Deputy Director, Readiness, Response & Recovery

The UK is facing increasingly volatile, diverse and interconnected risks, creating a pressing need to strengthen our overall national resilience system. This urgency is reflected in the Resilience Action Plan (2025)with its emphasis on immediate actions and preparedness for catastrophic risks. It is also underscored in the Strategic Defence Review (2025) - which focuses on the growing importance of domestic resilience as hostile state threats escalate.

MHCLG holds a unique leadership role within the UKs resilience system. Alongside MHCLGs lead government department (LGD) responsibilities, the Department is responsible for supporting local resilience structures including 38 Local Resilience Forums in England and plays a key role in response and recovery in all crisis and emergencies. The Resilience and Recovery Directorate [RED] is responsible for ensuring MHCLG and the local resilience system are equipped to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies, now and in the future. We connect the local and national tiers of the resilience system and support MHCLG priorities on resilient places, housing and growth.

This is an exciting DD role for responsible for horizon scanning, preparing, responding and recovering from crisis and emergencies. This includes leading three G6 teams to:

• Set the strategic direction for MHCLGs preparedness by ensuring the department has a clear, credible and well-governed framework for emergency response and recovery.
• Provide leadership on horizon scanning, readiness and resilience planning, ensuring the department is alert to emerging risks and prepared to act.
• Lead the departments response architecture shaping the frameworks, tools and decision-support needed to enable effective leadership of complex and fast-moving incidents.
• Maintain strong relationships across other government departments, private offices, the Executive Team and operational partners to ensure a coherent and well coordinated government response.
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement by ensuring lessons from emergencies, debriefs and inquiries are translated into stronger preparedness, response and recovery capability.
• Revisit and refresh cross-government approaches to recovery planning and readiness to ensure recovery policy, funding and delivery arrangements are coherent, practical and responsive to local need.
• Lead the development of a capable, confident and well-prepared response workforce through strong arrangements for training, exercising, surge capacity and operational readiness.

We are seeking a senior leader who can demonstrate credibility in fast-paced, high-pressure environments, and who is confident operating at the interface between strategy, policy and live operational delivery.

We would particularly welcome candidates with experience in the following areas:

• Leading or coordinating responses to major incidents, emergencies or crises in a government, emergency services, defence, intelligence or resilience context.
• Working within or alongside multi-agency emergency response structures for example Local Resilience Forums
• Leading operational teams with surge capacity requirements, including during periods of heightened demand or uncertainty
• Experience of national security, civil contingencies, counter-terrorism, or complex risk and threat environments
• Experience of recovery planning following major incidents, including working with local partners and communities

We would also welcome experience from sectors such as local government, emergency services, defence, infrastructure, or regulated operational environments where cross-organisational coordination and public service delivery under pressure is critical.

Essential criteria:

• Demonstrated experience of leading in complex, high-pressure operational environments, with direct accountability for managing or coordinating crisis, emergency or major incident response and recovery activity.
• Proven track record of delivering outcomes across strategy, policy and operational delivery, with the ability to translate ambiguous or fast-changing priorities into clear plans, decisive action and sustained organisational grip.
• Strong experience of operating across organisational boundaries, building trusted relationships and influencing senior stakeholders across government departments, local resilience structures, and external operational partners.
• Proven leadership of high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams in demanding environments, creating clarity of purpose, empowering delivery, and maintaining performance through periods of pressure, change or surge demand.
• Excellent judgement and communication skills, with the ability to rapidly interpret complex and incomplete information and provide clear, confident advice, assurance and challenge to Ministers and senior leaders.
• Experience of re operational delivery with evidence of driving measurable improvements in outcomes for the public in government, local government, emergency services or equivalent sectors.

Please note given the nature of this role:

• The postholder will be expected to participate in an on-call rota of 1 2 days per week, including weekends and bank holidays. SCS do not receive additional remuneration for duty.
• Occasional travel within England will be required to support operational coordination, engagement with local resilience partners, and attendance at meetings or exercises.
• This role requires Developed Vetting (DV) clearance. By applying, you confirm that you either currently hold DV clearance or are willing to undergo and successfully obtain DV clearance as a condition of appointment.