Job Description

Competition # : 38357

Department: Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services

Location: Office located in Halifax. Hybrid working arrangements are available.

Type of Employment: Permanent

Union Status: Exclusion - Non Union - NSPG

Salary: $132,840 - $166,050 Annually (EC 16 Pay Grade)

Hours: 35 per week
Benefits: Comprehensive health & dental insurance plan. Coverage begins on first day of employment.
Retirement Security: We offer our employees a registered defined benefit pension plan, offering a lifetime pension benefit when you retire. Employer-matched contributions (8.4% of pensionable earnings up to the YMPE, and10.9% of pensionable earnings above the YMPE. For more information, visit the Nova Scotia Service Superannuation Plan website.

Closing Date: 3/19/2023 (Applications are accepted until 11:59 PM Atlantic Time)

Who We Are

The Nova Scotia Digital Service (NSDS) is leading the digital transformation of the Government of Nova Scotia. Working in partnership across government, we deliver, lead and run excellent, user-centered public services that are relied upon by citizens and businesses across the province.

Working at the NSDS means you will be a part of a team whose work makes a difference. Through designing, continuously improving and delivering the programs and services people need, your work will directly impact upon thousands of people every day.

Our team is large, diverse, and passionate about making a difference to peoples\xe2\x80\x99 lives for the better. You will be working alongside caring, compassionate, highly skilled colleagues. We celebrate a supportive culture of diversity, inclusion and belonging, reflecting the people that we serve. We are committed to helping diverse talent thrive.

NSDS is a branch of Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services (SNS-IS).

About the Opportunities

The NSDS is looking for exceptional leaders to fill 3 senior leadership roles. Each role will be a substantial position within the NSDS Executive Team, and report directly to the Associate Deputy Minister.

NSDS is one of the leading teams in digital government, within Canada and beyond. We apply global best practices to our work and are frequent contributors to pan-Canadian and international collaborations. We recognize there is always much more to learn but are proud of our position as leaders in this space. We are looking for candidates with the ambition to push us further forward.

All of these roles offer a chance to deliver impact at scale, working across government. NSDS is a cross-departmental organization, collaborating with teams across sectors like Agriculture, Health, Justice, Community Services, and Education, as well as working with stakeholders at the federal level.

Core to our approach is delivering public services in a way that is genuinely user-centered and applying ways of working that reflect that. The Executive Director roles will build and empower agile, multidisciplinary teams, work closely with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders, and deliver digital products and services that support the government to meet its public commitments.

Successful candidates will be skilled at navigating change in complex organizations and be capable of embracing the different styles and approaches to manage the challenges. We need leaders who possess a strong understanding of the strategies and tactics required to embed the people, process and culture changes needed for government in the digital era. They will be equally comfortable conceptual theories and approaches as they are with translating these to action.

This applicant pool will be leveraged to recruit 3 Executive Director Opportunities with the NS Digital Service in the following areas:

Cyber Security & Enterprise Risk

As the NSDS continues to support digital transformation across government, we need to maintain and enhance our cyber security capabilities to ensure the delivery of safer, faster, trusted, and resilient user-centered services.

The Executive Director of Cyber Security & Enterprise Risk will lead the creation and implementation of a robust cyber security strategy for Nova Scotia. Working collaboratively with others within the NSDS and across the public sector, the ED will provide an integrated approach to preventing and responding to cyber security threats and safeguarding our information, assets, services, and citizens. You will also work to support the efforts of the Nova Scotia Health Authority and IWK Health Centre in securing critical infrastructure and services.

Digital Practices & Technology

We have put the right teams together - product management, human centered design, delivery management, and dev ops to build our internal capacity, deliver our priorities and help the rest of the organization to embrace these new ways of working, and help us get to a Continuous Improvement, Continuous Delivery organization.

The Executive Director of Digital Practices & Technology will play a key leadership role as we continue to embrace and adopt new ways of working, from discovery all the way to operations. The ED will work on things like our Tech Code of Practice, Service Standards (Design Principles), and looking for an exemplar to build an end-to-end Dev Sec Ops Team to model and look to scale. The work you will lead will help us all learn and evolve to a continuous improvement organization, focused on delivering excellent services.

Service Design & Delivery

The NSDS is responsible for delivering world-class public-facing digital services, across a broad range of government activity. To be successful, those services will need to be user-centered and built on a modern technological footing, as well as espousing new ways of working that consider the \xe2\x80\x98full stack\xe2\x80\x99 of service design - from policy and legislation through to continuous improvement.

The Executive Director of Service Design and Delivery will be responsible for the delivery of simpler and faster user-centered services. The ED will also help drive wider organizational change through partnerships, working in the open, and "showing by doing". The successful candidate will have strategic leadership experience, a track record of delivery, digital awareness, and a data-driven approach

Qualifications & Experience

Does leading the development of a government-wide digital strategy and transformation sound like something you would like to be part of? We\xe2\x80\x99re looking for strong collaborators, who can demonstrate a high level of strategic vision and experience, as well as the ability to lead a team in a complex environment.

We are looking for leaders who are:

• Passionate about digital government, digital transformation and improving the lives of Nova Scotians.
• Experienced people leaders who actively promote the importance of collaboration, teams, diversity, and culture. Equally at ease presenting to senior leaders, elected officials, or a team of developers.
• Clear, articulate, and persuasive communicators.
• Able to work under pressure to tight deadlines and changing priorities.
• Good at building relationships within and beyond government.
• Experienced in applying and articulating the benefits of internet-era ways of working, which are a relatively new idea in government.

It is essential that you have:

• Experience at a senior level, in the public or private sector, of delivering transformational change, to deliver cost savings and service improvements.
• Experience as a highly credible manager and leader, able to lead cross-functional teams to help solve problems and build digital capability.
• Demonstrated ability to bring together and lead groups of internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of digital transformation and how it can be applied to government programs and services.
• Experience with internet-era practices and are capable of effectively engaging with multidisciplinary teams to define the best approach to achieve business/policy outcomes.
• Understanding of and experience with legislative and government decision making processes.
• In-depth knowledge of the technology landscape and marketplace.
• A strong commitment to customer service excellence, teamwork, and collaboration.
• Experience of innovative approaches to sourcing services.

At the NSDS, we take pride in our collaborative approach to work and recognize that knowledge is built together. While qualifications are certainly an important piece of the puzzle, we recognize that everyone brings different skills and experiences to the table and that not everyone \xe2\x80\x9cchecks all the boxes\xe2\x80\x9d. If you care about making a difference in Nova Scotian\xe2\x80\x99s lives and the idea of bringing strategic vision to life, we encourage you to apply anyway! Tell us why you\xe2\x80\x99re the right fit for the job.

Employment Equity Statement:

Our goal is to be a diverse workforce that is representative, at all job levels, of the citizens we serve. The Government of Nova Scotia has an Employment Equity Policy, and we welcome applications from Indigenous People, African Nova Scotians and Other Racially Visible Persons, Persons with Disabilities and Women in occupations or positions where they are under-represented. If you are a member of one of these equity groups, you are encouraged to self-identify on your electronic application.

Current government employees may access this posting through the link below:

Offer of employment is conditional upon the completion of all applicable background checks and confirmation of credentials, the results of which must be satisfactory to the employer. We thank all applicants for the interest, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. All questions and concerns may be directed to Competitions@novascotia.ca.

Government of Nova Scotia