About the job

Job summary

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) finds and funds exploitable innovation to support UK Defence and Security mission quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity. Our vision is for the UK to maintain its strategic advantage over its adversaries and build a safer future for the country and our people.

DASA is part of the Ministry of Defence but we work across all Government departments who have responsibility for national security. We are serious about making a difference to those on the front lines in the armed forces, police and elsewhere who protect us, and we are committed to supporting the innovators who can help.

DASA has four mutually supporting teams, Outreach, Operations, Partnership & Impact and Support Services.   This role is within Support Services providing line management support to the communications and engagement team.

The Communications and Engagement Team delivers a programme of engagement events and supports communications, including Official Correspondence, to enable DASA to find and fund exploitable innovative ideas. There is a diverse audience – from Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), academia and the defence industry, to Government stakeholders, including senior leaders within Defence and policy branches in other Government departments.

This role includes line management of a team of engagement specialists covering communications, marketing, social media/collaboration site development and moderation and delivery of physical and online events.  You will work alongside the Strategic Engagement lead to ensure delivery of high impact engagement and communications activities. This is a pivotal role which will require extensive engagement and networking with internal and external stakeholders  

Could you help us by undertaking this exciting and dynamic management role?

DASA is an equal opportunity employer, serious about promoting diversity and inclusion, and we offer flexible working and job share opportunities and part time positions. We provide training and support for all our staff.

We employ a wide range of skills to deliver our mission. As well as Defence and Security expertise our staff have experience in communications, banking, analysis, project management, venture capital, industry, technology, amongst others.  

If you thrive on wanting to make a difference to national security and prosperity in a friendly, multi-disciplined and diverse team, DASA may be the place for you.

Job description

In this role you will:

• Develop & sustain capability (people relationships, infrastructure, knowledge, licences to practice) to provide contribution to current and future engagement projects across DASA through effective use of the Team's resources/expertise:
• Maintain awareness of current and future demand requirements
• Understand and effectively develop capability to align with DASA’s Capability plans
• Build resilience through succession planning, including developing future leaders
• Direct Line management of a team of ca.10 Team Members.
• Enable effective performance management and development of team members.
• Coach and support Team Members career and personal development.
• Ensure that people have the necessary skills and competencies for the tasks assigned.
• Ensure employees have knowledge of and conform to all safety and security and resilience requirements.
• Build employees engagement and create an environment which nurtures excellence through:
• Setting the direction for team, including how the team fits with strategic aims.
• Creating a positive and inclusive working environment that aligns with DASA Values, champions diversity and enables employees to excel
• Communicating and owning difficult messages;
• Challenging and addressing poor performance
• Recognising and highlighting high performance

Person specification

We are looking for someone who has:

• The ability to quickly develop good working relationships with a variety of people.
• Good networking skills.
• Tact and diplomacy in dealing with a wide range of issues/challenges
• Persistence to see things through to a conclusion
• Passion for developing capability and people
• The ability to lead through change
• Able to communicate coherently and sensitively, explaining complex issues in a way that is easy to understand
• Emotional Intelligence, able to understand own and others reactions, motivations, etc
• Able to handle conflicting priorities successfully delivering to changing requirements
• Able to successfully manage multiple tasks simultaneously.

Leadership:

As a leader in Defence you will help shape, role model and bring to life the ‘One Defence’ mindset that will enable us to deliver our vision and strategic objectives. Your leadership style must be inspiring, confident and empowering. Working at every level of our organisation to break down silos, unite teams and create a culture that is trusting, collaborative, innovative, diverse and inclusive. Enabling us to deliver with pace and agility through the skills, commitment and empowerment of our employees and military colleagues.

Important Information:

Our work in defence, security and intelligence requires our employees to be UK Nationals who are able to gain a high level of security clearance to undertake the projects we are involved in to protect us from security threats. For this reason, only UK Nationals will be able to apply for this role. If you are an international or dual-national candidate, and you think you have the skills we need, please consider applying to any of our government, security or defence partners.

This role will require full UK security clearance and you should have resided in the UK for the past 5 years. For some roles Developed Vetting will also be required, in this case you should have resided in the UK for the past 10 years.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,667, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory contributes £12,060 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 and Experience.

We want you to have your best chance of success in our recruitment process, so If at any stage of the application process you would like help or assistance please contact the Dstl Recruitment Team dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk and we will do all we can to support you.

Sifting will take place week commencing 8th January 2024 with successful applicants being invited to attend an interview week commencing 22nd January 2024 either online via MS Teams or face to face at Dstl Porton Down.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

This job is not open to candidates who hold a dual nationality.

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.