About the job

Job summary

Head Office provides the Department of State function and political and military strategic direction for the MOD. It is accommodated in Main Building, MOD’s flagship headquarters. 

We are looking for an enthusiastic and organised individual to fill the position of Security Policy Lead.  This is a new, exciting and high-profile role which will work across the breadth of Head Office and with colleagues across and beyond Defence. The office is a busy, fun, and supportive environment and the role holder will have responsibility for a range of key security and resilience functions within Head Office. 

As the post holder, you will support the G7/Policy, Governance and Assurance lead to set the right security polices and risk posture which aligns with the future strategy for Main Building and wider national security landscape.  You will work closely with the Principal Security Advisor and wider Main Building security team to develop and implement the Head Office Security policies to help Head Office improve its overall security posture.  You will be responsible for developing and implementing robust policies incorporating the governance and assurance programmes to ensure that Head Office is compliant with Defence Security policies.  As part of your role, you may also be required to cover some resilience aspects which may be integral to the wider security and resilience of Main Building. 

You will contribute to the Head Office Security and Resilience Governance Board supporting the Director of Head Office in their role as Senior Security Risk Coordinator and support the PSyA at Defence Security and Resilience meetings as and when required.  

You will contribute to continuous improvement of security culture aligning with centralised security advice, education, and awareness campaigns.  You will be required to brief Ministers and senior officials on security and resilience policies associated with Main Building working closely with the Private Offices and the Main Building community to build a strong security culture.   

You may be required to support the Principal Security Advisor help to manage security or resilience incidents and assist with the secretariat helping to lead business recovery activities. You will have a wider awareness of the changing priorities and responsibilities and be able to work flexibly distinguishing the preferable from the critical.   

You may also be required to take part on an on-call rota, sharing the responsibility of providing out of hours advice to Main Building users and stakeholders with colleagues across the Safety, Security and Business Resilience team for which an allowance is payable. 

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.   

Job description

Specific responsibilities include: 

• Review of Head Office/Main Building Security guidance and policies which aligns with the wider Main Building Strategy. 
• Supporting the implementation and promotion of security policies working with the wider security and resilience team
• Contribute to improvements in security culture, education, and awareness. 
• Support the implementation of the Head Office Security and Resilience governance and assurance policy ensuring compliance with wider Departmental policies. 
• Ensuring the provision of security advice to the operational chain of command. 

Person specification

• Experience of working in Security and/or Resilience environment and developing or implementing security and resilience policies. 

  • Experience of developing policy and/or guidance. 
  • Strong written and oral communication skills, with an ability to distil key messages.  
  • Excellent strategic thinking, being able to see the bigger picture to develop robust policy and identify cross-cutting issues.  
  • Excellent interpersonal skills, with a proven track record of successful internal and external relationship management skills and the ability to build and maintain good working relationships at all levels. Strong attention to detail, with the ability to understand and present information from a wide range of sources, in a succinct manner. 
  • Good drafting skills, with the ability to interpret and capture key elements from  complex meetings with stakeholders at all levels. 
  • Creativity and perspective to challenge existing practice and policy looking widely across factors influencing outcomes.  
  • Able to work flexibly and collaboratively as well as deliver at pace, across a range of issues, owning policy strands and outcomes, and providing flexible support to the team. 
  • Confidence in decision making, with the ability to exercise sound judgement and the ability to challenge others in a constructive manner.  
  • A sense of fun and a willingness to help develop a close and supportive team ethos.

  Desirable 

  • Previous experience of developing policy for an operational delivery environment.  

We strongly encourage personal and professional development to enhance your current and future roles.  When taking up role, you will become part of the security profession and have access to a range of training available in Defence and across wider Government. 

This role also requires the successful candidate to be STRAP inducted.  STRAP can only be be applied for once the candidate has obtained DV clearance and must be confirmed before the successful candidate can commence certain aspects of the role. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,631 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.

Sift Criteria.  At sift, candidates should submit a CV and personal statement of no more than 1,000 words outlining how you meet the “Essential Criteria” in the job specification. 

At sift, you will be assessed against the following Behaviours:  

• Working Together 

At interview, you will be assessed against the following Behaviours: 

• Seeing The Bigger Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

Interview Criteria.  Candidates will be expected to demonstrate evidence of the civil service behaviours listed above. 

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk  

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.  

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn. 

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

Open to UK nationals only.

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.