Deputy Director - Financial Resilience and Controls

Job summary

Following one of the most significant reforms to energy supplier regulation in a generation, Ofgem is looking for a Deputy Director – Financial Resilience and Controls (FRC) Policy to lead the next evolution of financial resilience across Great Britain's energy market.

Ofgem is Great Britain's independent energy regulator. We're at the forefront of change across the energy sector, driving toward Net Zero whilst protecting energy consumers, especially vulnerable people.

This is a permanent, full-time opportunity to lead one of Ofgem's most strategically important policy portfolios, ensuring financial resilience remains effective, proportionate and fit for a rapidly evolving energy sector.

Specifically, you’ll shape financial resilience, supplier governance and market confidence, influencing nationally significant decisions, ensuring resilience remains at the heart of wider market reform whilst balancing consumer protection with investment, innovation and sustainable market growth.

Joining the Financial Resilience and Controls senior leadership team, you'll operate at the forefront of regulatory policy, help shape the Directorate's strategy, culture and direction, and create an environment where people thrive, innovation is encouraged, and high-quality analysis is translated into effective regulatory outcomes.

You'll also oversee the ongoing evolution of Ofgem's financial resilience framework, ensuring it continues to reflect market developments, operational experience and emerging risks. Working across the organisation and with external stakeholders, you'll help build a resilient, well-governed energy market that delivers confidence for consumers, investors and industry alike.

We're looking for someone with demonstrable experience leading complex policy, regulatory or strategic programmes that have delivered significant organisational or market-wide impact. You'll also bring experience influencing senior decision-makers and external stakeholders, strong analytical judgement, experience leading high-performing multidisciplinary teams through change, the ability to communicate complex technical issues clearly and credibly, and experience balancing long-term strategic objectives with immediate operational priorities.

In return, you'll have the chance to play a defining role in the future of one of Great Britain's most important sectors, guiding its evolution and supporting the energy sector through a period of significant change and opportunity.

We have a critical purpose to protect consumers whilst enabling investment, innovation and resilient energy markets. Join us and help ensure Great Britain's energy sector remains financially resilient, investable and fit for the future.

Read on and find out more.

Job description

Key Responsibilities

• Delivery of a significant programme of work to help set the strategic direction for Financial Resilience and Controls policy, managing and coordinating successful outcomes across teams.
• Lead the ongoing development of of Ofgem’s financial resilience and prudentialregulatory framework, ensuring it remains proportionate, effective and aligned to Ofgem's strategic objectives.
• Shaping Ofgem’s long-term approach to supplier resilience, governance and investability, balancing consumer protection, innovation and market growth.
• Provide authoritative advice on complex financial resilience issues carrying significant consumer, financial and reputational implications.
• Build trusted relationships with government, regulated suppliers, investors, lenders, consumer bodies and industry leaders to shape regulatory outcomes and strengthen confidence in the sector.
• Provide visible leadership as part of the FRC Senior Leadership Team, taking collective responsibility for portfolio delivery, organisational culture and strategic priorities.
• Oversee the review of financial resilience arrangements, ensuring decisions are evidence-based, operationally deliverable and supported by robust evaluation and governance.
• Build and maintain a high-performing, inclusive FRC Policy team, developing future leaders and fostering a culture of accountability, innovation and continuous improvement.
• Ensures effective financial stewardship by managing budgets responsibly, delivering value for money, and making informed spending decisions that align with organisational priorities and resource requirements.

