Airwave Exit Manager

Job summary

The Home Office works to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter-terrorism, policing, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports.

The Public Safety Group’s role is to keep the public safe by cutting crime, disrupting the highest harm criminals, protecting the vulnerable and ensuring that our police, fire and rescue services are as efficient and effective as they can be in delivering front line public services. We work with our partners in other government departments, local government and the voluntary sector to develop and implement policy, provide funding, and deliver legislation.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead the development, delivery and assurance of the Airwave Exit Strategy and associated plans, ensuring a safe, controlled and operationally effective transition from Airwave to ESN, and the coordinated decommissioning of the Airwave network.

The role operates at the centre of a complex, multi-stakeholder national programme, balancing operational continuity, commercial obligations, and transition dependencies. The successful candidate will lead the development, maintenance and delivery of the Airwave Exit Strategy and end-to-end exit plans, ensuring alignment with ESN deployment, service acceptance and operational readiness, while overseeing integrated planning across technical, commercial and operational domains, identifying gaps and driving resolution to enable a safe and controlled transition.

Job description

This role will be leading on the delivery of Airwave Exit workstreams within the broader ESMCP programme.

You will provide strategic leadership across the exit landscape, maintaining the integrated roadmap and managing critical dependencies, milestones and sequencing, while working closely with suppliers, emergency services organisations and Home Office stakeholders to ensure alignment and collective ownership of exit outcomes.

The postholder will also be responsible for establishing robust governance, reporting and assurance arrangements, managing risks associated with service transition and network decommissioning, defining and assuring exit criteria, and coordinating operational readiness activities including migration planning, contingency arrangements and fallback measures, ensuring that the transition is delivered safely, coherently and with full regard to contractual, regulatory and operational requirements.

Key Responsibilities (list is not exhaustive)

• Manage dependencies, milestones and risks while ensuring plans remain achievable by providing clear governance and reporting through established forums, enabling informed decision-making and maintaining audit-ready documentation.
• Engage extensively with emergency services, suppliers and internal Home Office teams to ensure coordinated delivery. Build strong relationships to align priorities, resolve issues and maintain stakeholder confidence in exit plans and timelines.
• Maintain oversight of commercial and contractual obligations, ensuring exit activity aligns with agreed frameworks and supplier responsibilities. Work closely with commercial and legal teams to manage financial exposure and ensure compliance.
• Own the Airwave Exit risk and issue landscape, ensuring risks are clearly articulated, mitigated and escalated appropriately.
• Support user organisations in developing and implementing exit plans, ensuring readiness for transition and minimal operational disruption, and lead planning for network shutdown and decommissioning in line with national timelines.

Working Pattern

Due to the business requirements of this role, it is only available on a full-time basis.

Travel

Occasional travel to customer sites and supply premises will be required.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Proven experience delivering complex ICT or infrastructure programmes, including planning, risk management and governance
• Ability to operate effectively in multi-stakeholder, politically sensitive environments
• Strong understanding of programme and project management disciplines and risk, issue and dependency management
• Communicate and influence at senior levels
• Drive delivery across organisational boundaries
• Translate technical, commercial and operational inputs into actionable plans

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of exit, transition or decommissioning programmes in large-scale environments
• Practical technical experience within mission‑critical communications environments

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

In addition to your salary, a career with the Home Office offers a range of benefits, including:

• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• In-year reward scheme for one-off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements.
• 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service to 30 days.
• Eight days of public holidays, plus one additional privilege day.
• Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

We will endeavour to conduct the selection process in line with the dates indicated below, but cannot guarantee that these will not, where necessary, be revised.

1. Application by 29th June 2026

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

• CV
• Personal Statement (maximum 1000 words).

Your CV should consist of your career history and skills/experience, including any key achievements in each role. Your CV will be scored against the experience required for the role as noted within the essential criteria.

The Personal Statement should be aligned to and demonstrate how you meet the skills and experience set out in the essential criteria, detailed in the job description.

For guidance and information on how to construct your application (CV, Personal Statement and Behaviours), you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers website.

2. Sift - 2nd July 2026

The sift will be held on the Personal Statement and CV.

3. Interview - 29th July onwards

If you are successful at sift stage, you will be invited to an interview that will be Behaviours (as listed in the job advert) and Strength based questions.

The interview will take place online via MS Teams.

Problems during the application process

If you experience problems accessing this advert, or you think you’ve made a mistake on an initial application, please contact hocandidates.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk, including the vacancy reference, at least two working days before the vacancy closes. Further information can be found on our website.

Do not create or attempt to submit another application, online test or use a different Civil Service Jobs account to proceed as this would be in violation of the candidate declaration.

Location

You can select up to twolocations in order of preference. Please ensure that these are locations you are prepared to travel to. If you are offered a role at one of your preferred locations and you decline, your application will be withdrawn.

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made. There is no guarantee that being held on a reserve list will lead to a job offer. Further information can be found on our website.

Breaking Tied Scores

The behaviours, experience and strengths have been ranked in order of importance to enable us to differentiate between candidates with tied interview scores.

All Civil Servants are expected to comply with the Civil Service Code, and its core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.

Security Checks

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is SC. This statement will need to be added in Metis Recruitment.

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Further information

If you have previously made an unsuccessful application for a role with the same essential skills and are not able to demonstrate how you have developed these skills since your last application, please reconsider applying as your application is unlikely to be successful.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms directly. If you are doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Additional Security Checks

As well as successfully obtaining UK Security Vetting clearance, candidates will be subject to a range of additional checks. The range of checks carried out will depend on whether you are a current Home Office employee, existing civil servant or an external new entrant as well as the role requirements. The level of Criminal Record Check required for this role is Basic. Further details are included in the Notes to Candidates.

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs

• Complete the “Assistance Required” section in the “Additional Requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Home Office Resourcing Centre
• Email : horccampaignteamborderforce@homeoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles. and you wish to make a complaint, then contact the Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

Attachments

2025-11-17 Pre-employment Checking - Document Requirements (V17) (11) Opens in new window (pdf, 231kB)Candidate_Information_v17_April_2026 (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 207kB)