About the job

Job summary

The Governance Lead oversees the operation of the SFO’s governance structures. This includes being responsible for embedding effective checks, balances and internal controls, promoting best practice, setting standards, and creating and maintaining effective channels of cross-organisational communication.

The Governance Lead is responsible for delivery of the organisation’s effective governance arrangements, which are critical to its ability to operate successfully. They are responsible for agenda setting and delivery of the objectives of the Board, Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee (ARAC), and functional committees and sub-committees of the organisation. These committees cover the entirety of the SFO’s business: from people, to operational delivery, to transformative change projects. This means the Governance Lead will have a unique insight into how the organisation works, and an opportunity to influence delivery of its priorities.

It is a key role within the organisation involving daily engagement with senior officials and operational colleagues. It requires a skilled and confident communicator who is able to think strategically and manage stakeholder relationships diplomatically to liaise effectively with colleagues at all levels, including Non-Executive Directors and external partners. The Governance Lead must be able to analyse and distil complex issues, think creatively at pace to identify solutions, and be able to negotiate and influence others successfully to deliver the SFO’s objectives. The Governance Lead will have a key role in operationalising the SFO’s imminent new strategy by using existing governance structures to drive forward delivery.

Job description

As a Governance Lead you will be responsible for:

• Lead the Secretariat team, managing performance and developing staff in their roles. Design and deliver the team’s strategic objectives, and regularly report progress, enablers and blockers to the Chief of Staff. Develop and embed a culture whereby the Governance Team use their knowledge of SFO staff and activity to provide added value across the SFO’s decision-making bodies.
• Act as the SFO’s most senior, dedicated governance specialist. Be responsible for ensuring SFO governance structures and arrangements comply with - and where possible, exceed - central government and independent assurance organisations’ recommendations and best practice. This includes developing and maintaining schemes of decision making and delegations.
• Oversee the efficient and effective delivery of the secretariat function to the Board, the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee (ARAC), and functional committees and sub-committees of the SFO. This involves working with and on behalf of the Chairs to plan agendas proactively, commission papers, plan meeting logistics, minute the meetings, set actions, and ensure they are implemented.
• Design a forward look of topics for each meeting that makes the most of the expertise and decision-making authority in each committee. Provide a helicopter overview of all governance structures to ensure deconfliction and integration across the whole organisation.
• Own the committees’ Terms of References and the Secretariat Manual, reviewing and updating them in line with best practice as appropriate. Conduct a Board Effectiveness Review on a regular basis; work with the Non-Executive Chair of the Board to design the review, then implement it and take forward any recommendations.

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 £53,132, Serious Fraud Office contributes £14,335 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.

Application stage

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

• A personal statement of no more than 750 words that explains how your skills and experience meet each of the experience and technical 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, experience and technical criteria as outlined in the job pack will be tested at interview. 

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

Sift to take place from 7 May 2024.

Interviews are expected to take place w/c 13 May 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.