About the job

Job summary

The Homeland Security Group (HSG) unites capabilities and expertise to deliver better outcomes from the UK’s response to the most serious domestic threats – Terrorism, Cyber, State Threats and Economic Crime.

The group will strengthen coordination and collective focus across a range of growing and overlapping threats, whilst remaining consistent with existing strategies. Working with partners, HSG will foster more transparent and sustainable collaboration between national security, law enforcement and other relevant communities to enhance capabilities and leverage our response to threats.

 As a part of the Home Office, the role of the Homeland Security Group is to:

• Support the Home Secretary to develop and implement strategies to keep our people and interests safe and secure.
• Build HMG capabilities to reduce national security risk.
• Reduce volume of, and harm from, economic crime, particularly for the most vulnerable
• Work in partnership with public and private sectors in the UK and overseas to deliver better outcomes.
• Ensure legitimate economic growth and prosperity. 

We are recruiting for several roles in the Home Office’s Homeland Security Group as we expand a new Emerging Technology Policy Unit that will start to tackle some of the most challenging technological threats posed by emerging technology.  

We’re looking to create a diverse unit that has a wide range of skills and experience to tackle national security emerging technology issues. We are looking for individuals who have a passion for understanding challenging topics and developing clever and ambitious ways to tackle them. Whether you have a technology background or not, we want people to look at emerging technology from multiple perspectives, question and challenge existing approaches, and identify new ways to tackle the threats we face and develop policies and interventions to help keep our country safe.   

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, want to be part of a new inclusive and welcoming team, and develop a wide range of skills and experience that will be invaluable as technology continues to develop then this is the role for you.  

The Emerging Technology Policy Unit is a new unit that sits in the Strategy Directorate of the Home Office’s Homeland Security Group (HSG). The team is a strategic unit responsible for driving a step change in how HSG engages with both the risks and opportunities of future and emerging technology, in pursuit of the Home Office strategic shift on how we use data and technology. 

The Emerging Technology Policy Unit has been set-up to ensure that HSG has a greater understanding of future and emerging technology and the implications of this on national security issues. The unit will be responsible for developing a strategic and programmatic approach to ensuring the HSG system is able to adapt to technological change, exploit the opportunities created by emerging technology, and protect the UK from the potential harms of new and emerging tech.

Job description

The nature of the work and roles will change slightly as the programme develops and at times you may be required to support other areas of HSG work so an element of flexibility will be required. We are recruiting roles into: 

EmTech Strategy and Analysis team 

This team will be responsible for developing HSG’s strategic approach to EmTech, embedding futures thinking into policymaking, developing strategic objectives and an evaluation approach to assess the overall effectiveness. The team will also be responsible for horizon scanning, prioritising new threats from emerging technologies, as well as working collaboratively with the analytical community to identify research requirements for the HSG systems and commissioning research and then feeding this into HSG policymaking. The team will also implement a culture, skills and training programme across HSG to develop skills across the group.  

EmTech Policy team 

This team will lead on cross-cutting EmTech issues to coordinate HSG responses working with and through others to deliver policy responses to technology. They will work closely with partners across Government such as DSIT and the AI Taskforce to represent HSG equities and shape policy, regulation and legislation in support of national security objectives. The team has already led on the AI safety summit and work on AI risks for HSG and will continue to build on this. Future work may include other cross-cutting technologies such as quantum, future telecoms, engineering biology and nanotechnology.

Tech Company Engagement team  

This team will lead the shift to a more strategic, holistic and long-term engagement approach, built on strong relationships across Whitehall, international partners, and tech company decision makers. Effective engagement with tech companies will encourage the proactive action needed by these companies to support our efforts in combatting terrorism, child abuse, violence against women and girls, and fraud, alongside many other challenges. This proactive action may include monitoring and removing harmful content, but also upstream design choices, like those which ensure law enforcement can continue to access data crucial.  

You will be joining a motivated, inclusive, friendly, and supportive team and will have learning and development opportunities to further your skillset. We are looking for someone who will actively get involved in developing themselves and others and contribute towards the team, Department, and the wider Civil Service. 

This role is available on a part time basis, however, there is an expectation that the successful candidate will work a minimum of 30 hours over 4 days a week.

