About the job

Job summary

The Directorate is responsible for the strategic direction of the Agency and organisational and cultural change. We provide clear vision and leadership across the whole range of NCA business to tackle the highest harm threats. We are tasked with increasing the strategic influence and visibility of the Agency across HM Government, law enforcement partners, Police and Crime Commissioners, public and media, and enhancing our capability to protect the public.  

The Directorate plays a critical role in managing and supporting the governance and accountability functions on behalf of the NCA Board and senior leadership team. We are responsible for managing engagement with Whitehall departments and agencies, law enforcement, key partners and the public; and directly support the Director General NCA, Director General Threats, Director General Operations and Director General Capabilities. 

The Directorate includes the following business units 

• Future Strategy
• Strategy Implementation Unit
• Communications
• Governance
• Performance, Assurance and Risk
• Private Office
• Investment Management Office
• Strategic Engagement and Partnerships
• Organisational Change

 

Job description

This is a senior leadership role within the NCA. The NCA’s mission is to protect the public by leading the UK’s fight to cut serious and organised crime.

As a Deputy Director Strategic Planning, you will work with DGs and SCS leaders to embed a culture of long-term planning and thoughtful design choices to ensure that the NCA continues to mature as an organisation which is fit the future, delivers its strategy and drives an increased impact on serious and organised crime. 

Key Responsibilities:

Act as a corporate leader 

Support Director of Strategy in the implementation of the Agency’s five year strategy and maturity of the Strategic Centre operating model.

Lead the implementation of the new Agency Operating model, supporting leaders with the information, challenge and support needed to deliver the NCA Board’s ambition.

Sponsor and participate in corporate initiatives.

You will have 6 direct reports with a total staff of approximately 50.

You will manage a non-pay budget of £350,000 and have leadership and influence over programme budgets of up to £180m. 

Lead Business Design 

Set Agency Business Design strategy, working closely with the Chief Technology Officer to ensure clear, well governed and transparent design choices are made.

Lead Enterprise Business Design, working collaboratively with directors and DDs to design the capability uplifts required to deliver strategy, reduce corporate risk and increase effectiveness of operational performance.

Ensure robust assurance of designs focusing on strategic fit, dependencies and value for money.

Support the Chair of the Enterprise Design Authority with timely and insightful contributions to agenda setting, scrutiny and support, to ensure effective value for money design activities that lead to robust decision making. 

Lead Investment Management 

Lead Enterprise Planning for major capability requirements in Spending Review periods, including building support for change across the Agency and partners as required.

Set the strategy, and lead development of, the investment management function, working collaboratively with Finance, HR, DDaT and Threat Leads to sequence design and commission investment programmes to achieve benefits.

Lead the ongoing maturity of the Investment function, ensuring the right balance of challenge, pace and support as the function grows and the impact of the team is felt on the organisation. 

Lead the definition and commissioning of new programmes to ensure that the Spending Review ambitions are delivered. 

Lead the Project Delivery Profession 

Act as Head of Profession for Project Delivery.

Lead programme assurance, including providing counsel to DGs and insightful reporting to the Finance, Investment and Change Committee and Executive Committee.

Lead on professional services requirements and commissioning in partnership with project delivery professionals.

Maintain effective working relationships with Law Enforcement and Government partners as well as external suppliers to ensure industry best practice is built back into the Agency’s delivery programmes.

Develop and maintain effective working relationships with the IPA, HMT and GIAA to ensure good practice and recommendations are implemented.

Act as SRO for major change programmes as required.

 

 

Person specification

The Civil Service use a recruitment framework called Success Profiles. Success Profiles are made up of 5 elements: Ability, Behaviours, Experience, Technical, Strengths. You will be assessed against the following: 

Behaviours

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the big picture 

In addition you will need to address

• Culture/EDI
• Technical 

We ask that you write a statement of suitability no more than 1250 words long with relevant examples of your skills relating to the criteria listed below:

You will need to demonstrate the below essential criteria: 

• Inclusive leadership skills – comfortable operating in a complex operational environment, with a demonstrable commitment to lead, develop and nurture a highly performing, diverse and talented workforce. 
• Excellent communication and influencing skills and experience of building effective partnerships, particularly with technical teams, across government, UK public and private sectors, Security partners and with international partners at a strategic level.
• Experienced in effective decision making with accountability for decisions made.

• The ability to articulate a strategic forward vision for a large, complex organisation or system, ensuring that a wide range of internal and external stakeholders are engaged and supportive.

• Experience of delivering interventions that ensure Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is embedded in the organisation’s way of working, fostering a culture of trust which enables people to speak up, feel safe and advocate for others.

Technical

• Experience of enterprise design and experience of leading operating model design in the context of a multi-year implementation.
• Experience of managing programmes and what makes change stick.

