Senior Policy Adviser – National Security Unit for Procurement (NSUP)

This role will provide you with an opportunity to be at the forefront in shaping national security policy and responding to a growing threat. You will be a part of a tight-knit task force setting up a unit to investigate national security risk amongst companies operating in the UK. You’ll need to be high-energy, creative and a problem-solver, willing to work across the security community to help set up a unit from scratch. This will be exciting and fast-paced, with significant parliamentary and ministerial interest.  

Economic Security is an increasingly important issue within the national security landscape. The growth in the threat has necessitated levers and mitigations to prevent the UK Government from being compromised through commercial channels. The Procurement Bill will provide us with unprecedented levers to intervene where companies pose a national security threat. In order to use these levers, the national security community will need to assess the risk associated with certain companies in order to arrive at decisions about whether this risk is intolerable and requires intervention. 

The Government Security Group is creating a unit to coordinate the cross-government response to this national security risk, starting with a small number of planning and policy professionals, and building to a unit handling caseload.

This is a multi-faceted and stretching Grade 7 role, working on complex policy issues and partner relationships and offers insight into the UK’s prosperity and security objectives.

• The postholder is responsible for leading a team of key policy colleagues. They will work with their new sister team in London to set up the policy side of the new National Security Procurement Unit.
• You’ll be responsible for leading on the key policy elements of responding to the national security aspects of the Procurement Bill, and the Deputy Prime Minister’s priority objective to provide commercial and procurement expertise across government and the wider public sector. 
• The postholder will set the security policy direction for the unit. This includes identifying how the function will arrive at decisions to exclude and debar on national security grounds. This is important and high-profile work requiring close engagement with policy, strategy and legal colleagues. 
• The postholder will work with the Team Lead and sister team in London to build a community of assessment bodies and experts able to contribute evidence in support of procurement decisions. You’ll be responsible for corralling departments and security colleagues to contribute to evidence-based policy.  
• The postholder will be responsible for building an impactful, high-performing, inclusive, and welcoming team, able to urgently respond to new Ministerial priorities.

Essential skills and experience:

• Excellent ability to corral stakeholders, managing competing priorities across colleagues’ areas, and arriving at practical and implementable policy solutions. 
• Strong ability to understand the parliamentary backdrop and ministerial interest in this work.
• A strong interest in government and national security policy and a curiosity about the economic influences on security policy. 
• Familiarity with vendors of concern, supply chains, and commercial transactions within the public sector. 
• Proven ability to work across multiple industry segments, and quickly understand wide-ranging markets and business models.
• Excellent judgement and be capable of developing strong working relationships with stakeholders quickly; Strong communication skills (both written and oral), personal resilience and the ability to deliver at pace on competing priorities in a challenging and complex policy area.

Desirable skills and experience:

• Experience of working in a role across different industry segments (such as consulting or professional services) and/or Previous experience of working in a security environment and/or an understanding of the current threats facing HMG.
• Familiarity with the structures of the national security and/or intelligence community and assessment bodies.
• Knowledge of commercial practice, procurement or finance, particularly across the Public Sector or in regulated sectors.  

In line with current Cabinet Office policy, the postholder will be expected to be in the office at least one day a week. However, the postholder should be prepared to be in the office as business needs require.

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and average employer contributions of 27%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.

Job contact :

• Name : The National Security Unit for Procurement (NSUP)
• Email : NSUP@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk