Chief Coastguard

Job summary

The Chief Coastguard is the senior operational leader of HM Coastguard and one of the most significant emergency service leadership roles in the United Kingdom. As the professional head of the UK’s national maritime emergency service, the role is accountable for the readiness, resilience, effectiveness and future development of a complex, nationally distributed operation that protects life, safeguards the marine environment and provides critical national resilience capability.

The role combines strategic leadership, emergency service command, organisational transformation and Government engagement. Operating at Executive and national strategic level, the Chief Coastguard provides leadership for a service that responds to incidents ranging from individual life-saving rescues to major maritime disasters, security incidents, environmental emergencies and civil contingencies.

The Chief Coastguard is responsible for ensuring HM Coastguard is appropriately structured, resourced and equipped to deliver the United Kingdom’s Coastal State responsibilities and Government priorities, while preparing for future challenges including climate change, technological advancement, evolving security threats, increased maritime activity and changing public expectations.

Job description

The role requires an exceptional leader capable of inspiring a national workforce, influencing at the highest levels of Government, and providing strategic direction during periods of significant operational pressure, national emergencies and organisational change. The leadership challenge is significant: to sustain operational readiness across a geographically dispersed workforce; maintain morale, confidence and professional standards; lead cultural and operational change; and provide visible, credible leadership in moments of acute public, operational and Government scrutiny.

Reporting directly into the Chief Operating Officer, key responsibilities will include:

National emergency service leadership

• Lead the United Kingdom's national maritime emergency service, ensuring delivery of a resilient, trusted and effective 24/7 operational capability.
• Provide strategic leadership and command during major incidents, national emergencies and periods of heightened operational risk.
• Maintain and strengthen HM Coastguard's role within the UK's emergency response and national resilience architecture.
• Provide confidence to Ministers, Government and the public regarding the capability, resilience and performance of HM Coastguard.

Strategic leadership and transformation

• Develop and deliver a compelling long-term vision for HM Coastguard, setting strategic priorities that keep the organisation fit for purpose in a rapidly changing risk environment.
• Drive organisational transformation, innovation and technological modernisation while maintaining operational excellence and public confidence.
• Balance immediate operational demands with long-term capability development, investment decisions and future operating model requirements.

Delivery of Coastal State responsibilities

• Ensure effective delivery of the United Kingdom's statutory, national and international obligations across all Coastguard functions.
• Maintain strategic oversight of Coastguard services, ensuring they remain effective, compliant, resilient and aligned with emerging risks, Government expectations and international developments.
• Provide assurance on performance, capability and resilience to the MCA Executive Committee, Ministers and Government.

National resilience and civil contingencies

• Lead HM Coastguard's contribution to national resilience and emergency preparedness arrangements, including significant maritime incidents, environmental emergencies and major national events.
• Work collaboratively with Category 1 and Category 2 responders to assess emerging risks, strengthen preparedness and maintain effective exercising, training and business continuity arrangements.

Operational assurance, standards and learning

• Set and maintain clear operational standards, doctrine, policies and procedures across HM Coastguard, ensuring consistency, professionalism and compliance across all operational disciplines.
• Provide robust assurance that HM Coastguard's operational capability, resilience, business continuity and risk controls remain effective and fit for purpose.
• Ensure lessons from incidents, exercises, audits, investigations and reviews are acted on and embedded into operational practice, capability development and continuous improvement.
• Champion a learning culture that supports safe, effective and accountable operational delivery across a complex national emergency service.

Strategic partnerships and influence

• Build and maintain influential relationships across Government, industry and the wider emergency response community, representing HM Coastguard nationally and internationally.
• Strengthen collaboration with partner organisations including the RNLI, emergency services, Defence, Border Force, devolved administrations, industry partners and international coastguard organisations.
• Influence national policy, capability development and future resilience arrangements affecting UK maritime safety.

Leadership, culture and stewardship

• Inspire a culture of professionalism, accountability, inclusion, wellbeing, continuous improvement and operational excellence.
• Develop high-performing leaders capable of operating in complex and pressured environments and build organisational capability and workforce resilience for the future.
• Ensure effective stewardship of significant public resources, infrastructure and operational assets, aligning resources and investment decisions to risk, demand and strategic priorities.
• Deliver value for money while maintaining operational effectiveness, service resilience and future capability.

Person specification

Essential experience:

• Significant Executive, Director or equivalent leadership experience within a large, complex, operationally critical organisation.
• Proven experience leading within an emergency service, military, public protection, resilience, operational command or safety-critical environment.
• Experience of leading complex operational delivery across multiple locations and stakeholder groups.
• Demonstrable success in leading transformational change while maintaining operational performance.
• Experience operating successfully at Executive, Government or national strategic level.
• Exceptional leadership skills with a track record of developing senior leaders, building organisational capability and creating high-performing cultures.
• Strong strategic thinking, political awareness and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to lead confidently through ambiguity, crisis and organisational change.

