National Cyber Force - Strategic Lead for Industry Function

Established in 2020, the National Cyber Force (NCF) is responsible for operating in and through cyberspace to counter, disrupt, degrade and contest those who would do harm to the UK or its allies, to keep the country safe and to protect and promote the UK's interests at home and abroad. The UK will use cyber operations as part of its diplomatic, economic and military activities. 

The NCF is at the heart of this, extending the UK's competitive edge as a responsible, democratic cyber power, by countering threats from terrorists, criminals and states using the internet to operate across borders in order to do harm to the UK and other democratic societies. This may involve countering threats which disrupt the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data and services in cyberspace (i.e. supporting cybersecurity), contributing to UK Defence operations, or helping deliver the UK's foreign policy agenda (for example intervening in a humanitarian crisis to protect civilians). In addition to GCHQ and the Ministry of Defence, the Secret Intelligence Service and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory are core partners, bringing cutting edge espionage and research techniques.

Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Our vision is to have an empowered, productive, personally and professionally fulfilled workforce. Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously. We want to enable you to build a successful career with the Department and wider Civil Service. We are committed to understanding, respecting, and representing as broad a range of views and backgrounds as we have in UK society. An inclusive culture is critical to our success in the Partnership. We are dedicated to building a world class force by championing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and providing the tools and resources that enable greater collaboration and strengthen team performance.

The Strategic Lead for Industry function will be required to shape the strategic commercial direction for the partnership. Working alongside UKIC colleagues to ensure demand coherence and adherence to good procurement practices.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

The Strategic Lead for Industry function will be required to shape the strategic commercial direction for the partnership. Working alongside UKIC colleagues to ensure demand coherence and adherence to good procurement practices. This role requires strong leadership and an ability to build long term relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Experience delivering change in a complex environment would be beneficial and a strong awareness of procurement practices in a defence and security environment would be advantageous. The successful candidate will:

Act as strategic and demand coherence lead for commercial requirements across the partnership

Set strategic direction by drafting, in collaboration with UKIC partners, a robust commercial strategy bespoke to the force

Represent the force at wider commercial steering groups and forums to ensure we are demonstrating value for money and a commercially mature approach to all our requirements

Support the Head of the Industry Function to effectively challenge and support requirements at the portfolio build stage

Lead a team of circa 5 personnel at various grades to ensure that the force is being adequately supported with its procurement requirements, and that all procurement activity is conducted in line with the sourcing principles

Ensure adherence to the sourcing principles at working level across the force, by supporting training on the Induction Course and attending relevant upskilling days to bring this knowledge back in house

Support creation and implementation of the commercial maturity matrix that enables wider elements of the force to reach a level of commercial maturity required of them to ensure the whole force is an intelligent customer to industry and commercial partners

Support management of a wider team of contract managers with their requirements before escalating to commercial where appropriate and required to do so

Essential: Experience of delivering change in a complex stakeholder environment. Awareness of procurement process is essential; this can be from working in a procurement team or closely alongside one. Ability to coordinate, cohere and align multiple lines of effort to achieve a single aim is required for this role. Candidates will need to demonstrate strong leadership qualities and an ability to deliver multiples lines of effort concurrently with a diverse workforce.

Desirable: Commercial qualifications would be desirable but not essential as this post does not require a commercial delegation. Contract requisitions will be undertaken by commercial officers; this role is to deliver demand coherence and coordination into the commercial stakeholders. Awareness of commercial frameworks and relevant regulations would be advantageous but not essential.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is enhanced developed vetting, further to the DV as listed below.

The post holder must be a UK national. You must hold or be willing to undergo Developed Vetting (DV) clearance. 

Clearance level required for role is DV plus screening. Checks involved include, but are not limited to: 

Successful completion of the Baseline Personnel Security Standard 

Completion, by the individual, of a DV Security Questionnaire 

A departmental/company records check which will include personal files, staff reports, sick leave returns and security records 

A check of both spent and unspent criminal records 

A check of credit and financial history with a credit reference agency 

A check of Security Service records 

A full review of personal finances 

A detailed interview conducted by a trained Investigating Officer 

Further enquiries, including interviews with referees conducted by a trained Investigating Officer 

Checks may extend to third parties included on the security questionnaire 

The full review of personal finances will include an assessment of an individual's assets, liabilities, income and expenditure both on an individual basis and taking into account the joint position with a spouse or partner. 

Additionally, candidates will need to meet the business validation standard and pass a drug test prior to appointment. 

Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more discretely. 

While the existence of NCF is not a secret, its people are, and discretion is vital. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or close family. You should also make them aware of the importance of discretion. You should not mention your application on social media or discuss it with anyone else at this stage.

If successful at sift, the interviews will be held week of 7th December. Interviews will be conducted remotely via Teams. Once set, we will not be able to reschedule the dates.