Head of SDA's AUKUS Programme Delivery Office

Ministry of Defence

Apply before 11:55 pm on Wednesday 6th November 2024

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Details

Reference number

374336

Salary

£76,000 - £117,800

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

SCS Pay Band 1

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

MOD - Submarine Delivery Agency

Type of role

Senior leadership

Working pattern

Full-time

Location

Flexible, with a base location in a main office such as Bristol, Barrow-in-Furness or London but you will be expected to be in Bristol Abbey Wood several times a week.

This role will involve regular international travel to the USA and Australia and irregular hours to collaborate with international partners.

About the job

Job summary

Our Agency is central to the UK Government’s £242 billion equipment plan for the British Armed Forces, and is responsible for the procurement, in-service support and decommissioning of all UK nuclear submarines. The nuclear submarine portfolio is a national endeavour, one of the largest UK investment portfolios and of critical strategic importance.

This is an exciting time to join the SDA, be part of the DNE and our Directorate, which includes the AUKUS programme. AUKUS was announced in September 2021, as a new tri-lateral defence and security partnership between Australia, the UK and the US.

Following an initial 18-month consultation phase, the three nations leaders announced in March 2023, the optimal pathway for Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine capability. Crucial to this is that, together the AUKUS partners will tri-laterally develop a nuclear-powered submarine based on UK’s next-generation design that incorporates technology from all three nations, including cutting edge US submarine technologies, that will be built in UK and Australia domestic shipyards within this decade. The optimal pathway comprises of three phases and each nation created a Programme Delivery Office (PDO).

The UK PDO manages the interface with the tri-lateral aspects of AUKUS, and some of the change to the wider UK programme of record. This work will include requirements tasking (internally and to UK Industry), commercial and financial arrangements, personnel embedments and exchanges, overall programme governance and close working with the DNO, RN, and the Australian and US Authorities.

We need people with exceptional skills to successfully deliver in the most challenging environment. We are looking for a senior leader with experience of influencing at this level, taking tough decisions, accepting accountability to deliver and manage the complexity in the UKs contribution to the AUKUS programme, and to provide advice to Boards and Executive Committees. Working as part of a team within the Directorate, you must be able to motivate, inspire, lead individuals and teams while supporting them to meet their potential and creating the environment that empowers enabling business delivery. Broad programme management skills will be necessary and the ability to collaborate and influence credibly at a senior level across the three nations will be vital.

If you think you are that person, we are interested to hear how your experience has prepared you for this role and how you might become part of the SDA team.

Job description

Responsibilities

Programme Delivery Office and Performance: Responsible for ensuring delivering scope of work agreed in the UK PDO plan, with associated key performance indicators, and specified in UK AUKUS Pillar 1.

Regularly reporting up to SDA Director AUKUS Lead, and UK AUKUS Commercial Director Lead, through routine delivery reviews and programme boards.

Providing upward advice, guidance and leading where appropriate with the AUKUS Programme Board to represent the risks, issues, and opportunities escalation to the UK programme.

Providing technical judgement in determining the extent of support to Australia in matters of nuclear regulation, industrial engagement (by UK industry partners), submarine design and submarine construction.

Accountable for the establishment and acceptance of new scope into the UK programme.

Responsible for advice and guidance to SDA delivery teams on the development of the AUKUS endeavour and potential impact on activity and outputs.

Collaborating, influencing, and negotiating with DNO team to pursue AUKUS initiatives jointly and efficiently with both USA and Australia on technical, programmatic and people matters.

Team Leadership: Leading the SDA AUKUS Team of c.45 individuals including Civil Servants, military personnel, and contractors, you will provide direction, prioritising where needed to ensure outputs are delivered. The team is based in Bristol and in the future, will contain a liaison element based in Australia (AU). You will develop arrangements for the employment of AU nationals embedding into SDA and wider DNE, including UK industry and deliver the AUKUS people strategy defined in the AU-UK Personnel Exchange Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

Stakeholder Management: Working alongside the senior stakeholders (DNO, Navy Command (NC), Industry and International Partners) to provide broader leadership within the Agency, and across DNE, AU, and USA. Acting as the joint lead, with DNO AUKUS Programme Deputy Director, to manage change into the UK national programme of record (PoR). Acting as the UK co-chair to the AUKUS Pillar 1 Phase 2 and Phase 3 working groups. Reporting into the trilateral Programme Delivery Leadership Committee (PDLC).

Financial Management: You will work alongside the Senior Finance Business Partner (FBP) for Submarine Acquisition and Submarine Support to manage the AUKUS finances. Responsible for management of the delegated SDA AUKUS budget and alignment to UKs Defence budgetary processes.

Defence Nuclear Enterprise / AUKUS: Work as part of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise to review and align ways of working, policies and processes that support the AUKUS partners (tri-nations) optimal pathway and programme of record. You will provide an interface function between the UK programme of record and the Australian national SSN construction programme, in accordance with the arrangements under the Submarine Cooperation Delivery Agreement (SCDA) with Australia, including the development of the interim arrangements into the AU-UK Treaty.

Person specification

Please provide evidence of the following Criteria in your Supporting Statement

Essential Criteria:

1.Demonstrable experience of successfully operating in a senior leadership role, within large and diverse complex organisations, in both steady state and through transformational change.

2.Significant background knowledge, experience, and evidence of successful projects /programmes/ portfolio delivery, in complex highly regulated and multi-stakeholder environments

3.A natural leader, with a clear track record of influencing, negotiating, and working collaboratively with senior stakeholders and Industrial Partners. Can rationalise interdependencies between multiple issues in a complex delivery environment.

4.Evidence of an Inclusive Leadership style of large teams, which role models, inspires, motivates, and promotes collaboration to develop highly capable cross-functional performing teams, and champions wellbeing, equality, diversity and inclusion.

Desirable Criteria:

Knowledge of UK Submarine Programmes and the operation of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (this does not preclude external candidates).

Desirable Qualifications / Memberships:

Chartered Project Professional (ChPP) and Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) Practitioner accreditation are desirable .

To note, MOD is committed to for PD professionals to achieve Senior Practitioner IPA accreditation and the role holder will be required to work towards achieving by April 2028.

Benefits

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%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

To apply for this role, please submit your full application by 23:59 06 November by email to:

DESHR-SCSRecruitment@mod.gov.uk All applications will be acknowledged.

All applications must include the following:

Please quote the role title Head of SDA’s AUKUS PDO in the subject heading of the email.
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 separate Supporting Statement of no more than 2 pages in a PDF document providing clear evidence of how you meet the Essential Criteria laid out in the Person Specification
As part of the application process, you are asked to complete a Diversity Monitoring questionnaire provided. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the characteristics, you have the option to select 'prefer not to say' but completion of the form is a mandatory part of the process, and your application will not be considered complete without it.

Any data collected in this section will be reported in an anonymous and aggregate format and will not be seen by anyone assessing your application.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 4 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 undergo a criminal record check.

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

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.