Please Note

• The NCA is a 24/7 organisation, and working patterns must support business requirements. Some roles may require you to respond at short notice or outside of core hours.
• Individuals will be required to undertake and pass a substance misuse test as part of pre-employment checks.

• If successful you must hold, or be willing to obtain, security clearance Developed Vetting (DV).
• We want to recruit and retain the very best and broadest diversity of officers so the NCA welcomes applications from individuals from all minority backgrounds and protected characteristics.
• Please be aware that you can be posted to any location that you put in your preferences. If you would only like to be posted one location, please confirm one location only.

If you are posted to a location that you have requested and you do not accept that location, you may not be offered another role.

• Successful candidates may be required to undertake a medical. If required, the medical will take place in either London or Warrington. Unfortunately, travel costs will not be reimbursed.
• Under the NCA Estates Strategy, the London office is part of a planned relocation to a new NCA HQ in Stratford, London. Relocation is expected to take place in 2025. If you are successful for a London role, please be aware that your post will be relocated.

 

 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, National Crime Agency 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

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process, outlined below. This should be completed no later than 23:55, on Monday 11th March 2024. 

• Enter your CV details setting out your career history, including key responsibilities and achievements. It is essential that your CV reflects the role you are applying for. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any employment gaps within the last two years. 

• A statement of suitability (no more than 1250 words) with detailed evidence of your skills and experience that relate to the Behaviours and criteria on page 12 of the Candidate Information Pack. 

In order to monitor the effectiveness of the National Crime Agency’s Diversity & Inclusion strategy, the NCA require certain personal details about you on submission of your application. Please note that this will be treated in confidence and will not impact your application. 

As part of your application, you will be asked to complete a diversity monitoring form. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select ‘prefer not to say’. All monitoring data will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not be provided to the selection panel. The information you provide when submitting your application will help us monitor our progress towards the Civil Service becoming the most inclusive employer. 

Your application will be acknowledged within 48 hours of receipt.

Should you encounter any issues with your application please get in touch with our recruitment partners at the following email address: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Longlisting 

The longlisting will be conducted against your submitted CV and Statement of Suitability.

Shortlist 

A shortlisting meeting will be held in the week commencing Monday 25th March 2024 with successful candidates given more information about their final panel interview, which will be held face to face with the NCA in London in the week commencing 22nd of April 2024. 

Assessment Centre 

A Staff Engagement Exercise (SEE) will be delivered week commencing 8th of April 2024. More information on this assessment will be given to shortlisted candidates. 

Final Panel Interview 

The interview will be a competency based interview assessing Success Profiles. More information about Success Profiles can be here. 

You will also be asked to deliver a presentation at the time of your final panel interview. 

A subsequent 1:1 interview may be offered following the final interview at the discretion of the vacancy holder. 

Offer 

Regardless of the outcome, we will notify all candidates as soon as possible.

If your application is successful and we are unable to offer you a post immediately, you will be invited to join our reserve list so that we can continue to communicate with you regarding your employment with the Agency, and the incredible work that we do. If over the next 12 months we are able to offer you a position, we will contact you as soon as possible. 

Appointments will be made in adherence to the Civil Service Recruitment Principles and in strict merit order with the highest scoring candidates being appointed first. 

We will keep you updated throughout your application and whilst in the candidate pool, we wish you every success in this process and are excited for the journey ahead. 

The NCA is a law enforcement agency and as such we are part of the Criminal Justice System. Therefore, if you are going into an operational role we need to be aware if any of our officers have, either before they join us or afterwards, any of the following: 

• Any criminal conviction (including by Court Martial), or caution or fixed penalty notice for disorder or theft;
• Any adverse judicial findings;
• Any charges or summonses where the proceedings are not complete;
• Any misconduct or gross misconduct findings or where proceedings are not complete.

You will be asked to complete a declaration form covering the above if offered a role with the NCA.

Each case will be considered on its merits and a positive declaration does not automatically mean that your application will not be progressed.  However, should you fail to disclose a relevant matter then your application or employment will be adversely affected.  If in doubt, please declare it at this stage.’ 

Indicative Timeline 

Please note that these dates are only indicative at this stage and could be subject to change. If you are unable to meet these time frames, please let us know in your application letter. 

The anticipated timetable is as follows:

Advert Closing Date: 11th of March 2024

Expected shortlist announcement: w/c 25th of March 2024

Staff Engagement Exercise (SEE): w/c 8th of April 2024

Interviews: w/c 22nd of April 2024

Pre-employment checks 

Pre-employment checks take on average 16 weeks from the point of offer to arranging a start date. This includes vetting, occupational health assessments, employment history checks and substance misuse tests.  This is an approximate time frame and is to be taken as a guideline only as this can very between candidates. This is dependent on when all requested documentation is provided. 

Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, which may be likely to some change, and are asked to exercise flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.

 

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 developed vetting (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.