INNOVATION HUB - Senior Operations Manager – Service Design

Important messages

We are committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free work environment, starting with the hiring process. If you need to be accommodated during any phase of the evaluation process, please use the Contact information below to request specialized accommodation. All information received in relation to accommodation will be kept confidential.

Assessment accommodation

Please note when you apply for this process, please keep in mind that all essential merit criteria (education and experience) will be assessed by the answers you provide in your online application. As a result, please ensure you allow yourself a significant amount of time to complete this application.

It is NOT sufficient to only state that the qualifications are met or to provide a listing of current or past responsibilities. Rather you must clearly demonstrate HOW, WHEN, and WHERE the qualification was met through substantiation by examples. Information on your described skills, experience, etc. provided in the screening questions should be supported by your resume. Failure to provide the above information in the format required may result in your application being rejected from the process.

Candidates may not be solicited for incomplete or possible missing information. Resumes may be used as a secondary source to validate the experience and education described in the screening questions.

INSTRUCTIONS
When recording your examples, be sure you:
• Provide concrete, specific examples of actions that speak directly to the experience sought.
• Choose examples with sufficient complexity, impact and degree of difficulty that will allow you to illustrate to what extent and depth you have shown the behaviours expected for each qualification.
• Focus on what you did. In referring to an experience achieved in the context of a team, set your role apart from the role(s) of others.
• Please describe the achievements in the past tense. This will help to ensure that you are providing concrete examples, rather than making general statements (e.g. instead of saying “I work well within a team….” you can say “I worked well with a team when….”).
• Use action verbs when describing your experience i.e. lead, managed, organized, planned, prepared, informed, determined, etc.
• Provide all examples in sentence format.
• Each example must include when the example took place, background of each situation, what you did, how you did it, what your role was in the situation, and what was the outcome.

Our groups are located in VAC’s Head Office in the capital city of beautiful Prince Edward Island. Of course, at the moment, we are all working remotely due to COVID-19 safety measures. We may consider allowing someone to work virtually even once these safety measures are relaxed. Don’t let the location of work keep you from applying!

If you’re not familiar with PEI, spend some time here virtually: https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en

Whether or not you choose to apply, check us out on social media. You can find all the links here: https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/resources/stay-connected/social-media
(If you had been thinking of NOT applying, those links might just change your mind!)

Cracking the code - video
The Cracking the Code video helps people who are looking for a new career with the Government of Canada to navigate the application process step by step.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GW7P3g9hhI&feature=youtu.be

Duties

So, what would a day in your work life look like?

DUTIES:
There’s no typical day in the life of a service design manager! In general, you’ll do the following sorts of things:
• Advance service design at VAC by: developing relevant multi-year strategic and business plans; identifying opportunities to enhance service and program delivery; and providing expert advice to Senior Management.
• Develop monitoring and evaluation frameworks; plan and direct studies/reviews; analyze results; and prepare associated briefing materials and reports for VAC senior management.
• Create and foster strong, collaborative working arrangements with internal and external stakeholders.
• Manage the work of your service design team—work assignment, HR, staffing, and financial aspects—and lead and/or participate in relevant working groups and/or committees.

Sound good so far? Then apply online following all the instructions. We look forward to hearing from you!

Work environment

The Innovation Hub at Veterans Affairs Canada was established in 2019 to provide the unique expertise and skill sets in innovation and service design methodologies and practices to identify, validate, and test new concepts and approaches to address and resolve the lived challenges faced by our staff, Veterans and their families.

Our goal is to work with our colleagues across VAC, including our colleagues in the Online Services Directorate, and especially with our clients and VAC employees to make sure their voices are heard. We are working to blaze new trails to improve processes and tools that will support service excellence.

The Online Services Directorate (OSD) at Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) is a multi-disciplinary group of creative people, working collaboratively to design and deliver integrated solutions, that help make things easier for Veterans and their families. Our team specializes in Service Design, User Experience, Analytics, Content, Business Analysis, Product Ownership, Project Management, and Outreach and Training. We follow the Digital Standard of the Government of Canada and collaborate with users to create digital services that are easy to use and understand. Have a look at all the Digital Standards here: https://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/newsletter/poster-eng.aspx.

We’ve been working diligently in recent years with our colleagues across the Department to continuously and iteratively improve (yes, we’re Agile!) the usability, reliability, and end-to-end service components of VAC’s digital tools, including My VAC Account, the Department’s secure online channel. There are now over 100,000 My VAC Account users. Check it out: https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/e_services

We’ve also teamed up with other Government of Canada digital leaders, such as the Canadian Digital Service, to develop new tools for Veterans and their families; and we work closely with other departments and jurisdictions to continuously grow and evolve our digital service delivery model.

As we implement the new Government of Canada Policy on Service and Digital, we’ll continue to work towards our goal of digital, end-to-end services for Veterans, their families and others that we serve. The Policy is awesome, so have a look:
https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=32603

Veterans Affairs Canada is a great place to work!

