Deputy Director National Security and Resilience & Deputy Director Energy Resilience

Job summary

Deputy Director National Security and Resilience (NSR) & Deputy Director Energy Resilience (ER)

Two Roles

The Energy Security and Resilience Directorate ensures energy security in the short- to medium-term, driving cross-Government efforts to maintain a resilient energy system. As part of this multi-disciplinary team, you will lead policy to ensure gas, electricity, and fuel reach where they are needed and shape the resilience of future energy systems as part of Net Zero.

The teams' work is high-profile, with significant senior and ministerial interest. They handle some of the UK's most significant risks, as outlined in the National Security Risk Assessment. You will collaborate with industry, regulators, leading practitioners, and governments across the UK and internationally.

Both the NSR and ER teams ensures energy (gas, electricity, and fuel) reaches customers and manages emergencies. They work with stakeholders to ensure the future energy transition as part of Net Zero is secure and resilient. The team is a Centre of Excellence for National Security and Crisis Management, driving cyber security in the energy sector, coordinating threats from hostile states, and assuring our ability to respond to crises affecting the energy and civil nuclear sectors.

Occasionally, emergencies within the energy sector occur – both these roles will provide leadership during responses as a senior leader on risk and crisis management within DESNZ. Training is available. In exceptional circumstances, there may be a requirement to work outside normal hours during emergencies.

Job description

Job description for Deputy Director National Security and Resilience :

The National Security & Response Team safeguards the energy sector by addressing critical threats, ensuring coherence on our national security policy and readiness as a Lead Government Department during emergencies. The Cyber Policy Team is responsible for setting and enforcing cyber security policy for the GB gas, electricity and oil subsectors. They work with industry and Government Departments to understand the cyber threat and work to build resilience to cyber-attacks, strengthen response and recovery measures and regulate critical operators. The Emergency Response: Capabilities and Operations (ERCO) team lead an integrated and coordinated response to emergencies on behalf of DESNZ, supporting our sector teams to fulfil our responsibilities as a Lead Government Department. The State Threats Team work to protect the energy sector against threats from hostile states and to ensure capabilities to allow DESNZ operates as an effective national security department.

We seek an exceptional leader to join the team as Deputy Director National Security & Response. The ideal candidate will use their leadership, relationship-building, communication, and strategic thinking skills to address energy resilience and security challenges. As a key member of the senior leadership team, this role will contribute to making our teams and Directorate a brilliant, welcoming, inclusive, and fulfilling place to work. In energy sector emergencies, this role will provide leadership as a key member of the Energy Security and Resilience Directorate. There are excellent learning and development opportunities across crisis management, national security, and energy resilience teams, as well as through our Departmental Academy and cross-government programs, to help you further develop your skills and experience.

As Deputy Director National Security and Resilience , your responsibilities include:

• National Security strategy – shaping and delivering a new National Security Strategic Framework for energy which provides the strategic direction for how the country will protect the energy system from evolving national security threats.
• National Security co-ordination – acting as the lead for the department in overall co-ordination of national security activities and interests through the National Security Hub, as DESNZ account manager for the UK Intelligence Community and National Security Secretariat and NSC.
• National Security capability – continuing to drive forward the National Security Network in the department, to drive up participation, capability, and identity for those across DESNZ working on security matters, including running seminars.
• Cyber strategy and regulation – delivering on the Energy Cyber Strategy jointly with Ofgem, NESO and the National Cyber Security Centre, and being responsible for the department’s role as Competent Authority for the energy sector to drive up cyber resilience standards across the energy industry.
• Sub-sea infrastructure protection – contributing to wider government efforts and strategy to protect our critical subsea infrastructure from external interference and accidental damage, including our major gas pipelines, electricity sables, and interconnectors (both gas and electricity).
• Sabotage – ensuring the energy industry continues to be cognisant of and works to secure from the threat of sabotage to infrastructure, including low level, unsophisticated and deniable threats.
• Investment security and cases – providing assurance and scrutiny of major investment cases and transactions under the National Security and Investment Act, and providing National Security advice to the Secretary of State on the risk to key energy infrastructure investments and projects in the UK.
• Crisis response and emergencies – responsibility for the department’s emergency response function and capability, and operation of the energy Emergency Operations Centre, ensuring that the department remains best in class in crisis and emergency response (whether national security related or otherwise).

