Deputy Director, Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser

The Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser (DCSA) provides senior leadership to ensure FCDO has the science advice and scientific capability it needs for policy, diplomacy, programming and crisis response. As the Chief Scientific Advisers (CSA) principal Deputy on science, you will shape FCDOs strategic scientific direction, strengthen the systems through which evidence informs decisions, and represent the FCDO across government and externally to strengthen UK international partnerships and strategic advantage in science.

The DCSA leads the FCDOs Science Cell with responsibility for scientific preparedness and response for emergencies including natural disasters, health threats and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) risks ensuring authoritative, rapid and actionable advice is provided to Ministers, senior officials and partners. You will steward relationships across government and academia, ensuring the FCDO can draw on the best available evidence and expertise during crises and during routine policy development. You will need strong judgement, the ability to work at pace under uncertainty, and the authority to convene internal and external expertise in support of Ministers, senior officials and operational teams.

You will oversee FCDOs contribution to the Government Science and Engineering (GSE) profession, working with specialist networks and senior leaders to set professional standards, develop capability, support accreditation and ensure that scientific and engineering expertise is embedded in policy and delivery. The DCSA also provides technical oversight of the Senior Research Fellows, ensuring their work has visible impact across FCDO.

You will play a central role in ensuring strong governance, financial stewardship and people management across the Science Cell and GSE profession, setting performance standards, championing inclusion, and aligning scientific capability with departmental priorities.

You will be a core part of the Research and Analysis Directorate senior leadership team.

Candidate Engagement Call 

We will be running a Candidate Engagement Call on Monday 23rd November from 15:00 16:00. During the call, you will have the opportunity to ask any questions that you have about this role. You can join the call here.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the CSAs principal Deputy on all areas of science advice, providing senior authoritative, proportionate and timely advice to support strategic decisions across FCDO priorities.
• Oversee the Science Cell and wider science-for-emergencies capability so that crisis response draws on the best available modelling, evidence and expert judgement.
• Oversee FCDOs contribution to the Government Science and Engineering profession, including professional standards, capability, networks and routes for specialist advice to influence policy and delivery. Lead the development and implementation of FCDOs Science Systems Plan, strengthen departmental science advisory mechanisms, and ensure appropriate links to the Government Office for Science, the CSA network and cross-government science advice systems.
• Provide technical oversight of the Senior Research Fellows to ensure they bring deep expertise to the Departments highest-priority policy, programme and diplomatic challenges.
• Provide senior technical advice and insight to FCDOs Research and Development (R&D) portfolio to ensure that it represents the latest scientific developments, thinking and rigour.
• Represent FCDO confidently across government, with the Government Office for Science, departmental Chief Scientific Advisers and academia e.g. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), national academies and research organisations, and our university sector. The DCSA will be required to act as FCDO lead for priority external relationships.
• Support the CSA in their role to strengthen UK science diplomacy and influence, engaging with external science partners including Foreign Ministers, Science Ministers and international research institutions, building and strengthening UK partnerships and comparative advantage in science.
• Ensure strong governance, risk management, people leadership and value for money across the DCSA portfolio.
• Direct leadership of 20 FTE staff and oversight of 300 professionals in FCDO.

Working at the FCDO will be the most challenging and rewarding time of your career. We want to be the best diplomatic and development ministry in the world, with jobs that are the envy of Whitehall and the rest of the world. We aim to recruit and retain the best people; those who are delivery focused and have a strong track record in high impact outcomes.

The Civil Service is open to talented people from any career background; we will always seek to identify transferable skills from the individuals experience. The Essential Criteria to succeed in this role and be selected are:

• Proven senior leadership experience in shaping organisational strategy and leading high-performing, multidisciplinary scientific, technical and analytical teams through change, delivering impact across large organisations or systems. This could come from experience in academia, industry, the technology sector or government.
• Substantial experience providing senior scientific, engineering or technical advice and influencing decisions in complex organisational settings, translating evidence into clear and actionable advice forsenior officials or equivalent decision-makers.
• Experience strengthening organisational systems to improve the use of science and technology advice and experience engaging with cross-government or national science systems to meet organisation objectives in this area.
• Demonstrable ability to build influential relationships and represent an organisation credibly with senior government, academic, international or industry stakeholders.
• Deep technical expertise in one of the following FCDO priority areas: climate, nature, energy, food security, engineering-biology, geopolitics, gender, humanitarian, migration, national security, chemical biological radiological and nuclear, education, and AI or frontier technologies, including quantum. This expertise may come from academia, research or industry and you should be externally recognised for excellence in the topic.
• PhD or Masters (with PhD equivalent skills and experience) in a relevant scientific, engineering or technical field (listed above), or equivalent standing demonstrated through senior level scientific leadership roles.

It is important that your application provides evidence and examples that meet these criteria.