Assistant Director

Details
Reference number

437075

Salary

£69,501

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

Job grade

Grade 6

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

MCA - UK Customer Maritime Services

Type of role

Senior leadership

Strategy

Working pattern

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

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

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

Location

Southampton

About the job
Job summary

Are you passionate about shaping the future of the UK's maritime sector and building strategic relationships with industry leaders, government, and international partners?

Can you represent the UK at major industry events, promote inward investment, and ensure the UK remains a world-class maritime nation?

Have you got the vision and leadership skills to champion the UK Maritime Offer, and lead high-profile initiatives that support growth, sustainability, and investment?

If so, we'd love to hear from you

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA ) is seeing an Assistant Director Economic Development & Stakeholder Relations to join the Directorate of UK Customer Maritime Services (UKCMS) which oversees several key functions, including the UK Ship Register, Seafarer Services (covering standards, qualifications, certification, medicals, and welfare), the UK Shipping Concierge, Key Account Management, and the UK Maritime Innovation Hub.

The MCA implements the government's maritime safety policy in the United Kingdom and works to prevent the loss of life and occurrence of pollution on the coast and at sea.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King's birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below

Find out more about what it's like working at: Maritime and Coastguard Agency - Department for Transport Careers

Job description

As the Assistant Director Economic Development & Stakeholder Relations (UK Shipping), you will play a central role in promoting the UK as a world-class maritime nation and a competitive flag state. You will lead the UK Shipping Concierge and Key Account Management functions, ensuring that maritime businesses receive high-quality, strategic support when engaging with the UK Government. You will build and maintain strong relationships with key industry stakeholders, supporting inward investment, and championing the UK Maritime Offer across domestic and international forums.

Working closely with the Department for Transport, the Department for Business and Trade, HM Treasury, Other Government Departments and Industry Associations you will drive economic development initiatives that align with the UK's maritime growth, sustainability, and innovation agendas. The Assistant Director provides strategic leadership on stakeholder engagement, communications, and service performance, ensuring that the UKCMS directorate delivers a coherent, customer-focused approach that supports the long-term success of the UK maritime sector.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren't limited to:

• Service Leadership: Lead the UK Shipping Concierge service ensuring it operates as a strategic gateway for maritime businesses engaging with UK Government. Promote the UK Maritime Offer, support inward investment, and facilitate access to government expertise.
• Key Account Management: Oversee the Key Account Management (KAM) function, ensuring strategic, high-quality relationships with key UK Flag customers, shipowners, operators, and maritime service providers.
• Government Centre of Expertise: Monitoring international competition and recommending adjustments to the UK's offer to ensure long-term competitiveness.
• Economic Development: Drive initiatives that support the growth of the UK maritime sector whilst collaborating with DfT, DBT, and National Shipbuilding Office to align efforts
• Stakeholder Representation: Represent the MCA and UKCMS at national and international forums, including trade missions, shipping events, and industry roundtables.
• Strategic Stakeholder Engagement: Provide leadership on stakeholder engagement, ensuring coherent and consistent messaging across UKCMS brands.
• Communications and Promotion: Oversee development and delivery of communications and engagement strategies, including digital presence, social media, and promotional campaigns to raise awareness of the UK's maritime offer and support customer acquisition and retention.
• Performance and Insight: Monitor and evaluate service performance using data and customer insight to drive continuous improvement.
• Ministerial and Senior Official Support: Support ministerial and senior official engagement through the preparation of briefings, submissions, and responses to parliamentary and stakeholder enquiries.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Person specification

Essential qualifications

• An honours degree in a relevant subject and/or practical experience in the maritime industry/economic sector.

Required experience:

To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:

• Stakeholder Engagement – Ability to build and maintain strong strategic relationships with key stakeholders, including government departments, customers, and international partners.
• Communication & Influencing - Ability to explain complex issues, provide authoritative advice, and positions to a variety of audiences (across Government, Industry, and Academia) in order to influence and effectively build consensus to achieve strategic objectives.
• Maritime Knowledge - A deep understanding of the maritime sector, including shipping regulations, economic incentives, and industry trends.
• Government – An understanding of the UK government policies related to maritime economic development and stakeholders' relations.
• Leadership – Strong leadership and experience in managing a diverse team of staff and budgetary resources, with experience in strategic planning and analytical skills.

Additional Information

Operational Delivery Profession

Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) is the largest and most diverse professional community across the Civil Service. Many of us will have an association with several professional communities or specialisms, ODP applies to all public facing roles / or a role that is primarily aligned to supporting the work of those with public facing roles. All critical to the delivery of UK public services.

Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week.

Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 30 hours per week.

Hybrid working available

This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.

The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

On occasion travel to other offices will be required, which may involve overnight stays.

If you have a question about hybrid working, part time/job share hours, flexible working, travelling for work, or require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Vacancy Holder during the recruitment process to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role (see below for contact details).

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that we will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. Therefore, this role is not open to applications from those who require sponsorship – candidates must ensure they have the appropriate right to work in the UK before applying. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £69,501, Maritime and Coastguard Agency contributes £20,134 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave).
• 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King's birthday.
• Access to the staff discount portal.
• Excellent career development opportunities and the potential to undertake professional qualifications relevant to your role paid for by the department, such as CIPD, Prince2, apprenticeships, etc.
• Joining a diverse and inclusive workforce with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues.
• 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff.
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Find out more about the benefits of working at MCA .

Things you need to know
Selection process details

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

How to apply:

Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's qualifications, skills, and potential fit within our organisation.

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Sift of CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Stage 2: Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

Stage 1: Sift

At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

Experience – you will be asked to provide a CV (unlimited wordcount) and personal statement (1000-word count). Please provide evidence of your Experience of the following:

• Stakeholder Engagement – Ability to build and maintain strategic relationships with key stakeholders, including government departments, customers, and international partners.
• Maritime Knowledge - A deep understanding of the maritime sector, including shipping regulations, economic incentives, and industry trends.
• Government – An understanding of the UK government policies related to maritime economic development and stakeholders' relations.
• Leadership – Strong leadership and experience in managing a diverse team of staff and budgetary resources, with experience in strategic planning and analytical skills.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead Success Profile element, experience – maritime knowledge. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

Please note: the sift will be completed on a rolling basis whilst the campaign is still live, so you may receive your sift scores before the advert closing date.

The sift will take place week commencing 08/12/2025

Stage 2: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours –
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Experience – maritime knowledge

You will also be required to create and deliver a presentation to assess the Behaviour Seeing the Big Picture. Guidance will be provided if you are invited to interview.

The interviews will take place week commencing 15/12/2025

This interview will be conducted online in person at our Southampton office. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site .

Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change.

Further information on the selection process.

We will also hold a 12 month reserve list for this role, which may lead to potential opportunities beyond the role you applied for. You can read more about our reserve lists here.

AI Tools and Platforms

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the "Assistance required" section in the "Additional requirements" page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you're deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

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

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you cannot access the information on our website for any reason, please email for assistance.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

Pre-employment Checking

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.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

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 security check .

See our vetting charter .

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)
• 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

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.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

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 : Rachel Millican
• Email :

Recruitment team

• Email :

Further information

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 Government Recruitment Services via email:

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website Here

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