About the job

Job summary

Working with and reporting to the Head of Division, the Deputy Head (D/HoD) will provide visible leadership across the Division, one of three main investigating and prosecuting divisions, proactively supporting the Head of Division in delivering the SFO’s Mission, Strategic Objectives and annual Business Plan. The D/HoD will actively role model SFO values, promote our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, and foster a positive culture and constructive working environment. You will work collaboratively to drive up and deliver improvements in both performance and efficiency, ensuring cases progress at pace, and are conducted in line with current guidance and policies. You will also work collaboratively with and across all other Divisions in the organisation to ensure divisional planning includes availability of shared resources (e.g. Digital Forensics and Review Systems) and sharing of resources across cases as required within and between divisions. The role offers an exciting opportunity to work closely with senior colleagues including Criminal Investigation Advisers and Associate General Counsels to ensure investigative and/or legal risks are identified as early as possible and to manage those risks.  

You will support the Head of Division in all aspects of managing the work and performance of the division, including but not limited to:

• setting priorities, identifying and managing risks to their delivery
• ensuring agreed measures, interventions and actions are in place to meet centrally set Key Performance Indicators and targets
• working with HR and Finance colleagues, supporting the HOD to be accountable and responsible for ensuring that divisional budget and staff resources are proactively managed, providing value for money
• leading on office wide initiatives and projects involving cross-office collaboration to improve casework, performance and delivery
• chairing and presenting at senior levels on office wide initiatives and divisional case outcomes and progress

Job description

As a Deputy Head of Division you will be responsible for:

• To act as the nominated deputy for the HoD (including being fully empowered to take action or decisions as such in the absence of the HoD).
• To support the HoD in managing and quality assuring cases on their division, by early identification and escalation of risks and issues relating to case progression and the disclosure process.
• To offer support and guidance to case controllers and case teams on particular case related issues, which may include specific investigative and/or prosecutorial issues such as correspondence with the defence and other parties and the management of the disclosure process.
• To undertake discrete divisional and cross-cutting tasks and projects as agreed with the HoD and senior management.
• To line manage specific individuals, as agreed with the HoD, such as the Divisional Business Manager.

For more information about the role and for a full list of key responsibilities, please see attached Job Pack.

Person specification

See above and attached Job Pack.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £68,876, Serious Fraud Office contributes £18,596 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.

Application stage

As part of the application process you will be required to provide:

• A personal statement of no more than 500 words that explains how your skills and experience meet each of the essential experience criteria as listed in the job pack.
• A supporting CV outlining your job history.

It will not be possible to provide feedback to applicants who are unsuccessful at the application stage.

Interview stage

Behaviours and experience criteria as outlined in the job pack will be tested at interview. You will also be asked Strength based questions.

Candidates invited to interview will also be required to deliver a presentation.

Full details of the interview process will be made available to shortlisted candidates in the invite to interview.

Sift to take place from 5 March 2024.

Interviews are expected to take place w/c 18 March 2024.

All dates are indicative and subject to change.

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

Security

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.