Forbes ranked VAC in the top 5 of Canada’s best employers in the Government Services category in 2020.
https://www.forbes.com/canada-best-employers/#29d0330d241f

And in Apolitical’s inaugural ‘Public Service Workplace of the Year Awards 2019’, VAC was voted winner of the ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’ category.
https://apolitical.co/en/solution_article/winners-public-service-workplace-awards-2019

We offer:
• An excellent benefits package with competitive salaries, annual increases, vacation and other forms of leave, pension, and health care coverage
• Career development and learning, including opportunities to partake in Government and industry networking and learning events
• Flexible work arrangements that help you balance your work life with everything else
• An inclusive and respectful work place

Intent of the process

The intent of this process is to immediately staff one term (1) English Essential position. Also, the intent of this process is to establish a pool of qualified candidates which could be used to staff similar or identical positions with various tenures, workplace arrangements, language requirements, and/or security clearance levels.

Positions to be filled: 1

Information you must provide

Your résumé.

In order to be considered, your application must clearly explain how you meet the following (essential qualifications)

Education:
ED1: Graduation with a master’s degree from a recognized post-secondary institution with specialization in service design or design thinking.

Degree equivalency

Experience:
EX1: Recent* and significant** experience in one of the following: service design or innovation design or design thinking or interaction design or experience design or user research.
EX2: Recent* and significant** experience designing and facilitating client and stakeholder engagement activities (such as consultations, workshops, design thinking sessions, or research results sessions); and working with human-centered design principles, usability, user-experience and service or innovation design methodologies and practices.
EX3: Experience analyzing, interpreting and providing strategic advice and recommendations, orally and in writing (e.g., background papers, corporate strategies, statistical reports, presentations or briefing materials), on complex issues (e.g., several components to the issue) to senior management or other decision makers.
EX4: Experience managing staff, for example: managing employee performance; developing training and learning plans; establishing performance goals and objectives; and assigning work.

*Recent is defined as occurring within approximately the past three years.
**Significant is defined by the depth and breadth of experience normally associated with approximately two years full-time.

The following will be applied / assessed at a later date (essential for the job)

Various language requirements
English Essential
Bilingual Imperative BBB/BBB, CBC/CBC, CCC/CCC

Information on language requirements

Second Language Writing Skills Self-Assessment
In order to help you decide if you should apply to a bilingual position, an optional self-assessment of your writing skills in your second official language is available for you to take before completing your application.

For more information, please consult:
Unsupervised Internet Test of Second Language Writing Skills

COMPETENCIES
C1: Create Vision and Strategy
C2: Mobilize People
C3: Uphold Integrity and Respect
C4: Collaborate with Partners and Stakeholders
C5: Promote Innovation and Guide Change
C6: Achieve Results
C7: Communicate Effectively orally
C8: Communicate Effectively in writing

The following may be applied / assessed at a later date (may be needed for the job)

Asset Qualifications:
AEX1: Experience as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces.
AEX2: Experience leading innovation or change in a Government of Canada organization or experience supporting or participating in corporate projects related to change initiatives in government. Identify which role you played, i.e. leading vs supporting or participating
AEX3: Experience developing solutions to identified issues, which might involve creating policy options and/or conducting comparative analysis related to financial and business impacts.
AEX4: Experience in leading an interdisciplinary project team, working group, or organizational unit designing and delivering digital services using an Agile approach.
AEX5: Experience developing models, tools and approaches for tracking, analyzing, estimating and reporting on research findings.
AEX6: Experience in managing financial resources.

OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Willingness and ability to work overtime on short notice.
Willingness and ability to travel and work in other locations (including from home) for periods of time, as required.
Willingness and ability to carry a Departmental cellular device and respond after hours including evenings and weekends.

Condition of Employment:
Reliability Status or Secret security clearance

Other information

The Public Service of Canada is committed to building a skilled and diverse workforce that reflects the Canadians we serve. We promote employment equity and encourage you to indicate if you belong to one of the designated groups when you apply.

Information on employment equity

It is your responsibility to ensure that your email and contact information are maintained with the hiring board. All communication for this process will be sent by email and it is your responsibility to verify your messages regularly.

Education and/or Experience factors in the asset qualifications may be used for screening. Applicants should clearly demonstrate on their application if they meet any of the education and/or experience asset qualifications. Failure to do so may result in the rejection of your application.

One or more asset qualifications may be used during the screening to manage the volume of applications.

Candidates will be asked to provide proof of their education credentials, and proof of citizenship at a later date.

An interview and/or written exam may be administered.

Reference checks may be sought. The Assessment Committee reserves the right to contact references other than those provided by the candidates (within the Public Service only) in order to adequately assess the candidates.

Indeterminate employees at the same group and level or equivalent may be considered for assignment, deployment or secondment opportunities before other candidates.

The Public Service of Canada is also committed to developing inclusive, barrier-free selection processes and work environments. If contacted in relation to a job opportunity or testing, you should advise the Public Service Commission or the departmental official in a timely fashion of the accommodation measures which must be taken to enable you to be assessed in a fair and equitable manner. Information received relating to
accommodation measures will be addressed confidentially.

Preference

Preference will be given to veterans and to Canadian citizens, in that order, with the exception of a job located in Nunavut, where Nunavut Inuit will be appointed first.

Information on the preference to veterans

We thank all those who apply. Only those selected for further consideration will be contacted.