Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace, Changing and improving.
• Experience.

The interviews will take place week commencing 28 September.

This interview will be conducted online via Microsoft Teams. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site.

Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change.

Further information on the selection process

We will also hold a 12-month reserve list for this role, which may lead to potential opportunities beyond the role you applied for.

During your application, you should indicate which location(s) you wish to be considered for and, if successful, you will be placed on an individual list of candidates for each locati