About the job

Job summary

These roles form part of NCA’s broader operational leadership within the NCA and will be expected to work closely in collaboration with the wider NCA Directorates to enhance the understanding of current and emerging serious organised crime (SOC) threats, the delivery of an effective 4P response (Pursue, Prevent, Protect and Prepare) and the delivery of highly effective tactical interventions. 

Director Intelligence
- Reports to: NCA Director General Operations

Organised crime is one of the greatest threats to our national security. Our mission at the NCA is to protect the public from serious and organised crime, using our national and international reach and mandate, at the heart of the networked law enforcement community. 

At our core the Intelligence Directorate are collectors, analysts, assessors and exploiters of intelligence. The core mission of the Directorate is to identify the right targets and then  develop operations, to disrupt - by the most effective means - the offenders who cause the highest harm to the UK. 
The post holder will ensure the NCA’s intelligence work leverages the support of the entire law enforcement and intelligence community and allows the NCA and others to respond with confidence to the changing threat picture. 

The Intelligence Directorate houses 6 Departments: International; Collection; National Intelligence Hub (NIH); National Tasking and Coordination (NTAC); Data and Analysis Hub; and Intelligence Future Development

The Director Intelligence is responsible for 2,189 FTE.

The Director Intelligence is responsible for managing the Intelligence Directorate budget (core and external) of £107m.

Director Threat Leadership
- Reports to: NCA Director General Threats (Economic & Organised Crime)

The role of Director Threat Leadership supports DG Threats and DG NCA in leading the whole of system operational response to SOC, less economic crime as well as shaping NCA response to priority, serious and organised crime threats. As you will play a leading role in coordinating the wider UK and international response to these threats, the ability to influence both within and outside of the NCA will be critical.  

The Threat Leadership Directorate houses 4 Departments: 

• National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), Organised Immigration Crime & Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit (OIC & MSHT), Child Sexual exploitation &Abuse (CSA) and Drugs, Firearms & Borders.
• As new threats emerge it will be your responsibility to develop a comprehensive response on behalf of the NCA.
• The Director Threat Leadership is responsible for 399 FTE.
• The Director Threat Leadership is responsible for managing the Threat Leadership Directorate budget (core and external) of £79.5m.
  
  

Job description

Grade/pay band: Director (SCS2) circa £110,000 to £140,000 per annum

Director Intelligence Main Responsibilities

Deliver a strong and healthy operational pipeline

• Focus on delivering the operational tilt through prioritising high value targets/groups and the enablers of SOC
• Lead the development of our Data exploitation and analysis capability
• Protect current and develop new collection capabilities
• Develop the International Network

Ensure the Directorate delivers agreed outcomes from within its agreed budget (including both internal and external funding)

Build the Intelligence workforce for the future

• Building a highly performing team capable of sophisticated tactical and strategic intelligence collection, assessment and analysis, delivering products which directly inform and support operational decision making and output.
• Driving talent management and opportunities for learning across the directorate, building tailored career paths for high performers and seeking to build a cohort of future leaders in the law enforcement community.  Further professionalising the intelligence community, working with partners and academia to build analytical and assessment capability.
• Maintaining a targeted and responsive overseas liaison network, allowing the NCA to identify and tackle organised crime threats before they reach the UK

Actively seek to develop the Agency and the wider SOC system

• Building a resilient and responsive network across the intelligence and law enforcement community which uses the full spectrum of NCA and partner capabilities, systems and data assets to present a compelling assessment across the serious and organised crime threats and informs the NCA’s deployment of resources.
• Engage with Whitehall and Operational partners to shape the environment for the agency to be able to deliver the greatest impact against SOC.

Governance responsibilities:

• Core member of: Executive Committee, Finance, Investment and Change Committee, Data Governance Board
• Chair of: International Board, Intelligence Programme Board
• Co-chair of: Communications Capabilities Design & Delivery Board
• Director sponsor for the Inclusion, Diversity & Equality group.
  

Director Threat Leadership Main Responsibilities

• Ensure an effective and efficient response to SOC threats.
• Provide clear leadership and direction to the Threat Leadership Directorate within the Agency and across law enforcement partners.
• Set strategic direction through the formulation and delivery of comprehensive 4P strategies for all SOC threats, except economic crime.
• Ensure a coordinated response to the threats across all law enforcement, public service and third sector partners; building relationships and tackling complex issues together.
• To drive forward the NCA mission through effective representation of the NCA at a range of senior government forums including National Security Council (NSC), National Security Strategy Implementation Group (NSSIG) and Inter Ministerial Group meetings and through the media. Being comfortable briefing ministers is a critical requirement for the role.
• Strategic leadership of the NCCU ensuring that the NCCU delivers high quality and effective tactical interventions alongside other domestic and international law enforcement partners. In particular, to develop effective relationships across Team Cyber UK.

