Economic Security Policy Officer

The responsibilities for the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology for 2023 are as follows:

• Positioning the UK at the forefront of global scientific and technological advancement
• Driving innovations that change lives and sustain economic growth
• Delivering talent programmes, physical and digital infrastructure and regulation to support our economy, security and public services
• R&D funding

For 2023, our priorities are:

• Optimise public R&D investment to support areas of relative UK strength and increase the level of private R&D to make our economy the most innovative in the world.
• Promote a diverse research and innovation system that connects discovery to new companies, growth and jobs – including by delivering world-class physical and digital infrastructure (such as gigabit broadband), making the UK the best place to start and grow a technology business and developing and attracting top talent.
• Put our public services – including the NHS and schools – at the forefront of innovation, championing new ways of working and the development of in-house STEM capability to improve outcomes for people.
• Strengthen international collaboration on science and technology in line with the Integrated Review, and ensure our researchers are able to continue to work with leading scientists in Europe and around the world.
• Deliver key legislative and regulatory reforms to drive competition and promote innovation, including the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill and our pro-innovation approach to regulating AI.
• Pass the remaining stages of the reformed Online Safety Bill to keep British people, especially children, safe online.

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/departmentforsciencetechnologyandinnovation?

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

The Economic Security Unit in DSIT is recruiting Policy Officers to join a fun, friendly team committed to innovative policy-making, thought leadership and embedding tech and innovation at the heart of the economic security debate in Whitehall.

Economic security is one of the most important debates presently being grappled with in the national security community. It sits at the nexus between geopolitics, real world economics and national security and is where the concept of ‘strategic advantage’ is addressed, risk defined and limits set so that we continue to grow our economy securely. Recent policy-work has included responding to the US legislative changes to restrict critical technologies being exported or grown in China, delivering an economic security package for the Atlantic Declaration, developing proposals for export controls on critical technologies, considering the approach to strategic advantage and developing ‘playbooks’ on the risks in specific technologies.

The Unit’s core remit is to balance security with prosperity, to recognise that in order to have a healthy, thriving economy with strong research, commercialisation and cutting edge technologies we need investment, but to prevent technology transfer to those who would do us harm.

The Unit is presently going through structural changes as a result of the Machinery of Government, as three teams from the two departments, BEIS and DCMS, come together into two. As such, specific portfolio areas will be settled in the coming weeks but all posts on offer will have the same core responsibilities. Our work remains at the core of China/foreign policy, economics, national security and involves regularly thinking and grappling with new challenges.

We’re a fun, friendly and welcoming team who are supportive and collaborative, with a commitment to a diverse and inclusive culture. We are unashamedly proud of enjoying diving into detail, learning new topics and developing new policy thinking in a fast paced, sometimes uncertain environment.

Key Responsibilities

You will be engaging regularly across Whitehall to shape and influence the direction of cross-government policy thinking on economic security. You will draw on sector teams’ expertise in critical technologies, and build your own core economic security knowhow as you develop new insights and tackle novel approaches to getting the risk balance right. This debate is inherently political, so you will be drawing down insights from your network across Whitehall to shape and land our Ministers’ positions on ensuring the safe and secure growth of tech, science and innovation. You’ll be shaping papers taken to the regular meeting of the NSC (Economic Security), identifying new risks, and working to land our own policy approaches with international partners.

You will support the G7 on specific policy strands and projects, collaborating with them on new solutions and coordinating effectively across the department to draw together inputs and perspectives, driving forward work. You will be collaborating with others across the department and spotting links between policy areas within the sector teams. You will work across Whitehall to develop new approaches to policy problems and drawing out the DSIT perspective on economic security. You will build your network and effectively represent DSIT in Whitehall fora, contributing to discussions.

We’re looking for people with excellent critical thinking skills, who are comfortable operating in a fluid policy environment and generating new answers to problems where there is no pre-existing policy approach. We’re a fun, friendly and welcoming team who are supportive and collaborative, with a commitment to a diverse and inclusive culture. We are unashamedly proud of enjoying diving into detail, learning new topics and developing new policy thinking in a fast-paced, sometimes uncertain environment.

As these jobs require frequent and independent access to highly classified material, at minimum we require individuals to hold Security Check when joining the team and in some roles this will require existing or willingness to undergo developed vetting clearance and be willing to hold STRAP. Given the frequency of access to highly classified material, the jobs on offer can be at either the Darlington or London campuses only until such time as there is access at other sites. Please confirm in your CV your current level of vetting.

Essential criteria 

● Excellent communication skills. Confident explaining thinking in a clear and concise way both verbally and in writing with good attention to detail.

● Highly capable at spotting links between different areas of policy work within the department and drawing conclusions about a way forward.

● Effective at building strong relationships that support delivery, able to get insights and opportunities to work collaboratively to address novel issues.

● Able to digest information from a variety of sources, think critically and creatively to find ways forward.

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 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 : Lis Clouter
• Email : Alice.Clouter@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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