Job summary
Opening Message from Paul Kissack, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
I am delighted to invite applications for the role of Director General, Group Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Defra.
Defra’s work is central to the Government’s mission to grow the economy and raise living standards. From reforming the water system and strengthening food security, to showing how economic growth and nature recovery go hand in hand, to supporting profitable farming and resetting our trading relationship with the EU, our work underpins everyday life, national security and resilience.
Working with Defra’s executive team and the CEOs of our arm’s-length bodies, the Group Chief Operating Officer ensures the group is supported by high-quality corporate services. The role leads key functions including digital and data, finance, commercial, HR and property for the core department and Defra’s main arm’s-length bodies through a shared services model.
This is an exciting and significant leadership opportunity as Defra accelerates its transformation into a digitally enabled organisation, delivering responsive, high-quality and efficient services for stakeholders and the public.
The Director General, Group Chief Operating Officer will join the leadership team of a department of over 6,200 people and a wider Defra Group of more than 34,000, helping create the conditions for colleagues to deliver their best for the public.
The role calls for exceptional leadership and the ability to deliver major operational improvements across organisational boundaries, making a meaningful contribution to public service, the environment, the economy and national security.
If you share our ambition to strengthen Defra’s operational excellence and ensure the department is ready for the decade ahead, I look forward to receiving your application.
To hear more from Paul directly, view his video welcome message here.
Role
The Director General, Group Chief Operating Officer will be the strategic leader responsible for delivering and modernising Defra’s corporate services. They will champion digital transformation, and position Defra as a leader in technology-enabled public service delivery.
This is a role of exceptional scale and influence, leading a broad suite of corporate services across a system of over 34,000 people and multiple agencies that underpin the UK’s economic and national security. This includes digital and data, finance, HR, commercial and property for a breadth of organisations on different terms and conditions including the DEFRA (6,200 civil servants), the Environment Agency (13,000 public servants), Natural England (2,500 public servants), the Animal Plant and Health Security Agency (3,000 civil servants) and Rural Payments Agency (2,000 civil servants), in addition to smaller arm’s-length bodies.
They will also be responsible for delivering major programmes including the National Biosecurity Centre, a new world-leading science facility that will protect the UK from animal disease, and the Defra’s rollout of “Synergy”, a shared services transformation programme that will transform how business critical functions are delivered across Defra, DWP, Ministry of Justice and the Home Office, to allow the Department to focus on delivering outcomes for the public.
Key elements of the role include, working closely with the Defra executive team and arm’s-length body CEOs to:
- Shape and deliver the strategic vision for corporate services, setting priorities for HR, finance, digital and data, property, and commercial across the Defra Group to ensure these functions enable delivery of Defra outcomes.
- Drive digital and data transformation at scale, from tackling Defra’s legacy IT to digitising services for stakeholders and customers to improve efficiency and service quality, to embedding automation and artificial intelligence.
- Deliver a high‑quality financial management and advice function across Defra and its arm’s‑length bodies, providing clear, timely and authoritative advice to Ministers, Accounting Officers and senior leaders, including oversight of financial strategy, budgets, and governance to ensure compliance and value for money.
- Deliver a HR service that enables staff to perform at their best and develop future-focused workforce strategies to build a high-performing, inclusive culture that attracts, retains and develops talent.
- Shape commercial and property strategies, ensuring procurement delivers value and sustainability, and leading property planning to provide safe, modern, and cost-effective workplaces aligned with government property standards.
- Oversee the National Biosecurity Centre (NBC) Weybridge programme, Defra’s investment to rebuild and modernise the UK’s critical animal disease laboratories, securing the nation’s ability to prevent, detect and respond to animal and zoonotic disease threats.
- Play a leadership role in the cross-government Synergy programme and oversee delivery in Defra, a project which will transform how business critical services such as people, finance and commercial functions are delivered across DWP, Defra, the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office.
