Head of Aviation Resilience

We recognise the challenges that people with protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities. Would you like to lead a team that is responsible for building aviation resilience to future threats and disruption ranging from melting runways to space debris? Do you enjoy problem solving and finding creative solutions whilst working with a wide range of stakeholders across Government and industry? Are you able to make quick sound decision in a crisis? If so, then this job is for you. Aviation is vital for connecting the UK to the rest of the world - connecting people, businesses, and facilitating tourism and trade. The resilience of the aviation sector is key to maintaining the smooth running of the aviation network and avoiding disrupting the flow of goods or people. When significant incidents happen here and overseas, aviation is either affected or is a major part of the response. The Aviation Resilience team are responsible for ensuring the UK aviation sector are appropriately prepared to mitigate and respond effectively to major incidents that have a severe impact on the sector, such as winter weather, IT issues repatriation events and industrial action. This is done through active risk monitoring, horizon scanning for potential new risks and possible mitigations, developing and maintaining response plans, working with the aviation industry and cross-Government partners to improve resilience and learning from past incidents. The post holder will need to work with other divisions across both aviation directorates, the DfT Transport Security Operations Centre and other Government Departments and industry. The work is diverse, giving the post holder an opportunity to develop and structure the team in a wide range of ways whilst working on projects which clearly align with the organisational priorities. The responsive nature of the team's work has created a flexible, co-operative team which enables post-holders to be at the forefront of develop innovative solutions, take ownership of projects and develop their leadership skills, often working to challenging timescales. This role is high profile, covering a varied range of topics giving an in-depth knowledge of DfT's priorities and networking opportunities across the Department. This role is ideal for individuals looking to take on a challenge, broaden their experience and looking to progress in their careers. You will need to be capable of working at pace and happy to work in an environment where roles might need to be flexible at times. You also need to be confident at (or keen to improve) communicating and building credibility and influence with peers, seniors and key aviation industry stakeholders and across Whitehall. Responsibilities Key accountabilities of the role include:

• Leading the Aviation Resilience team.
• Collaborating with policy experts to understand the impacts of different risks facing aviation and escalating appropriately to senior leaders and minsters.
• Undertaking capability assessments on the department's ability to mitigate and manage aviation responses.
• Supporting the planning for major events to ensure transport is factored into central government Concept of Operations.
• Leading aviation's contingency and response planning for catastrophic risks such as nationwide blackouts, severe space weather events, and IT failures.
• Building relationships with analysis, science and research teams, and with experts across government and beyond, to provide evidence for the team's work.