Person specification

Key duties and responsibilities will include:

• Contributing to the development of a clear strategy for the future direction of Future Emerging Technology across HSG, with responsibility to embed futures thinking into HSG’s work and avoid the risk of strategic shock amidst rapid technology developments. 
• Working closely with stakeholders across HSG, Home Office, and HMG to develop a clear understanding of the threats posed by emerging technology and departmental priorities.  
• Identifying policy issues through effective foresight and horizon-scanning and developing policy responses and plans to proactively address these working closely with a wide-range of partners across HMG and our HSG partners.
• Developing strong working relationships with academia and industry ensuring that HMG speaks with one holistic voice to drive objectives. 
• Engaging and building strong relationships with tech companies, working closely with HSG and HMG partners to shape tech company approaches to emerging technology to reduce the harms they pose, using a wide range of tools and levers to build safety into technological development. 

Essential Criteria

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for delivery with the following skills or strong experience in:

•  You will have evidence of leadership with the ability to drive forward your own work area and an ability to proactively identify opportunities which will advance the team’s objectives. 
• The ability to think strategically and critically to ensure work is aligned to HSG objectives, identifying areas of join-up and linkages between strands of work. The confidence to question ways of working and decisions to ensure the right decisions are made. 
• Clear demonstration of strong organisational skills. 
• You will have experience of working across complex policy areas, interpreting research and analysis, and making evidence-based decisions on how it relates to key policy areas. 
• You will have a proven track record of developing strong relationships with colleagues and partners to enable effective delivery. 
• You will have evidence of strong communication and influencing skills, including a proven ability to convey complex messages both verbally and in writing, taking account of the needs of a variety of customers and wider stakeholders. 
• We are looking for someone who embodies inclusivity, champions diversity of thought and background, is innovative, can think outside of the box to question existing assumptions, and proactively works to develop a positive team and organisational culture.

Specifically, for the Tech Engagement Team we are also looking for: 

• Excellent communication and influencing skills, including with senior industry, and international stakeholders. 

Desirable Criteria: 

For this role, the below experience would be beneficial, but is not essential:

• Knowledge/experience of HSG, national security or technological change.
• Experience working across HMG or with the tech sector.

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

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.

As part of the application process candidates will be required to submit a CV and Statement of Suitability (Personal Statement) (of no more than 1000 words).

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Please note your Statement of Suitability should be aligned to the Essential Criteria as set out in the job advertisement.

In addition candidates will be required to provide evidence of the following behaviours:

• 'Seeing the Big Picture'
• 'Communicating & Influencing'

The sift will be held on the Statement of Suitability, and the evidence of the behaviours 'Seeing the Big Picture' and 'Communicating and Influencing'. CVs will not be scored.

In an event where a high volume of applications is received, an initial sift will take place using the lead behaviour 'Seeing the Big Picture'. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be either progressed to a full sift or straight to interview.

Successful candidates shortlisted for interview will be tested on all Behaviours outlined in the job advertisement.

In addition, candidates will be asked to prepare a for a Briefing Exercise that will be delivered at interview. The Briefing Exercise will be tested against 'Experience' on the 'Success Profiles' and will be assessed against the 'Essential Criteria' as listed in the job advertisement. A question/scenario will be disclosed closer to the interviews.

Sift and Interview dates

The sift will take place week commencing 15th January 2023.

Interviews will take place week commencing 5th February 2023.

Interviews will take place remotely via video. Further details and instructions will be provided closer to the scheduled interview.

Further information

For meaningful checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years if the role requires CTC clearance, 5 years for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.  A lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointment may be made.

We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need for them to go through a further selection process.

DV clearance or a willingness to undergo DV clearance is an essential requirement for this role. Successful candidates will be permitted to start with SC whilst they undergo the DV clearance processes.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estates capacity, by Spring 2024. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details).  

Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. All applications are screened for plagiarism and copying and generating of examples/answers from internet sources including Artificial Intelligence. If any is detected the application may be withdrawn from the process. Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving civil servants. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants.

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

If you are invited to an interview you will be required to bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.

Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Any move to the Home Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. 

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the “Assistance Required” section in the “Additional Requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback

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

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.