- Champion customer-centric service delivery, embedding a service-oriented mindset across corporate services to ensure responsiveness to ALBs and internal stakeholders while driving efficiency and value for money.
- Promote a culture of innovation and agility, driving continuous improvement and embedding agile decision making to respond effectively to emerging challenges in a complex, high-pressure environment.
- Play a full role in the Defra executive team, creating an empowering and inclusive environment in which people are able to do their best work in pursuit of Defra’s outcomes.
Person specification
To be successful in this role you will need to be an outstanding leader. We will assess your capability against the following criteria:
- A proven track record of driving large-scale and complex organisational modernisation, shaping and delivering coherent corporate services that enable a large, complex organisation to achieve better outcomes for stakeholders and customers.
- High credibility and demonstrable experience leading transformation and helping organisations become more digitally enabled, including redesigning services, embedding technology and data-driven ways of working, and delivering sustainable organisational change across corporate functions.
- Exceptional people leadership, with experience of building high-performing, inclusive teams and leading through uncertainty and transformation. Commitment to diversity and inclusion, fostering an environment where talent thrives and different perspectives are valued.
- Outstanding stakeholder engagement, influencing skills and resilience with the ability to operate confidently at the highest levels of the public and/or private sectors. Able to build alliances, resolve conflict and secure consensus on strategic priorities, while balancing political, operational and reputational risk with integrity and composure in high-profile, pressurised contexts.
- Finance and resource leadership at scale, with experience overseeing significant budgets, investment portfolios, and prioritisation decisions that enable strategic outcomes and demonstrate value for money.
Please see the attached candidate brief for full details of the role.
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £170,000, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £49,249 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
- 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 employer contribution of 28.97%
Artificial intelligence
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 candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
The closing date for applications will be 23:55 on Thursday 11 June.
Click on the ‘Apply now’ button and follow the instructions to upload the following:
- A CV (no longer than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
- A Statement of Suitability (no more 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 criteria in the person specification.
- A Declaration of Interest form.
Applications will be sifted on CV and statement of suitability.
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'. The information you provide when submitting your application will help us monitor our progress towards the Civil Service becoming the most inclusive employer.
Please note that references and open-source due diligence checks (including into social media accounts) may be undertaken for all short-listed candidates.
The Selection Committee for this role will be Chaired by Elizabeth Hambley, a Civil Service Commissioner and will include Paul Kissack, the Permanent Secretary of Defra, together with a member of the Civil Service Senior Leadership Committee (SLC) and one other. We expect the process for this role to be as follows:
- The closing date for applications will be 23:55 on Thursday 11 June
- A longlist of the application will take place during w/c 15 June
- Preliminary interviews with Saxton Bampfylde will take place during w/c 22 & 29 June
- A shortlist of the applications will then take place during w/c 6 July
- Shortlisted candidates will then be invited to the following sessions during weeks commencing 6 & 13 July:
- an Individual Leadership Assessment; and
- Supplementary stakeholder meetings with the Secretary of State for Defra (accompanied by a Civil Service Commission representative), a roundtable with key customers of the post and may also include an informal conversation with Paul Kissack (Permanent Secretary).
- Inputs from all these elements of the selection process will be incorporated into the interview process. Interviews will be held in week commencing 20 July in person. Candidates may be asked to give a presentation at the start of the interview.
Full details about the assessment phase will be provided to shortlisted candidates. We recognise that there are a number of steps in this process and, whilst we plan to conduct this phase in face-to-face sessions, we will do our best to arrange the sessions in a way that works for you.
Due diligence checks/open source checks will be conducted on shortlisted candidates.
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
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) (opens in a new window)
- 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 (opens in a new window)
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.
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 (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
Apply and further information
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Contact point for applicants
Job contact
Recruitment team
Attachments
DG COO - Candidate Brief Opens in new window (pdf, 651kB)
DG COO - Declaration of Interest form Opens in new window (docx, 2186kB)
