Policy Adviser - Critical National Infrastructure resilience

Are you looking for a varied and stretching role, with an exciting set of policy issues and opportunity to build strong stakeholder relationships that offers insight into the UK's prosperity and security objectives? If so, we'd love to hear from you!

About the Team

The Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) & Cyber Resilience Unit (CCRU) exists to prepare UK Finance Sector Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) for threats and hazards of all origins, to lead and inform the HMG response to those that are realised and drive international policy. This is an active policy area, and the team responds to events in the financial system in real time.

We work closely with the financial sector's regulators, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and with partners across Government, particularly the Cabinet Office and the security agencies.

We also participate in international dialogues in the G20, G7 and EU on risks facing the global financial system to shape global policy making.

The Unit is responsible for improving the security and operational resilience of the finance sector to risks, such as hostile state activity, cyber-attacks, technological failure, and dependencies on other critical sectors. Our portfolio is broad, and includes areas spanning from disinformation, deep-space weather, AI and state-backed cyber-attacks against our most important financial institutions.

About the Job

In this role, you will:

• Provide advice on finance sector security and resilience issues within HMT and across Whitehall to influence government policy development. Working across Government you will produce advice and recommendations.


• Lead the unit's work to plan for risks on the National Risk Register (NRR). This will be a high profile and complex piece of work with the opportunity to work across Whitehall and with industry.


• Deliver workstreams across a broad range of challenges, including national power outages, severe space weather and misinformation (to name a few!). This will include sector exercises, and novel areas of policy.


• Lead on the Unit's annual strategy and business planning to ensure that HMT is developing the right policies to strengthen the security and resilience of critical financial organisations.


• Build strong working relationships with colleagues across the Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority, Financial Conduct Authority, National Cyber Security Centre (part of GCHQ), National Protective Security Agency (part of MI5), Cabinet Office and other government departments. You will need to leverage a wide range of relationships to deliver HMT objectives.
  
  There will be scope to adjust policy portfolios within the unit depending on the interests and experience of the successful candidate and business requirements. Given the increasing profile of resilience, and the finance sector's leadership in this area, this will involve opportunities to advise senior officials and ministers.


Knowledge of the financial sector, incident response and security and resilience policy is not essential but would be beneficial.

Whilst not essential, we would also like to encourage candidates with a background in economics to apply, as there are exciting opportunities to deliver in this space.


• 25 days annual leave (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus 8 public holidays and the King's birthday (unless you have a legacy arrangement as an existing Civil Servant). Additionally, we operate flexitime systems, allowing employees to take up to an additional 2 days off each month


• Flexible working patterns (part-time, job-share, condensed hours)


• Generous parental and adoption leave packages


• Access to a generous Defined Benefit pension scheme with employer contributions of 28%


• Access to a cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme and season ticket advances


• A range of active staff networks, based around interests (e.g. analysts, music society, sports and social club) and diversity