About the job

Job summary

As Deputy Director for Estates and Sustainability and a key member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), you will be responsible for leading estates and sustainability for the Operations directorate on behalf of DSIT and DESNZ.

This is a high-profile role in a rapidly changing and fast paced environment. You will oversee and manage the strategy and running of the DSIT and DESNZ network of 23 offices ensuring a safe, functional, sustainable and good value for money estate to support the needs of both departments.

Job description

Key responsibilities:

• Working with the Finance Business Partner to manage the estates budget of c.£40m per annum, covering resource, building, facilities management, moves and infrastructure improvements costs.
• Managing our estates strategy for 23 sites around the UK, including moves programmes and alignment to central government policies, assurance and controls, maximising value for money through our space utilisation and ensuring we have the capacity to meet our Places for Growth commitments and we act upon user satisfaction.
• Assurance and controls for estates strategy and expenditure by DESNZ and DSIT Partner Organisations, including alignment of strategies to central government policies
• Delivery oversight of a £180m project to deliver new Headquarters to the European Centre for Medium-term Weather Forecasting (ECMWF), acting as Deputy SRO (Delivery) for the project.
• Managing our sustainability strategy and delivery of the current and next iteration of Greening Government Commitments, including maintaining an active staff network and understanding and influencing staff behaviours.
• Designing an operating model for estates and sustainability that enables scale up and on-boarding of other departments, and the provision and recharge of bespoke services where required by departments.
• Using innovation in delivery – setting standards for estate services in government, pursuing continuous improvement in service delivery and customer satisfaction.

Person specification

Skills and experience

Who are we looking for?

• In-depth knowledge and experience of providing estates and sustainability services to multiple end users, managing delivery standards and expectations to ensure client satisfaction, and ensuring that service catalogues are up to date and delivered against.
• Strong experience of managing multiple high-profile projects with competing timelines, including senior stakeholder management.
• Track record of passionate leadership, using innovation and problem skills to deliver high quality results and working collaboratively with very senior stakeholders and delivery partners.
• Strong working experience of budget planning, tracking and making data-based conclusions, to prioritise spending decisions and optimise departmental outcomes.
• Strong leadership background with a focus on creating a positive, inclusive high-performing workplace.
• Degree level or equivalent qualification in a property-related discipline and a member of a relevant professional technical body (e.g. RICS, IWFM, CIOB etc).

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £20,250 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.

How to apply

To apply for this post please follow the instructions on the CS Jobs website by no later than 23:55, Monday 22nd July 2024. As part of the application process you are asked to complete the following:

1. A CV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
2. A Statement of Suitability (no more than 1,000 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.
3. Shortlisted candidates may be invited to undertake a series of psychometric assessments including a Staff Engagement Exercise (SEE) as part of the recruitment process prior to the final interview. This assessment will not result in a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ decision. Rather it is designed to support the panels decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview. 
4. Final Interview which will include a presentation exercise. Full details will be shared with shortlisted candidates nearer the time.

Arrangements for interview

The final selection panel interview will be held virtually.

Anticipated Timeline

Advert Closing Date: 23.55, 22nd July 2024

Shortlist Announcement:w/c 29th July 2024

Assessment: w/c 5th August 2024

Interview: w/c 12th August 2024

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

Senior Civil Servant (SCS) staff are expected to aim for closer to 60% of the time at an office or non-home based location over the accounting period.

Further Information

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

We fully support adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

We do not have an exhaustive list of adjustments that we support but just some examples include additional time to complete your application form, behaviour questions up to 72 hours prior to interview and having extra time at interview. 

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero  from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

DESNZ does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home). 

DESNZ cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DESNZ holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

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

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.