The UK Government Digital Service (GDS) is looking for an Open Source Lead, or "Chief Penguin", as The Register prefers to call the new position.
According to the job description on LinkedIn, the new role has been created as part of a change of course to a more concerted approach to open source, building collaboration and reuse internally and making higher impact contributions to the wider open source community
. The new Lead will work with teams in GDS and across government to help build their open source community, both through driving specific, focused projects and by providing tools and an environment that allow the work to grow and thrive
. At the same time, the job requires technical hands-on capabilities as well: day to day responsibilities will alternate between programming, liaising with colleagues from other professions (eg. communications, legal and delivery management), community building and leading projects
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GBP 1.7 billion in year-on-year savings
The GDS was established exactly five years ago, bringing together six elements of the government's existing digital services in one place at the Cabinet Office. Its main task is to transform government digital services. Open standards and open source have been strategic parts of its work [1, 2].
According to an internal audit report, the GDS in 2015 contributed at least GBP 1.7 billion in year-on-year savings to the government budget.