Assistant Director

Job description

Ministry of Digital Development and Information

Permanent/Contract

Closing on 31 Oct 2025

What the role is

The Smart Nation Group – Digital Government (SNDG), under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and administratively managed by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI), plans and prioritizes key Smart Nation and digital government projects, raises the standards of Government ICT and services, builds long-term capabilities for the public sector, and promotes adoption and participation in digital and smart innovations.

It takes a whole-of-nation effort, and we will actively engage the public, the industry and fellow agencies as we build a Smart Nation together.
The position is under the Products Division of Smart Nation Group, reporting to the Deputy Director.

The Products Division looks at Whole-of-Government (WOG) product development processes, and how we can use digital products to solve key problems.
The candidate should be passionate about creating impact with technology.

The job has 2 main aspects – driving product excellence across the Government and serving as the Government's thought leader in product management practices.

Given the dual policy and product nature of the job, the candidate will work at the cross-section between technology policy and product management/engineering/design.

Negotiation and stakeholder management is also a key aspect of the job, supporting both the product excellence and direct intervention areas.

What you will be working on

Driving product excellence:
The candidate will lead in driving policies to drive product excellence across whole-of-Government (WOG).

This involves designing and implementing system-wide interventions to institute best product practices, or reviewing existing processes to encourage faster, cheaper and better products.

The candidate will also consider interventions to better develop the Government's technology stack or product portfolio, e.g. whether we should create new stack components, how we can get components within this stack to work together better to deliver digital services.
Leader in product management practices:
The candidate will support the uplifting product management capabilities of product teams across Government by serving as the Government's leader in product management practices.

This will involve designing systems to uphold high product standards, uplifting product managers across Government to these standards, and providing guidance to teams.

Some of these problem spaces may require clearing barriers from legal regulations, policy issues, resourcing frameworks, or cross-agency negotiations; to be effective, the candidate should also be comfortable handling these areas.
Key Responsibilities:
• Plan, test and execute policies, processes and strategies to drive product excellence across WOG.

This may involve coordination among different government agencies, driving changes across GovTech and/or WOG.
• Uplift product standards across WOG, and intervene in key problem spaces to enable good products.
• Build subject matter expertise and stay up to date on technological developments in digital products.
Key skills candidate can develop in this role:
• Product policy, especially in the Government context, in problem solving on behalf of digital teams to enable them to move faster and more efficiently;
• Product management, in ensuring that digital products in Government adopt best product practices and retain alignment to management vision;
• Stakeholder engagement, working across multiple agencies, management of conflicts;
• Understanding of Government ICT landscape.

What we are looking for

Product management experience:
• Demonstrated impact in building and managing products
Policy experience:
• Demonstrated success in policy formulation and implementation
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong writing ability, able to clearly articulate a policy position or strategy, and defend one's views
Culture:
• Strong work ethic in taking ownership and accountability to solve the problem
• Willingness to try new approaches, fail and improve, and try again
• Biased towards action and not afraid to challenge the status quo
• A desire to learn and continuously improve
• Resourceful; ability to work independently to get things done in a fast-paced environment
Optional requirements:
• Software engineering or designer experience
• Willingness to deal with ambiguity
• Start-up mindset, willing to find ways to generate value for stakeholders

About Ministry of Digital Development and Information

The Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) drives Singapore's digital development in four key domains — the economy, government, security, and society.

MDDI oversees the development of the infocomm technology, cybersecurity, and media sectors; the Government's digitalisation initiatives; and the national library, national archives, and public libraries.

The Ministry is also responsible for effective public communications, and the Government's information and public communication policies.

About your application process

This job is closing on 31 Oct 2025.

If you do not hear from us within 4 weeks of the job ad closing date, we seek your understanding that it is likely that we are not moving forward with your application for this role.

We thank you for your interest and would like to assure you that this does not affect your other job applications with the Public Service.

We encourage you to explore and for other roles within Ministry of Digital Development and Information or the wider Public Service.

Required Skill Profession

Other General