Job description for Deputy Director, Deputy Director Energy Resilience:

The Energy Resilience Team monitors risks to gas, electricity, and oil supplies. They understand the risk to Critical National Infrastructure from hazards and threats now and through to 2050. The team maintains the National Emergency Plans for Fuel and for Gas and Electricity, ensuring ongoing operational readiness. They are developing a Catastrophic Risk Programme to deal with energy-driven system-wide risks, including a National Power Outage. The team responds to energy incidents or emergencies and develops risk-specific plans and operational readiness for specific circumstances.
We seek an exceptional leader to join the team as Deputy Director Energy Resilience. The ideal candidate will use their leadership, relationship-building, communication, and strategic thinking skills to address energy resilience and security challenges. As a key member of the senior leadership team, this role will contribute to making our teams and Directorate a brilliant, welcoming, inclusive, and fulfilling place to work. In energy sector emergencies, this role will provide leadership as a key member of the Energy Security and Resilience Directorate. There are excellent learning and development opportunities across crisis management, national security, and energy resilience teams, as well as through our Departmental Academy and cross-government programs, to help you further develop your skills and experience.

As Deputy Director Energy Resilience , your responsibilities include:

• Energy resilience strategy – developing and delivering a new strategy for energy resilience, working with Ofgem, the National Energy System Operator, National Gas Transmission, and industry to set a clear ambition for the resilience of the nation’s energy sector both today and in the clean energy future, underpinned by clear standards, and consideration of the energy resilience of wider Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).
• Energy resilience legislation – pursue legislative changes and a legislative vehicle required to implement the new energy resilience strategy, covering standards for energy sector, energy resilience of wider CNI sectors, and energy emergency co-ordination.
• Energy resilience planning – ensuring ongoing planning for the hazards and threats to energy set out in the National Security Risks Assessment, to understand the risk, work to prevent it happening, and preparation of contingency plans. This includes maintaining and updating the two National Emergency Plans (gas and electricity; and fuel), taking part in major exercising of plans annually.
• Physical and personnel security – delivery of measures to ensure physical security standards and personnel vetting requirements in the energy industry, across electricity, gas and fuel, and particularly so for Critical National Infrastructure, including oversight of armed policing at critical energy sites.
• Energy incident and crisis response – responding as necessary to incidents, emergencies or crises that relate to electricity, gas or fuel, including deployment of the National Emergency Plans, and the tools within it including the emergency powers in Energy Act, the Electricity Supply Emergency Code, Operation ESCALIN (military drivers to support fuel distribution) and the Reserve Tanker Fleet (80 tankers for moving fuel). This involves very close work with COBR.
• Catastrophic risk management – developing the best possible plans to minimise the risk of and response to the catastrophic risks held by DESNZ, including a National Power Outage and National Gas Supply Emergency, driving the level of ambition and big choices needed for both energy-specific plans but also plans for handling the cascading society-wide secondary impacts of such scenarios (across water, food, telecommunications, transport, healthcare, and public order).

Person specification

It is essential in your application you provide evidence and proven examples in each of the following selection criteria below:

Essential Criteria:

• Proven experience of national security or resilience and crisis response and operation with the national security, resilience, and crisis management community.
• Experience of leading and motivating teams through complex policy issues, sometimes at pace, whilst also ensuring the welfare and resilience of the team and self – ensuring a high performing team with a genuine commitment to their wellbeing.
• Ability to understand and drive forward the strategic agenda, with the capacity to look beyond immediate pressures to identify long-term opportunities and risks, spot the gaps and finding ways to drive forward positive progress
• Strong focus on delivery of commitments, managing resources to balance more immediate responsive requirements with a sustained commitment to longer term strategic delivery
• Excellentjudgement and decision making to be capable of navigating complex policy issues, analysis, and political context to make appropriate decisions and come to a clear way forward (often where there is no perfect answer).
• Ability to communicate complex policy and security information and advice to stakeholders - particularly senior ministers and officials – in a compelling and succinct way, that draws out the key takeaways and choices and decisions.

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero 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.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
• A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.

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 and Experience.

To apply for this post please follow the instructions on the CS Jobs website by no later than 23:55 Wednesday 4th February 2026 . As part of the application process you are asked to complete the following:

1. A CVsetting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
2. A Statement of Suitability(no more than 1,250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.
3. You will be asked at the application stage to confirm which role you are applying for, or if you wish to be considered for both.
4. Final Interview

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 developed vetting (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 : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance desnzresourcing.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/contact-us/

Attachments

2026.01.20 x 2 DD Roles National Security and Resilience and Energy Resilience Candidate Information Pack 444553 Opens in new window (pdf, 1041kB)444553 DD National Security Resilience & DD Energy Resilience Accessibility Pack Opens in new window (docx, 218kB)