Counter-Terrorism Officer

Working at HM Treasury puts you at the heart of government, making a difference to the UK economy and ultimately to peoples lives right across the UK.

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Day-to-day you could be supporting Ministers to decide the right level of a specific tax or line of government spending; helping maintain the stability of financial markets; analysing the long-term trends impacting the future of the economy; or enabling this work as part of our vital corporate functions.

We are a high-performing department and proud to have outstanding staff from a wide range of backgrounds. We are also a friendly, inclusive and sociable workplace that prides itself on fostering great team spirit. Our two largest offices are 1 Horse Guards Road in London, opposite St James Park, and the Darlington Economic Campus, which also contains eight other departments. We work seamlessly across all our sites, including Norwich, Birmingham and Leeds, as one Treasury.

We are both a 1,000-year-old institution and dynamic, forward-looking economics and finance ministry, with a strong direction set by our organisational strategy, the Future Treasury Vision. The 21st century offers huge opportunities and poses new challenges for the UK. Working at the Treasury is your chance to help the country chart the right course.

We are recruiting for a Higher Executive Officer (HEO) in OFSIs Counter-Terrorism Team. This is an exciting, fast-paced, high-stakes role.

The CT Sanctions Team is responsible for the administration of terrorist asset freezes in the UK. The key CT sanctions regimes implemented in the UK are The ISIL (Daesh) and Al-Qaida (United Nations Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, The Counter-Terrorism (International Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 and The Counter-Terrorism (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. In the CT Team the successful candidates could find themselves undertaking a range of tasks and responsibilities including:

• Assist with the management of CT sanctions designations under the Counter-Terrorism (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 developing an in-depth knowledge of the regime and reviewing designation proposals from partners. The post holder will have input on cases under other CT sanctions regimes. This includes providing concise, accurate and timely advice to support Ministers and senior officials in making sensitive decisions which often carry significant legal risk.
• Keeping senior officials and ministers adequately informed of developments within regimes and keeping a broad watching brief on relevant sanctioned persons and countries.
• Managing and assisting with relevant licensing requests from receipt through to issue where appropriate, working closely with Treasury Legal Advisers on the licensing application process and in assessing the legal risk of granting or refusing licences.
• Leading and assisting with investigative casework in relation to suspected sanctions breaches and decide the most appropriate compliance outcomes, working with the Police where appropriate.
• Providing support to the Head of Litigation when decisions under CT sanctions are legally challenged. This includes working with counsel, Treasury Legal Advisers, the Government Legal Department, and other departments.
• Work closely with HM Treasury & FCDO policy teams on policy and operational implications of proposed new CT sanctions measures, developing and maintaining productive relationships across Whitehall on regime implementation.
• Develop a thorough understanding of the CT Sanctions regimes legal framework and apply this in ad hoc advice to Ministers, members of the public, and external stakeholder groups.

Across the team, strong communication will be a really important part of your role. Every day you will be communicating with different people, internally and externally. You will need to distil complex detail into clear recommendations and be able to explain and defend those recommendations in writing and verbally. This could be as part of casework decisions or in operational policy work. You will be expected to work closely with colleagues in other branches to provide casework input to cross-branch work.

Successful candidates will have the ability to develop and analyse information, think creatively and independently to arrive at supportable conclusions when sometimes data is incomplete. Previous experience of financial sanctions and/or counter-terrorism is desired, but not essential for these roles. Most important is the ability to quickly gain an understanding of a range of competing complex issues and the ability to make evidenced-based recommendations and astute judgements under pressure, deploying evidence and information across a range of sources.

We are looking for a person who has the right set of skills for the role, who demonstrates the values of our organisation, who is motivated to come and work with us, and who can demonstrate an ability to quickly develop an understanding of a complex and sensitive area.

Overall, this role is an excellent opportunity for an ambitious individual to take ownership of high profile, and high risk internationally focussed work, and to develop a large network of stakeholders inside and outside of government.

This is a Darlington based role. This role cannot be worked from any other HM Treasury office. Should you be successful for the role, this will be your contractual office location.

If you would like to speak to the hiring manager informally prior to the closing date for applications to find out more about the job, please email [email protected].

We are looking for the below skills, experience and behaviours and we will ask you to demonstrate these in your application form. Please review the Candidate FAQ document that is attached to the advert for guidance on how to complete your application form.

1. Making Effective Decisions Ability to digest large quantities of information, recognise and fill gaps in the information, and identify key points.
2. Delivering at Pace Ability to prioritise tasks effectively and deliver high-quality work in a timely manner.
3. Working Together Ability to establish professional relationships and work collaboratively with a range of stakeholders.

The lead criterion is: Making Effective Decisions

If we receive large volumes of applications, we will conduct an initial sift on the lead criterion only.

We will ask you to provide some CV details during your application; however, these will NOT be assessed during the process, but will be used to support discussions at interview please ensure you put all information you would like to be scored against in your behaviour statements.

At interview stage, you will be assessed on the below criteria:

• Strengths
• Behaviours:
  • Communicating and Influencing
  • Delivering at Pace
  • Making Effective Decisions
  • Working Together