Deputy Director Accommodation North

Job summary

Defence Housing Service (DHS) manages c50,000 military family homes and will deliver a £9bn generational programme of renewal to modernise the estate. The MOD has committed substantial funding to deliver the improvements, but the scale of the need means that we will need to manage our investments wisely and ensure we achieve excellent value for money. In addition to providing military housing, the DHS has also been charged with maximising the development of new housing on defence land for commercial purposes. These homes will help to generate economic growth, support the Government’s drive to address housing shortages with a ‘forces first’ approach that means veterans and serving persons will have preferential access. Profits from development will be re-invested in defence and military housing.

The DHS will be owned by MOD reporting to the National Armaments Director Group and will continue to collaborate closely with all parts of the MOD to deliver the best possible service to families. Service families are our customers and are central to everything we do. We are determined to improve the service and the quality of homes to meet the needs of service families and to at least match to standards of a high quality professional private or Regulated provider.

The Deputy Director Accommodation North is responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership across DHS and industry partner teams ensuring service delivery to families and successful delivery of investments in improvements to the estate. You will be responsible for shaping where to invest with internal and external stakeholders to ensure various improvements and upgrades to the estate and service family accommodation. Overall, you will be responsible for setting the long-term strategic direction and for delivering a service to families. Due to the footprint of DHS, employees are split between the North and South regions, where you will be responsible for the North region.

Please Note: The future delivery model for this team is currently under review and may change as part of potential organisational developments. This could include the team or function transferring to a different employer or organisational structure in the future. Should activities transfer out of the Ministry of Defence existing employees transferring with those activities will maintain the same or substantially the same terms and conditions of employment.

Job description

Leadership and Management

• Responsible and accountable for Team performance, conduct and development. Developing and communicating clear service deliverable goals, directing performance and promoting continuous improvement. Develop training strategies and implementing solutions in accordance with the DHS Leadership Code.
• Lead the Team in an open and transparent manner, ensuring individuals have the appropriate levels of delegation and effectively monitoring and managing delegations in line with departmental levels/controls and standards.
• Responsible for demonstrating a personal commitment to DHS' Leadership Code and enabling and supporting the Team to successfully demonstrate the activities within the DHS’ Leadership Code.
• Accountable for ensuring the Team are appropriately staffed with the right skills and capabilities to deliver the DHS outputs in accordance with the Defence Infrastructure Organisation Command Plan, with objectives set for all staff, and reporting completed as per the timescales mandated for each grade. Ensuring that individuals are appropriately rewarded in accordance with the departmental guidance.
• Developing an environment where a high performing team culture can develop, promoting diversity and inclusion across the organisation.
• Supporting and maintain an effective working culture that provide employee engagement

Stakeholder Engagement

• Accountable for the effective engagement of DHS teams, Single Services, external consultants and Industry Partners on the strategy.
• Work as part of DHS Accommodation senior team to ensure that implications of a long-term strategy are fully understood and integrated.
• Responsible for effectively managing and coordinating communication to the public and press on matters relating to the strategy which may impact the reputation and integrity of the organisation.
• Responsible for engaging and managing the Industry Partners in delivering their commitments contractually, including all and any complaints.
• Internal DHS engagement with commercial and financial counterparts.

Strategy Development

• Develop a strategy on long term programmatic strategy for Defence Housing Estate. Long term strategy required on: Commercial; Accommodation Requirement and Plans: Disposal, Investment (Enhanced target standard, Net Zero, Minimum Energy Efficiency); Operational Usage.
• Establish prioritisation for investment; balanced against enduring commitment and operational requirements.

Commercial and Finance

• Budgetary responsibility and lead on spend alongside investment.
• Commercial understanding to ensure contracts are aligned and service provisions are being provided as per the Service Level Agreement.

Across Departmental and Ministerial Point of Contact (POC)

• To operate as a key POC for across departmental and wider government issues relating to the use of the estate.
• Accountable for the effective management, briefings, interfaces and relationships with Ministers and Senior Officials.

Person specification

• Experience in managing complex Category A delivery contracts, with demonstrable ability to manage contracts and ensure successful delivery through periods of ambiguity and change.
• Excellent leadership skills with an ability to create and present a clear vision and set direction that motivates and empowers others to work towards a common goal. You will also need to demonstrate when and how you have built, led and supported geographically dispersed teams to maintain high-performance in challenging environments.
• Proven ability to build credible and respected relationships, especially at board level, with experience of senior stakeholder management in a political, pressured environment. You must also demonstrate how you have effectively influenced and negotiated with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience using evidence-based approaches and expertise to make difficult decisions and provide accurate, professional advice to a variety of senior stakeholders, with a track record of using innovation and problem-solving skills to identify impactful solutions.
• Evidence of operating in a highly customer-focused environment that attracts significant stakeholder interest, with a demonstrable ability to successfully collaborate at all levels to deliver, including senior stakeholders and delivery partners.
• Government Property Profession (GPP) accreditation or willingness to achieve it within an agreed timeframe upon appointment.

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a strong field of candidates when there is a need to distinguish between candidates. This will be as a second sift, after the essential criteria has been considered:

• Chartered membership or fellowship of a relevant professional body (e.g., Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM), or equivalent).

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £90,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £26,073 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).

• 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

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process accessed via the Civil Service Jobs portal. This should be completed no later than 23:55 on Sunday 23 August 2026 and will involve providing the two documents which are weighted equally:

A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.​

A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) providing tangible examples that clearly evidence how you meet the essential criteria for the role.​

External candidates who join the MOD and are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

For further information about the role and full application process, please refer to the candidate pack attached below. If you wish to receive any material in a different format for accessibility, then please contact People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk.

Candidate Drop-In Session

The hiring manager, Phil Riley will be offering an online Q&A session on Monday 17 August 2026 at 11:00am – 11:45am to provide an overview of the role and welcome any questions you may have. This will take place via MS Teams and you can access the meeting by clicking here.

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 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 : SCS Recruitment Team
• Email : People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

Attachments

SCS1 Deputy Director Accommodation North - Candidate Information Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 240kB)