Key Outputs and Deliverables

• Oversee the evidence-based review and optimisation of a suite of policies aimed at delivering sufficient financial and operational capability in retail suppliers, including capital and liquidity adequacy, ringfencing policies, supplier governance, and policies around insolvency such as the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) Levy Offset.
• Provide strategic leadership on the intersection between financial resilience, market attractiveness and investment confidence, ensuring regulatory interventions support long-term sustainable investment in the retail energy sector.
• Act as Ofgem’s senior policy authority on financial resilience, providing support, challenge and thought leadership across Markets Group to ensure resilience considerations are reflected in wider regulatory policy development.
• Ensure that the FRC Policy team act as a strategic link between policy and implementation, learning from evidence and feedback to improve policy and helping guide implementation.
• Strengthen the understanding of Ofgem’s role and policies relating to financial resilience through transparent reporting and effective stakeholder engagement.
• Build strategic and trusted relationships with external stakeholders including DESNZ, supply licensees, consumer groups, and trade bodies.
• Act as an active and collaborative member of the wider FRC portfolio senior leadership – taking collective responsibility for the Directorate’s overall delivery, risks and culture in line with Markets Group and wider Ofgem corporate priorities.

Key Corporate Responsibilities

• Take an active leadership role in the development of the Financial Resilience and Controls Directorate, Markets Group and wider organisation, helping to shape and deliver Ofgem's strategic priorities, including the successful implementation of the Ofgem Review and its intended outcomes
• Take collective responsibility for the effective delivery of Ofgem's strategic objectives, ensuring resources, risks and priorities are managed effectively across portfolios.
• Represent Ofgem externally, building trusted relationships and advocating for Ofgem's priorities across Government, industry, consumers and investors.
• Lead and develop a high-performing, inclusive and future-focused workforce, ensuring the capability and leadership needed to deliver Ofgem's ambitions.
• Promote professional excellence through active support of Ofgem's Professions model, providing mentoring, leadership and thought leadership within relevant disciplines.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Demonstrable experience leading complex policy, regulatory or strategic programmes that have delivered significant organisational or market-wide impact. (Lead)
• Experience influencing senior decision-makers and external stakeholders in highly scrutinised environments, including the ability to navigate competing interests and complex trade-offs. (Lead)
• Strong analytical judgement, including the ability to interpret complex evidence, assess risk and make recommendations on issues with significant financial, consumer or reputational implications. (Lead)
• Experience leading and developing high-performing multidisciplinary teams through change and ambiguity.
• Ability to communicate complex technical issues clearly and credibly to executive, board and external audiences.
• Experience balancing long-term strategic objectives with delivery of immediate operational priorities.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• You will be required to deliver a presentation at interview stage

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, OFGEM 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 (opens in a new window).Ofgem can offer you a comprehensive and competitive benefits package which includes; SCS1 holiday entitlement; Excellent training and development opportunities; The opportunity to join the generous Civil Service pension which also includes a valuable range of benefits; hybrid working (currently 1 day a week in the office but this is kept under review), flexible working hours and family friendly policies. Plus, lots of other benefits including clean and bright offices based centrally, engaged networks and teams and an opportunity to contribute to our ambitious and important targets of establishing a Net Zero energy system by 2050. This exciting blend of professional challenge and personal reward identifies career opportunities at Ofgem as something to get excited about.

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, Experience and Technical skills.

When you press the ‘Apply now’ button, you will be asked to complete personal details (not seen by the sift panel), your career history and qualifications.

You will then be asked to provide a 750 word ‘personal statement’ evidencing how you meet the essential and desirable skills and capabilities listed in the role profile. Please ensure you demonstrate clearly, within your supporting statement, how you meet each of the criteria listed in the role profile.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application or used during interview, including your CV and any statements or examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Ofgem takes any incidences of cheating very seriously. Please ensure all examples provided are of your own experience. Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant applications will be withdrawn from the process. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

Please refer to Civil Service candidate advice on the acceptable use of artificial intelligence within the recruitment and selection process - Artificial intelligence and recruitment , Civil Service Careers

The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found by [ https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn].

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

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.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Jon Townley
• Email : recruitment@ofgem.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@ofgem.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. You have the right to complain if you feel there has been a breach of these Recruitment Principles.

In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly via recruitment@ofgem.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission, please visit their website.

Attachments

Role Profile_474593 Deputy Director - Financial Resilience and Controls Opens in new window (pdf, 118kB)Candidate Pack_474593 Deputy Director - Financial Resilience and Controls Opens in new window (pdf, 848kB)