Director of Strategy London, England
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About the job
Job summary
The Strategy Director would be a part of our senior leadership team, comprised of individuals whose talents are broad and deep. The successful candidate would lead high performing teams leading on cross cutting DWP strategy, labour market strategy and analysis and supporting on key areas such as inactivity in the labour market.
It’s an exciting time to join the DWP.
Job description
The Strategy Director plays a high profile and critical role within DWP working within a fast paced and dynamic environment. The role entails:
- Lead the Strategy group of c160. Line management of four deputy directors leading on cross cutting strategy/projects, labour market strategy, labour market analysis, and governance and legislation and Pastoral support to a busy Ministerial Private office
- Responsible for working with the Ministerial team and the Executive team to set the departmental strategic objectives and priority outcomes, and supporting Ministers on delivery of these outcomes.
- Working closely with Finance and Planning on supporting the department’s key fiscal moments and ensuring that our priority outcomes are clearly embedded in departmental planning.
- Responsibility for overall labour market strategy, building strong relationships within DWP and across Government and with local government and industry, including work to increase our impact in a sectoral and place-based way and leading for DWP on levelling up, and shaping a programme of work across Government on workforce participation with a particular focus on economic inactivity.
- Providing leadership for analytical teams, responsible for the overall analysis of the labour market and our labour market interventions.
- Establish strong and trusted relationships with the Permanent Secretary and Ministers in DWP, especially the Secretary of State, to be able to advise them effectively across their portfolio
Person specification
Essential Criteria:
Experience of senior leadership in policy and/or strategy roles and of successfully working closely with senior stakeholders. You should have a clear understanding and interest in the labour market and a passion and tenacity to support DWP deliver its objectives.
Highly developed interpersonal and influencing skills, with the ability to:
- Establish credibility and build trust quickly with a diverse network of senior stakeholders in a complex system working across organisational boundaries.
- Present complex issues simply and effectively, using complex data and analysis to inform and influence decision making,
- Deliver results at pace, handle uncertainty and demonstrate exceptional judgement in a complex environment.
- Experience of influencing at board level and demonstrable understanding of the challenges of leading in a political context
Strong people leadership skills:
- An inspirational leader with a flair for engaging people making the complex simple and compelling
- Provides visible, positive, and collaborative leadership within and outside organisations
- Able to motivate and engage a large and diverse directorate across multiple locations building capable, inclusive, and high performing teams
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
- Making Effective Decisions
Benefits
- 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 average employer contribution of 27%
Things you need to know
Selection process details
To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process outlined below:
This should be submitted no later than 23:55 - 27th March 2023.
- A CV 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 Supporting Statement (maximum 1250 words) explaining why you want to work for DWP in this role; how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience providing evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.
Shortlist:
A panel, including the hiring manager, will then assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit with the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the criteria set out in the Person Specification section of this pack.
If you are shortlisted, you will be asked to take part in a Staff Engagement Exercise and an Individual Leadership Assessment in advance of the video interview. This assessment will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, it is designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.
Shortlisted candidates will be offered an informal discussion about the role with Katherine Green or Sophie Dean - Director Generals for Labour Market Policy and Implementation and Katie Farrington – Director General Disability, Health and Pensions. This discussion does not form part of the assessment.
It may be that candidates are asked to speak to Mel Stride– Secretary of State, as part of the formal assessment process.
Interviews:
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend a face to face interview, The final panel interview will be a blended interview, covering Behaviours, Technical, Strengths and Experience. A blended interview aims to be more of a conversation. Assessment of technical skills will be via a 5-minute presentation and follow up questions.
Full details of the requirements will be given to shortlisted candidates ahead of their interview.
Please refer to the candidate pack attached to the advert for more details about the role and the selection
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
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
See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
- certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals
Working for the Civil Service
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).
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