About the job

Job summary

About the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)

We help people, businesses, and the UK economy by promoting competitive markets and tackling unfair behaviour. Our work is wide ranging, ambitious and often new and challenging.

Join us in shaping competitive markets and driving impactful change. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is seeking at least one accomplished project delivery professional to bring leadership to multidisciplinary teams of policy, analytical and legal experts within our Subsidy Advice Unit (SAU).

Job description

The subsidy control regime is a critical part of the Government’s response to address key challenges facing the UK, including Net Zero, advanced manufacturing, and levelling up. While subsidies can help public authorities support businesses and achieve positive outcomes, without control, subsidies can lead to unfair advantages and distort competition.

The SAU plays a pivotal role in this landscape by providing advisory reports to public authorities nationwide, focusing on subsidies that are considered most likely to have a distortive effect on competition and investment in the UK. Thus far, our reports have covered various sectors, including energy, transport, housing, urban regeneration, tourism, and culture.

As an Assistant Project Director within the SAU, you'll embrace substantial responsibility, leading multidisciplinary teams to deliver high-quality, impartial reports within tight deadlines. You'll manage relationships with public authorities from ‘pre-referral’ stages and throughout report preparation, navigating a fast-paced environment that attracts significant interest and scrutiny.

Assistant Project Directors also contribute to the effective operation of the SAU and its Senior Leadership Team. You will undertake management responsibilities and play a key role in helping shape and drive forward the team’s direction, as well as support and coach individual team members.

About you

We’re seeking candidates with a proven track record in delivering complex projects at pace successfully within regulatory fields or economic or regulatory policy areas.

The ideal candidate will possess strong analytical skills, capable of interpreting data and evidence, exercising sound judgement, and mitigating risks effectively within the broader context. Your experience will include leading diverse teams, fostering staff development, and achieving results within challenging timelines as well as adept stakeholder engagement. Additionally, the ability to quickly grasp knowledge of the subsidy control regime and unfamiliar markets or policy areas is essential. Prior knowledge of subsidy control would be advantageous.

To find out more about the Assistant Director opportunity and about working for the CMA, please see below and click on the APPLY button.

Further details on the CMA can be found on the CMA’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter pages.

Learn more about the Subsidy Advice Unit here.

Application closing date: 11.55pm on Monday 18th March 2024.

Person specification

Key responsibilities will include the following:

Delivering SAU projects

• Lead SAU projects so that they are delivered in an effective and timely way (including to statutory timescales) and to budget;
• Ensure that SAU projects and outputs (reports, advice to public authorities) are based on clear, accurate, well-reasoned and evidence-based analysis, and comply with applicable procedures and procedural safeguards;
• Identify, assess and manage potential areas of risk, including legal risk;
• Communicate clearly, both orally (such as presenting SAU projects to a Board Committee) and in writing (ensuring documents are drafted to a high standard so that they are clear and persuasive);
• Lead, motivate and manage multi-disciplinary professional teams, including setting and reviewing stretching but achievable deadlines and priorities, and fostering effective team work.

Leadership within the SAU

• Support the SAU’s Senior Leadership Team in setting direction and strategy for the SAU’s work, taking account of the wider policy and market context;
• Contribute to the SAU’s development as a relatively new function within the CMA, ensuring arrangements are in place for effective and efficient project delivery, ensuring a focus on continuous improvement within projects and across the organisation, and sharing know-how.

Managing staff and building capability

• Effectively manage and develop staff and contribute to wider leadership and capacity building in the SAU, including building staff capability through fostering talent, coaching, learning and development, mentoring and effective performance management.

Effective communication and close partnership working

• Develop and maintain fair, open, professional and proactive communication and engagement with subsidy grantors throughout the UK, including with stakeholders in UK Government departments, devolved government and local authorities.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £73,512, Competition & Markets Authority contributes £19,848 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV, personal statement and an online application form. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

The selection process will comprise of the sift (CV & application review) and an interview. Arrangements for the interview will be enclosed in the invitation sent when you schedule your interview slot, note interviews will be virtual via MS Teams.

An initial sift based on lead criteria 1 and 2 may be held if a large number of applications are received. If your application then progresses to a full sift, all elements of the essential criteria listed under Person Specification of the role profile will then be considered.

Please note that it is essential that your personal statement is aligned to provide evidence that you have the knowledge and recent practical experience for each of the following selection criteria in your application:

1)  Delivery: A proven track record in delivering successful projects in a regulatory field or an economic or regulatory policy area with substantial experience of delivering complex projects at pace in accordance with sound project management principles;

2)  Decision-making: Significant experience of working with, and interpreting, data and other evidence, making decisions, using sound analysis and judgement and managing risk, taking account of the wider context;

3)  Team leading: Significant experience of working with multi-disciplinary teams and leading and developing staff to deliver positive results to tight timescales.

4)  Communication: Demonstrable oral and written communication skills, including experience of producing technical reports and documents for publication, for a wide variety of audiences;

5)  Stakeholder engagement: Experience of achieving successful outcomes by influencing and building high quality relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, including senior decision-makers;

6)  Relevant skills: An ability to acquire, at speed, a detailed knowledge of the subsidy control regime and unfamiliar markets or policy areas. Previous knowledge of subsidy control an advantage.

You do not need to be security cleared to apply, however if successful you must hold or be willing to obtain security clearance to SC level once you have started.

The sifting dates are 19th – 28th March 2024.

If your application is successful, you will be invited to attend an interview. 
You will be notified via email to log-in to your Civil Service Account to book your interview slot. You will then be sent an email with full details of your arrangements for interview.

Interviews will start after the Easter holidays, the week beginning 8th April 2024.

If selected, the interviews will be held virtually via MS Teams.

You will be asked to prepare a short 5-minute presentation. Further details will be shared at the time of invite to interview.

On the day of the interview you will attend a panel interview. The panel interview will be approximately 45 minutes - 1 hour in length where you will be asked questions based on Behaviours, Technical skills and Experience outlined in the role profile.

If you have any inquiries relating to your application, you can email recruitment@cma.gov.uk.

Reasonable adjustments:

In order for a person with disabilities not to be put at a disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process.
For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you are deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.