Wider NCA leadership responsibilities

• Play a key role in the leadership of the Directorate, National Tasking and Strategic Governance Group meetings, displaying knowledge and expertise in relation to the threats and broader NCA functions and responsibilities, in accordance with the vision and values of the Agency.
• Lead the development of wider organisational development across the NCA and a diverse range of NCA corporate initiatives requiring well developed skills in leadership, communication, financial and budgetary management and people management.
• Direct and manage a senior team; promoting effective management, development of staff and flexible deployment of resources.
• Collectively providing an effective and available leadership response whenever required, including participation in the NCA Directorate on call arrangements, acting as the senior point of contact in out of hours and critical incident responses.

Governance responsibilities:

• Co-sponsor for the Flexible Working Group.

We are currently reviewing our operating model which may effect change to the precise leadership structure.

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
• Seeing the bigger picture
• Changing and Improving

You will also need to address:

• Culture/EDI
• Technical (for Director Intelligence )

We ask that you write a statement of suitability no more than 1250 words 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.
• Experience of building effective partnerships across government, UK public and private sectors and with international partners at a strategic level. You will feel comfortable communicating complex issues to a wide audience, including ministers and the media.
• You will have a track record of successfully managing political and operational risks.
• 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.
• The ability to lead and deliver change, with a track record of delivering substantial improvements to increase operational effectiveness and value for money, including through running programmes and setting up new capabilities.
• Experience of delivering interventions that ensure that Equality, Diversity & 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.

Director Intelligence specific criteria:

• Extensive operational experience of leading all source intelligence collection and analysis , driving an operational response to degrade threat and working collaboratively with partners across systems.

Threat leadership desirable criteria:

• A general understanding of the law enforcement system and/or one or more of the threats for which the post is responsible (see page 14 in Candidate Information Pack).

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;
• You may be required to work in a CSAE environment;  
• If successful you must hold, or be willing to obtain, security clearance STRAP. 
• 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;
• When submitting your application, you will be asked to confirm which role you wish to be considered for. Please note this is preference only and will be considered in the matching stages, however cannot be guaranteed;
• Please be aware that you can be posted to any location that you put in your preferences however, these roles will require frequent attendance at our London office so you will need to be prepared to spend time there. They will also involve a significant amount of International travel.
• *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;
• 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. 

Benefits

Civil Service Pension
A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire.

If you are an active police pension member immediately prior to joining the NCA, you can continue your membership throughout your employment with us.

Annual Leave 
26 days’ annual leave on entry increasing to 31 days after 5 years’ service plus 8 bank holidays. A provision to buy or sell up to one week of your contracted hours each year, subject to meeting the eligibility criteria.

If qualifying criteria is met new joiners to the NCA from UK Police Forces or UKIC will have service with those employers taken into account for continuous service purposes for Annual Leave entitlement only, this will be up to a maximum of 31 days leave (including 1 privilege day).

Parental Leave
Family friendly policies including paid maternity, adoption, paternity and shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks.

Access to the government Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. Existing employees may be able to continue to claim childcare vouchers.

Flexible Working
Flexible working arrangements allowing you to split your work between the office and home, subject to the nature of the role.

Alternative working patterns such as part-time and compressed hours options subject to business needs.

Support for officers who are Reservists and Special Constables.

Learning and Development
Access to a range of learning and development activities, and opportunities to support career progression. Paid time off to facilitate continuous professional development, and access to Civil Service Learning up to 5 days per year.

Wellbeing and Inclusion
Occupational sick pay and access to occupational health services.

A network of qualified Mental Health First Aiders and Workplace Support Officers, who can provide advice, signposting and support to all our officers.

On site facilinetwork groups.

Employee Savings
Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket.

Access to a wide range of discounts, offers and gift cards with a number of high street and online retailers through the Blue light Scheme and Edenred.

Cycle2work salary sacrifice scheme to hire a bicycle up to the value of £4,000 to assist in improving health and fitness and save you money.

Access to a home and technology purchase scheme, allowing you to purchase items and spread the cost over 12 months through salary sacrifice.

Key worker status, enabling access to accommodation at a discounted rate, subject to eligibility. Access to a range of sports, leisure and health benefits at reduced prices through membership with Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC).

For further information on working for the NCA please visit: https://www.civil-service- careers.gov.uk/national-crime-agency/

Things you need to know

Selection process details

How to Apply

To apply for this post, please register your interest with peter.buffoni@gatenbysanderson.com

Applications should be completed no later than 23:55, on Sunday 28th January 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 criteria listed in the person specification above. 

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.

Should you encounter any issues with your application please get in touch with our recruitment partners at the following email address: peter.buffoni@gatenbysanderson.com

Your application will be acknowledged by our recruitment partners. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your application within 48 hours, please contact us.

The role is expected to be based in Birmingham, Bristol, London* or Warrington. Please ensure you are only selecting locations you are willing to work in as you may be offered a post in any of your location preferences. If not  based in London, frequent travel to London will be required.

*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.

Further Information

If you have any questions about the role itself or would like to discuss the post and your fit within the organisation, please contact: scs.appointments@nca.gov.uk

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.