Head of Assurance

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 420398

**Salary**:

- £67,313
- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

**Job grade**:

- Grade 6

**Contract type**:

- Permanent

**Business area**:

- DVSA - Finance Commercial and Assurance

**Type of role**:

- Audit
Governance
Internal Audit
Risk Management

**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

**Location**:

- Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Swansea

**About the job**:
**Job summary**:
**Would you like to shape how risk, assurance and governance support better public service delivery at the heart of DVSA?**

**Do you thrive on leading assurance and driving improvement across complex organisations?**

**Have you successfully worked with Executive and Board-level stakeholders and acted as the key liaison for external assurance providers?**

If so, we’d love to hear from you

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) helps keep Britain moving, safely and sustainably. We do this by helping people through a lifetime of safe and sustainable journeys, helping them keep their vehicles safe to drive, and protecting them from unsafe drivers and vehicles.

We’re working hard to:

- make roads safer
- improve services for our customers
- make road transport greener and healthier
- harness the potential of technology and data
- grow and level up the economy

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 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 DVSA.

**Job description**:
DVSA seeks a strategic leader as Head of Assurance, Governance & Risk. This pivotal role drives confidence in governance, risk, and assurance frameworks, supporting the Executive Committee and Accounting Officer. You’ll lead integrated assurance, oversee risk management, internal audit coordination, business continuity, and board governance. As liaison with external auditors, you'll champion transparency and improvement. Strong leadership, stakeholder engagement, and governance expertise are essential to identify risks, enhance performance, and embed best practices across DVSA’s programmes and operations.

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

- Maintain and keep under review a risk identification, evaluation, prioritisation and reporting process in line with best practice in both the civil service and the private sector
- Maintain a corporate risk register and update on a monthly basis ensuring the Executive and Directing Board are briefed on the level of risk exposure at all times
- Working with the Executive and Directing Board, develop an annual programme of reviews of key business processes which consider the criticality of any process or project to the business and the materiality of any potential control failure, providing confidence and independent assurance to the Accounting Officer
- Maintain a live prioritisation of processes, resources and systems with a timetable for review that can adapt and reflect emerging business issues or priorities and act as a ‘maintenance schedule’
- Maintain oversight of compliance with sponsor and wider Civil Service governance requirements ensuring internal guidance is updated and communicated effectively
- Execute management responsibilities effectively, working with, leading and acting as a role model for team members and colleagues, ensuring capabilities to achieve successful delivery of business performance whilst maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of the financial resources delegated in line with the Civil Service values
- Regular engagement at senior level in the agency including with the CEO, Executive Committee, Audit, Risk & Assurance Committee, Investment & Change Committee etc.

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

- *