Senior Policy Advisor: Downstream Gas and Electricity Resilience

DESNZ

The responsibilities for the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero for 2023 are as follows: 

• Delivering security of energy supply
• Ensuring properly functioning energy markets
• Encouraging greater energy efficiency
• Seizing the opportunities of net zero to lead the world in new green industries 

For 2023, our priorities are: 

• Ensure security of energy supply this winter, next winter and in the longer-term – bringing down energy bills and reducing inflation.
• Ensure the UK is on track to meet its legally binding Net Zero commitments and support economic growth by significantly speeding up delivery of network infrastructure and domestic energy production.
• Improve the energy efficiency of UK homes, businesses and public sector buildings to meet the 15% demand reduction ambition.
• Deliver current schemes to support energy consumers with their bills and develop options for long-term reform to improve how the electricity market works for families and businesses.
• Seize the economic benefits of Net Zero, including the jobs and growth created through investment in new green industries.
• Pass the Energy Bill to support the emerging CCUS and hydrogen sectors; to update the governance of the energy system; and to reduce the time taken to consent offshore wind. 

Our Inclusive Environment 

We are building an inclusive culture to make the Department a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, not only because we believe it is the right thing to do, but because it will help us be more innovative and make better decisions.  

We offer first-class flexible working benefits, excellent employee well-being support and a great pension. We are fortunate to have a range of excellent staff networks and are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We will support talented people from all backgrounds to build a career and thrive. 

We actively welcome applications from anyone who shares our commitment to inclusion. We will fully support candidates with a disability or long-term condition who require adjustments in our recruitment process. 

Find Out More 

We regularly run events where you can find out more about the department and tips for the application process. You can sign up for upcoming events here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/departmentforenergysecurityandnetzero?  

You can also follow our LinkedIn Careers Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/desnz-careers/  

You will lead and manage policy on some of the Government’s top national security priorities, working with industry partners and colleagues across government to ensure that robust security and resilience measures are in place across Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) in the Downstream Gas and Electricity sectors.  This is a high priority area, commanding Ministerial interest from across HMG.

About the Team:

The State Threats, Energy Resilience and Cyber team ensures the risks of significant disruption to energy supplies and CNI are understood and effectively handled. We work across Whitehall and industry on the mitigation, prevention and reduction of risks, including severe weather (floods, storms, space weather), technical failure, cyber-attacks, terrorism, state actors, industrial action, and economic shocks. Our team works reciprocally to improve the resilience of sectors, in particular the oil, gas and electricity sectors, leading on the development of contingency plans and mitigation policies.

Key Responsibilities:

This is an exciting and challenging role, in which you will:

• Lead key elements of security policy for critical national infrastructure in the downstream gas and electricity sectors, providing direction and oversight of physical and personnel security programmes for critical national infrastructure in the downstream gas and electricity sectors.
• Lead the development and implementation of a new Security Strategy for the downstream gas and electricity sectors as they transition to Net-Zero.
• Own relationships with key industry stakeholders and security teams across DESNZ and HMG, working collaboratively on risk identification and development of mitigations.
• Likely have opportunities to task manage colleagues to deliver key projects and policies in your portfolio.
• Form part of the team’s emergency response function, regularly exercising to prepare for emergencies in the gas and electricity sector and responding when they do occur.
• Represent DESNZ at external meetings, conferences etc. as required.
• Help to promote a positive culture of diversity, inclusion and collaboration within the team.

Do you thrive working on constantly evolving priorities, working with colleagues and industry partners in an exciting area of energy policy? Then we could be the team for you! The successful candidate will:

• Be dedicated and have a hardworking, flexible approach to work.
• Enjoy developing good working relationships with colleagues at all levels, and own relationships with key industry stakeholders.
• Be able to adapt to constantly changing priorities, with good project management skills and the ability to prioritise multiple workstreams.
• Have strong policy skills and an interest in deploying these to develop pragmatic solutions to risk management, strategy development and implementation.
• Have excellent communication skills and be able to interpret and consolidate information from multiple sources into clear briefings, reports and recommendations.
• Be keen to build your subject matter expertise in energy policy, security and crisis management to provide support and advice to colleagues.
• Be able to clearly advise senior staff and ministers on complex risks and issues, to support decision making, and translate technical information into an accessible form for a non-expert audience.
• Be ready to support our crisis response work – thriving in a fast paced, uncertain environment

Experience of security, resilience or energy policy and/or emergency response is desirable but not essential.

Emergencies can occur at any time. You will be a member of the Out of Hours Emergency Rota (roughly 1 week in 7), providing a 24hr/7days a week capability. An additional allowance is provided for this function.

Please note that whilst existing DV clearance is not required to be appointed to these roles, successful candidates must be willing to obtain SC and then DV. It is the responsibility of the applicant to have completed and returned an SC security questionnaire to United Kingdom Security Vetting as part of the onboarding process, otherwise a start date cannot be provided.

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

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

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an average employer contribution of 27%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
• A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.

Job contact :

• Name : Adam Dudzinski
• Email : adam.dudzinski@energysecurity.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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