Deputy Director for Government Cyber Operations

Details
Reference number

437934

Salary

£81,000 - £117,800

Non civil servants will be expected to start at the salary minimum if successful. Standard pay rules apply for existing civil servants.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

Job grade

SCS Pay Band 1

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

CO - Cyber Security - Government Cyber Unit

Type of role

Security

Senior leadership

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time, Compressed hours

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

London

About the job
Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity to work at the heart of Government cyber security, driving transformation in cyber operations across government and leading the Government Cyber Coordination Centre (GC3).

The GC3 coordinates the Government's response to cross-cutting and critical cyber security vulnerabilities, threats, and incidents, and enables cyber defenders across Government to work together and to "defend as one". The GC3 is a joint initiative sponsored by the Government Digital Service (GDS) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

This role is based in the Cabinet Office, but is in-scope for a planned move to GDS later in 2025. Regardless of where you are based, you should expect to work closely alongside colleagues from all sponsoring organisations, and wider Government and the public sector.

Job description

Government Cyber are looking for an experienced and senior operational cyber security professional to lead government cyber operations, digital resilience and the Government Cyber Coordination Centre. In this role you will be responsible for driving transformation, leading the design, implementation, operation and continual improvement of the GC3 and its capabilities. This role reports to the Director for the Government Cyber Unit.

As the Government Cyber Unit, our mission is to protect public services and the wider Government from cyber threats and non-malicious failures. We are responsible for driving cyber security and resilience transformation across government and the public sector as well as managing government-wide cyber risk on behalf of the DSIT Permanent Secretary. We set strategic direction for Government and the public sector on cyber security and digital resilience, defining standards and policies through the Government Cyber Security Standard and the Cyber Policy Handbook. We assure system and organisation cyber security via initiatives such as GovAssure. Our team leads the operational response to cyber threats, vulnerabilities and incidents through the Government Coordination Centre (GC3) and manages the GCSS Portfolio to implement strategy across central Government and departments.

You will play a key role in government cyber security, taking decisions that affect the breadth of government and driving strategic improvement and change. You will need to be a confident, inspiring and inclusive leader, committed to the support and development of your staff.

Responsibilities

• Lead the GC3, providing strategic direction, decision making, and management to the transformation, cyber operations, business operations, and communications functions.
• Work collaboratively with partner organisations to design, and lead the implementation and delivery of, the GC3 operating model, strategy and roadmap.
• Work collaboratively with GDS and other partners to scale GC3 operational capabilities to address government digital resilience challenges, and iterating the wider operating model, strategy and roadmap as required.
• Lead the Government Cyber unit engagement with senior stakeholders in partner organisations, central Government functions, Government departments and the wider public sector.
• Lead the cross-government response to critical security vulnerabilities, threats and incidents, leading engagement with NCSC and national security processes (e.g., COBR) as required.
• Brief senior stakeholders on cyber security threats, vulnerabilities, incidents, and mitigations, and lead on ministerial briefings and parliamentary business.
• Engage with and influence wider cyber security and digital resilience efforts across Government, representing the GC3 and wider cross-Government cyber security operations community.
• Contribute to the evolution of the Government Cyber Security Strategy objectives and priorities, ensuring that these remain fit for purpose and enable government organisations to raise their cyber security maturity in an evolving threat landscape.
• Maintain an ongoing understanding of the threat and vulnerability landscape, and cyber security operations best practices, in order to provide credible and informed advice and guidance.
• Act as an escalation point for, line manage, and provide coaching and mentoring to GC3 function leads.
• Play an active role across government as a champion for the network defender community and as part of Cyber Directorate senior leadership.
• Be an advocate for excellence in all things relating to leadership and people management.
• Deputise for the Director for Government Cyber Security as required.

