Deputy Director for Government Cyber Services and Deputy Government CISO

We are looking for an experienced and senior cyber security or digital and data professional to lead the Government Cyber Services team and support the Government CISO as one of the Deputy Government CISOs. In this role you will be responsible for ensuring that central cyber capabilities are prioritised, designed, and adopted in ways that deliver measurable impact at scale. This role reports to the Director for the Government Cyber Unit.

As the Government Cyber Unit, our mission is to protect public services and the wider Government from cyber threats and non-malicious technology failures. The Government Cyber Action Plan (GCAP) sets out our approach to delivering this mission by achieving a radical shift in the pace of cyber and digital resilience transformation. We are responsible for delivering the central initiatives defined in the GCAP, as well as managing government-wide cyber risk on behalf of the DCMS Permanent Secretary. You will play a key role in government cyber security, taking decisions that affect the breadth of government and driving strategic improvement and change. You will need to be a confident, inspiring and inclusive leader, committed to the support and development of your staff.

Lead Government Cyber Services as the central service function for GCAP delivery, setting direction for a coherent portfolio of scalable cyber services that are delivered once and well, meet user needs, and improve cyber and digital resilience across government and the wider public sector. The role is accountable for delivery across the following core areas:

Set the cyber services strategy and portfolio:

• Define and maintain the Government Cyber Services portfolio, ensuring central services are prioritised against GCAP objectives, government-wide cyber risk, user need, and measurable security outcomes.
• Establish clear service ownership, roadmaps, standards and success measures so that services are coherent, scalable, value for money, and aligned to the wider Government Cyber Action Plan operating model.

Coordinate access, adoption and demand:

• Ensure government organisations can identify, access and adopt the right cyber services through clear routes to support, effective engagement, and practical implementation pathways.
• Shape demand across departments and the wider public sector, using evidence of risk, maturity and need to prioritise interventions where central services can deliver the greatest system-wide impact.

Develop services once and well:

• Lead the design, development and continuous improvement of common cyber services, products and technical capabilities that address common problems and reduce duplication across government.
• Embed user-centred, evidence-led and secure-by-design delivery practices, ensuring services are usable, technically credible, operationally sustainable and capable of being adopted at scale.

Measure impact and manage performance:

• Put in place portfolio-level performance, benefits and risk reporting that demonstrates whether services are improving resilience, reducing exposure and supporting GCAP delivery milestones.
• Use operational insight, service data and feedback from departments to refine priorities, address delivery blockers and hold service owners to account for outcomes, quality and adoption.

Influence the wider cyber system:

• Work with departments, central functions, NCSC and other partners to ensure cyber services complement accountability, support, response and skills activity across GCAP.
• Represent the cyber services agenda with senior stakeholders, building confidence in the central offer and securing the collaboration needed to drive adoption across organisational boundaries.

The role-holder will also:

• Act as a core member of GCU leadership team, providing input and challenge to strategic direction.
• Be an advocate for excellence in all things relating to leadership and people management.
• Deputise for the Director of the Government Cyber Unit as required.
• Participate in out-of-hours cover.

Essential criteria

Were interested in people who have:

• Proven and excellent leadership skills to inspire, empower and motivate others.
• Significant experience delivering cyber security solutions or digital, data and technology services at a large organisational, public sector or national level.

• Compelling communication and influencing skills with a strong focus on relationship building, including the ability to clearly and simply explain technical details to non- technical audiences, and engage with senior stakeholders.
• An ability to form strong working relationships, influence senior stakeholders, and drive coordinated action across multiple organisations with different incentives, priorities and levels of cyber maturity.
• Proven experience of driving transformation across organisational boundaries to improve delivery, impact and performance.
• Significant experience building, developing, and managing diverse and high-performing teams

Its desirable that you have:

• Experience of working in national security or related environments.
• Experience working with and leading digital development teams that adhere to the Service Standard
• An in-depth understanding of cyber threats, vulnerabilities and mitigations.