Border Force South Region Director

Home Office

Ashdown House, Horley, Gatwick RH6 0JH, UK

On-Site

Expires: Expiring in less than 4 weeks

Flexible

£81,000 - £91,000 per year

Job summary

Border Force plays a vital role in securing the UK’s borders, protecting communities, and enabling legitimate trade and travel. We are seeking an exceptional leader to join our Senior Civil Service as Regional Director for Border Force South, overseeing one of the UK’s most complex and strategically significant regions.

Job description

As Regional Director, you will provide leadership to operations and strategic oversight across a diverse region spanning major airports, maritime hubs, and over 2,200 miles of coastline. Leading a large geographically dispersed and diverse workforce, you will ensure delivery of national priorities, manage immigration and customs operations, and respond to critical incidents in a 24/7 environment. This is a high-profile role requiring resilience, sound judgement, and the ability to lead through complexity and change. For full details, please see the Candidate Pack.

Person specification

You will work to set and deliver the strategic direction for Border Force operations across the South Region, driving performance to meet national priorities while ensuring security, compliance, safeguarding, and trade facilitation. Leading three Deputy directors and a large, geographically dispersed and diverse workforce, you will provide clear vision to manage complex threats and maintain high service standards across all ports and environments.

You will represent Border Force at senior levels across government, law enforcement, and industry, building strong partnerships to influence policy and operational outcomes. As a visible leader during critical incidents and high-profile events, you will ensure effective decision-making and communication. In addition, you will uphold legal and regulatory standards, safeguarding and security while facilitating legitimate trade and travel.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Home Office contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Learning and development tailored to your role
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

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

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their knowledge, experience, capability and behavioural approach to a high standard against the following key criteria:

Proven senior leadership experience in large, complex and high‑pressure operational settings, with the ability to set clear strategic direction, lead through others, balance competing priorities and maintain high‑quality delivery.
Excellent communication and influencing abilities, with the capability to develop trusted relationships, manage constructive challenge, and confidently advise Ministers, senior officials and external partners.
Demonstrated ability to build high‑performing teams, cultivating a positive and inclusive culture, develop talent, manage resources effectively, and contribute collaboratively to the wider leadership of the Directorate.
Proven ability to deliver results under significant pressure, including in high‑profile or politically sensitive contexts, showing resilience, adaptability and responsiveness to shifting priorities.
Experience in leading organisational or operational change, driving innovation, embedding continuous improvement and taking a long‑term, strategic approach while maintaining operational effectiveness

Desirable Criteria

Knowledge of Border Force operations, trade facilitation, and national security context
Experience of critical incident management and response.

Selection Process Details

Apply online via Civil Service Jobs by 23:55 on 8 February 2026. You will need to provide: CV outlining career history and achievements; Statement of Suitability (max 1250 words) evidencing essential criteria.

Security clearance

The successful candidate must hold Security Check (SC) clearance before commencing the role and will be required to undergo Developed Vetting (DV) once in post.

Further details on the process and SCS careers are in the Candidate Pack.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

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

Open to UK nationals only.

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

Salary range

£81,000 - £91,000 per year