Desirable experience:

• Maritime experience, including maritime operations, maritime safety, coastguard, shipping, ports, offshore operations or related sectors.
• Experience within aviation, defence, search and rescue or other critical national infrastructure environments.
• Knowledge of UK maritime governance, Coastal State responsibilities or international maritime frameworks.
• Experience of working within multi-agency emergency response or national resilience structures.

Whilst maritime experience would be advantageous, applications are welcomed from candidates with a strong emergency service, operational leadership or resilience background who can demonstrate the capability to lead a nationally significant public service.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £95,000, Maritime and Coastguard Agency contributes £27,521 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service values and supports all its employees. We have strong and pro-active staff networks, special leave policies for hospital appointments, reasonable adjustments put in place for those who need them, and diversity talent programmes to help everyone irrespective of background, to achieve their potential

Pension

Your pension is a valuable part of your total reward package. A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire. Visit Civil Service Pension Scheme for more details.

Generous Annual Leave and Bank Holiday Allowance

25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service. This is in addition to 8 public holidays.

This will be complimented by one further day paid privilege entitlement to mark the King’s Birthday.

Flexible working

Due to the nature of the role, it is offered on a full-time working basis only.

Generous paid maternity and paternity leave

This is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers.

Childcare benefits

Policy for new employees as of 5 April 2018: The government has introduced the Tax Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. Working parents can open an online childcare account and for every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2000 a year for each child or £4000 for a disabled child. Parents then use the funds to pay for registered childcare. Existing employees may be able to continue to claim childcare vouchers, so please check how the policy would work for you here.

Season Ticket and Bicycle Loan

Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket or a new bicycle.

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

Please submit your CV to Michael Page using the following link Chief Coastguard - JN-112026-7139453 , Page Executive by 23:55 on 11th December.

The panel will select a shortlist of candidates whose applications best demonstrate their suitability for the role who will then be invited to assessment.​

As part of the application process, a CV is required which will evidence your experience against the following criteria:

1.Proven ability to lead organisational and cultural change at a strategic level.

2.Outstanding leadership of remote diverse multi-discipline teams and the ability to lead, motivate and empower.

3.A dynamic record of success working at a senior level which has involved extensive networking, developing, and managing relationships with complex stakeholders.

4.Proven track record of strategic operational effectiveness, improvement and delivery.

5.A demonstrable ability to understand complex stakeholder environments and to develop the levels of influence necessary to deliver challenging change agendas.

Expected Timeline

We will try and offer as much flexibility as we can, but it may not be possible to offer alternative dates for assessments or interviews. You are therefore asked to note the below timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process, in order to meet the dates given. Please note that these dates may be subject to change.

The anticipated timetable is as follows:

Advert Closing Date – 23:55 Friday 11th December 2026.

Shortlist – W/C 14th December 2026

Assessments - W/C 4th January 2027

Briefing Exercise & Interview - W/C 18th January 2027

Further Information

If your application is successful but you have been dismissed from the Civil Service, your application could be removed at the pre-employment checking stage depending on the nature of the dismissal.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

All external applicants and current employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will be required to undergo a Social Media Check. A Social Media Check is a review of your publicly available online activity, typically across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and others. The purpose is to identify any public posts or content that could raise concerns for employers, such as:

• Hate speech or discriminatory behaviour
• Threats or acts of violence
• Illegal activity or substance misuse
• Sexually explicit material
• Extremist views or affiliations

Importantly, this check does not involve hacking into your accounts or accessing private messages. It only considers content you have chosen to make public. Employers use this kind of screening to help ensure their workplace remains safe, inclusive, and aligned with company values. It’s not about judging your personality or lifestyle - it’s about checking for potential red flags that might affect the role or company culture. If you have questions or concerns about the social media check, we would be happy to explain in more detail what’s being looked at and how your data is handled securely and fairly.

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 basic (or equivalent) 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 : Rutesh Shah
• Email : ruteshshah@pageexecutive.com
• Telephone : 0796 733 9300

Recruitment team

• Email : ruteshshah@pageexecutive.com

Further information

Civil Service Commission Selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

In accordance with the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles, our recruitment and selection processes are underpinned by the requirement of appointment on the basis of merit by fair and open competition. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance you should contact; scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission at info@csc.gov.uk and more information can be found at www.civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk

Attachments

Chief Coastguard Accessibility Pack (1) Opens in new window (docx, 334kB)MCA Candidate Pack Chief Coastguard SCS Opens in new window (pdf, 1126kB)