Person specification

It is important, through your CV and supporting statement, that you provide evidence of the following Essential Criteria:

• Proven and excellent leadership skills to inspire, empower and motivate others.
• Excellent levels of personal resilience, remaining calm under pressure, comfortable working in ambiguous environments, and making rapid decisions with often limited information.
• Compelling communication and influencing skills with a strong focus on relationship building, including the ability to clearly and simply explain technical details to non-technical audiences, and engage with senior stakeholders.
• An ability to form strong working relationships, influence others, and coordinate activities across multiple organisations with different ways of working and often conflicting priorities.
• An ability to share expertise and promote diversity while navigating a complex organisation.
• Significant experience building and leading cyber security operations functions in large organisations.
• Significant experience leading the response to major cyber incidents at an organisational or national level.
• Proven experience of driving transformation to improve delivery, impact and performance.
• Significant experience building, developing, and managing diverse and high-performing teams
• An in-depth understanding of cyber threats, vulnerabilities and mitigations.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of working in national security or related environments.

DV STRAP clearance is required for this post. Applicants who do not already hold these clearances will be required to undergo and successfully complete the vetting process before being appointed to the role. This may mean your appointment will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Cabinet Office contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career within the Department and wider Civil Service.

It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead, and you'll benefit from regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing. As a Civil Service employee, you'll be entitled to a large range of benefits.

This includes:

• 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years' service. This is in addition to 8 public holidays and one privilege day to mark the King's birthday.
• 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; where 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;
• Flexible working patterns including part-time or term-time working and access to Flexible Working Schemes allowing you to vary your working day as long as you work your total hours;
• Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers;
• Childcare benefits (policy for new employees as of 5 April 2018): The government has introduced the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. Working parents can open an online childcare account and for every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2000 a year for each child or £4000 for a disabled child. Parents then use the funds to pay for registered childcare. Existing employees may be able to continue to claim childcare vouchers, so please check how the policy would work for you here;
• Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket or a new bicycle;
• The opportunity to use onsite facilities including fitness centres and staff canteens (where applicable);
• Occupational sick pay.

Things you need to know
Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Application

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process, outlined below. This should be completed no later than 23:55, Sunday 14th December 2025.

1. A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.

2. A Statement of Suitability(no longer than 1000 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

Failure to complete both sections of the online application form (CV and Statement of Suitability) will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

As part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. 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'. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for more information.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with us via:

Assessment

If you are shortlisted, you may be asked to take part in a series of assessments which could include psychometric tests. These assessments will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, they are designed to support the panel's decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview. For more information about the assessment process, please follow this link: https://scs-

If you are successful at the application stage, you will be invited to attend a panel interview,in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification. We will be assessing against the success profiles Experience and Behaviours at interview.

Shortlisted candidates may also have the opportunity to speak to Bella Powell, Director, Government Cyber Unit prior to the final interview to learn more about the role and organisation. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process.

Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates. If you are required to prepare a presentation for the final interview you will be given the subject in advance.

Indicative timeline (subject to change)

Anticipated sift date - Week commencing 22nd December 2025

Anticipated assessment date - Weeks commencing 5th and 12th January 2026

Anticipated interview date - Week commencing 19th January 2026

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put 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 at: as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
• Complete the 'assistance required' section in the 'personal information' page of your application form to provide information we should be aware of that will enable us to support you further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Reserve lists

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, which the Civil Service may use to fill future suitable vacancies across government for candidates who are considered appointable following interview.

Further Information

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact:

Any move to Cabinet 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; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

Current Civil Servants (all contract types) will need to ensure that they are still employed as a civil servant at the point of starting in the relevant new post. If their contract ends (e.g. end of FTA contract or resignation) at any point during the recruitment/onboarding process for the advertised role, they will no longer be eligible and may be withdrawn.

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

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

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 .

See our vetting charter .

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 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 .

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants
Job contact :

• Name : GRS SCS Recruitment Team
• Email :

Recruitment team

• Email :

Further information

Civil Service Commission Selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

In accordance with the Civil Service Commissioners' Recruitment Principles, our recruitment and selection processes are underpinned by the requirement of appointment on the basis of merit by fair and open competition. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance you should contact;

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission at and more information can be found

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