About the job

Job summary

The Hydrogen & Industrial Carbon Capture (HICC) Directorate is leading an expanding programme to deliver low carbon hydrogen and industrial carbon capture as key planks of the Government's approach to achieving Energy Security and Net Zero.

Hydrogen is one of a handful of new, low carbon solutions that will be critical for the UK’s energy security and transition to net zero. As part of a deeply decarbonised, deeply renewable energy system, low carbon hydrogen could be a versatile replacement for high-carbon fossil fuels used today – helping to bring down emissions and provide flexible energy for power, industry, transport and potentially heating. Industrial carbon capture will be critical to decarbonise vital UK industrial sectors and forms an important element of the Government’s £20 billion Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) Programme.

The Hydrogen Strategy & Portfolio team coordinates and manages or supports the delivery of the UK’s Hydrogen Strategy and associated programmes to deliver the strategy, including the £240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, electrolytic Hydrogen Allocation Rounds (the first of which has announced contracts supported by over £2 billion from government), Hydrogen Transport & Storage allocation, negotiations with CCUS-enabled hydrogen and industrial carbon capture projects, and the hydrogen and CCUS ‘GIGA’ manufacturing support fund – as well as cross cutting policy to support the development of the UK hydrogen economy such as standards and certification, market and regulatory frameworks, and development of UK hydrogen skills and supply chains.

The team is multidisciplinary in nature, bringing together strategy, policy and project delivery. It is made up of policy, communications and project delivery professionals who lead the Directorate’s strategy, briefing and correspondence, strategic comms and engagement, international engagement, trade policy, governance, planning, risk management, finance and resource management, and provide PMO support to policy and delivery teams across the HICC Directorate. (To note, the exact nature and remit of the role(s) may change slightly to take account of business need.

We are a friendly, inclusive and motivated team and our work is grounded in a multidisciplinary, cross-cutting approach working closely with teams across DESNZ and government, and with a range of industry partners. We place high value on diversity and inclusion and encourage candidates from a range of backgrounds to apply.

Job description

As Deputy Director, Hydrogen Strategy & Portfolio Delivery, you will be expected to:

• Lead a team of 40-45 FTE and directly line manage 3-4 Grade 6s, building and maintaining strong relationships with other senior leaders and teams across HICC and DESNZ, wider government and with key external stakeholders. You will regularly represent HICC and its work in meetings with Ministers, senior departmental leadership and with senior external stakeholders, including on behalf of the HICC Co-Directors and EIG DG.
• Oversee and ensure the implementation of the UK Hydrogen Strategy and its UK Hydrogen Economy Roadmap, including through publishing twice-yearly delivery progress updates and regular internal reporting of progress against commitments and deliverables set out in the 2021 Hydrogen Strategy, 2022 British Energy Security Strategy and 2023 Powering Up Britain Plan.
• Oversee the secretariat for the Hydrogen Delivery Council, co-chaired by the Secretary of State, minister responsible for hydrogen and a senior industry representative. Maintain oversight and drive delivery of the Council’s two-year work plan across its six working groups.
• Oversee the hydrogen briefing hub, which manages a significant volume of briefing and correspondence on hydrogen to an exceptionally high standard and to time.
• Oversee governance of the hydrogen sub-portfolio, including through managing delivery of regular high-quality DG- and Director level governance boards and supporting documents. You will ensure that governance processes and structures are both proportionate and robust, and evolve as needed over the delivery life cycle of HICC’s hydrogen policy and projects.
• Oversee planning and risk management for the hydrogen sub-portfolio, across a complex and interdependent set of hydrogen programmes and projects – ensuring robust yet proportionate processes are in place to support senior decision-making and effective delivery, while avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy or process.
• Oversee all finance and resource management for HICC Directorate, including management of contracts with external advisors, staff resource and budget management, and leading on all spending-related activity including business planning and spending review processes.
• Oversee the HICC Project Management Office (PMO) which provides high-quality PMO support to policy and project delivery teams across HICC. This includes responsibility for planning, scheduling, risk and issue management, dependency management, resource management, assurance, benefits management, reporting and governance across HICC projects and programmes, in line with HMG project delivery frameworks and standards including the Project Delivery Functional Standard. The exact nature and remit of the role(s) may change slightly to take account of business need.
• Manage strategic communications and engagement for the HICC Directorate, including through supporting major publications and announcements over the course of the year.
• Represent UK hydrogen, directly and through team, on the international stage. You will develop partnerships that deliver tangible benefits for the UK through bilateral and multilateral engagement, and develop international trade (import and export) policy for hydrogen.

Person specification

We will be looking for you to show that you can:

• Confidently lead and manage – you will be an outstanding leader and manager with a track record of developing diverse, inclusive, high-performing teams. You will demonstrate how you support individuals to develop to their full potential and sustain inspiring, confident leadership in a fast moving and high-profile policy area.
• Manage complex and multiple areas of work at pace – you will be experienced in driving progress across a range of complex and interdependent areas, delivering against milestones, and responding to changes in priorities as part of a supportive team environment.
• Set vision and direction – you will be politically astute and able to think strategically across a complex and emerging system, clearly identifying decision and delivery pathways and translating strategic insights into practical action. You’ll bring a fresh and innovative approach to your work, creating opportunities to drive progress including through others, inside and beyond Government.
• Build and maintain strong collaborative relationships – you will be comfortable working across boundaries with a track record of making rapid progress and delivering results through a broad network of internal and external stakeholders. You will build strong and effective relationships that reflect understanding of diverse motivations, provide challenge to orthodoxy, and learn from experience and ideas of others. You will actively contribute to building and maintaining a friendly, fun, supportive and inclusive wider team culture.
• Demonstrate sound judgement and decision-making – you will be confident working with, and developing, evidence and using it to inform strategy. You will personally be comfortable working with analysis and explaining its implications clearly to Ministers.

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, Strengths 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, 27th May 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. Final Interview which will include a presentation exercise. Full details will be shared with shortlisted candidates nearer the time.

For further information on the application process and an overview on what to expect, please visit the Civil Service Careers website.

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.