Chief Operating Officer, Defence Safety Authority

The Defence Safety Authority (DSA) empowered by Charter from the Secretary of State for Defence as an independent regulator, assurer and investigator for Health, Safety and Environmental Protection. The DSA’s scope covers the entirety of Defence and encompasses all armed forces personnel, civil servants, and contractors, whether in the UK or abroad.
The Chief Operating Officer, will be accountable for the efficient operation and governance of the, Defence Safety Authority (DSA) acting on behalf of the Director General DSA., + Lead the Director General’s Headquarters (HQ) staff and coordinate the delivery of Defence Safety Authority (DSA) HQ outputs.
+ Provide Command Support to the DG, including planning, analysis and reporting, secretariat, communications, Service Inquiry support, governance and quality management support.
+ Provide business service support, including people management, finance, facilities and infrastructure, Knowledge and Information Management, digital transformation, security and Occupational Health & Safety and Estates (across the 3 main DSA sites) co-ordination and support.
+ Lead on producing and managing the annual DSA Business Plan cascading from the DSA Corporate Plan and coordinating domain-specific inputs, agreeing associated resource levels and efficiency targets with Head Office, reporting business outputs, financial and business risks to the DSA Main Board.
+ Act as the DSA delegated budget holder, ensuring compliance with policy and maximising the DSA’s efficiency and effectiveness.
+ Maintain, manage and support the following DSA Governance arrangements: corporate risk management, business plan and business plan reporting.
+ Set and assure internal policy and process across the DSA for finance, administration, estates management and business processes.
+ Chair the DSA Management Group responsible to DG DSA and to the DSA Main Board for overseeing and reporting on the DSA’s Core Inputs (people, finance, facilities, equipment and systems).
+ Act as one of the main interfaces with wider MOD including with the MOD Chief Operating Officer, Directorate for Defence Safety and the Business Partners for Civilian HR, Military Workforce Requirements, Finance and Commercial., + A CV (no more 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 Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role.
Both documents are weighted equally in their scoring, so it's important to consider this when uploading your application. Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.
Assessment
If you are shortlisted, you will be asked to take part in a series of assessments which could include psychometric tests and/or a staff engagement exercise. These assessments will not result in a pass or fail decision.
For further information about the role and full application process, please refer to the candidate pack attached below. If you wish to receive any material in a different format for accessibility, then please contact People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.
As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (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.

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their experience and skills against the following essential criteria:
+ A strong track record of leadership in a senior role, with experience of managing a varied and complex portfolio of work, people and finance resource.
+ A proven track record of being accountable for significant budgets.
+ Experience working to tight deadlines, and in an environment where priorities change at pace.
+ A strong communicator who establishes credibility with senior officials, with experience of working collaboratively and building strong stakeholder networks.
+ Effective management of competing demands, in a challenging environment, making key decisions and providing recommendations for action to deliver impact and effective change.
+ Ability to motivate and inspire diverse and multidisciplinary teams with the confidence to make difficult decisions.
+ Experience in leading and delivering organisational transformations.
Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a strong field of candidates when there is a need to distinguish between candidates. This will be as a second sift, after the essential criteria has been considered:
+ Qualified change manager at practitioner level

Alongside your salary of £76,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £22,017 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%