Deputy Director, Readiness, Response & Recovery

Job summary

The UK is facing increasingly volatile, diverse and interconnected risks, creating a pressing need to strengthen our overall national resilience system. This urgency is reflected in the Resilience Action Plan (2025)—with its emphasis on immediate actions and preparedness for catastrophic risks. It is also underscored in the Strategic Defence Review (2025) - which focuses on the growing importance of domestic resilience as hostile state threats escalate.

MHCLG holds a unique leadership role within the UK’s resilience system. Alongside MHCLG’s lead government department (LGD) responsibilities, the Department is responsible for supporting local resilience structures including 38 Local Resilience Forums in England and plays a key role in response and recovery in all crisis and emergencies. The Resilience and Recovery Directorate [RED] is responsible for ensuring MHCLG and the local resilience system are equipped to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies, now and in the future. We connect the local and national tiers of the resilience system and support MHCLG priorities on resilient places, housing and growth.

Job description

This is an exciting DD role for responsible for horizon scanning, preparing, responding and recovering from crisis and emergencies. This includes leading three G6 teams to:

• Set the strategic direction for MHCLG’s preparedness by ensuring the department has a clear, credible and well-governed framework for emergency response and recovery.
• Provide leadership on horizon scanning, readiness and resilience planning, ensuring the department is alert to emerging risks and prepared to act.
• Lead the department’s response architecture shaping the frameworks, tools and decision-support needed to enable effective leadership of complex and fast-moving incidents.
• Maintain strong relationships across other government departments, private offices, the Executive Team and operational partners to ensure a coherent and well coordinated government response.
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement by ensuring lessons from emergencies, debriefs and inquiries are translated into stronger preparedness, response and recovery capability.
• Revisit and refresh cross-government approaches to recovery planning and readiness to ensure recovery policy, funding and delivery arrangements are coherent, practical and responsive to local need.
• Lead the development of a capable, confident and well-prepared response workforce through strong arrangements for training, exercising, surge capacity and operational readiness.

Person specification

We are seeking a senior leader who can demonstrate credibility in fast-paced, high-pressure environments, and who is confident operating at the interface between strategy, policy and live operational delivery.

We would particularly welcome candidates with experience in the following areas:

• Leading or coordinating responses to major incidents, emergencies or crises in a government, emergency services, defence, intelligence or resilience context.
• Working within or alongside multi-agency emergency response structures for example Local Resilience Forums
• Leading operational teams with surge capacity requirements, including during periods of heightened demand or uncertainty
• Experience of national security, civil contingencies, counter-terrorism, or complex risk and threat environments
• Experience of recovery planning following major incidents, including working with local partners and communities

We would also welcome experience from sectors such as local government, emergency services, defence, infrastructure, or regulated operational environments where cross-organisational coordination and public service delivery under pressure is critical.

Essential criteria:

• Demonstrated experience of leading in complex, high-pressure operational environments, with direct accountability for managing or coordinating crisis, emergency or major incident response and recovery activity.
• Proven track record of delivering outcomes across strategy, policy and operational delivery, with the ability to translate ambiguous or fast-changing priorities into clear plans, decisive action and sustained organisational grip.
• Strong experience of operating across organisational boundaries, building trusted relationships and influencing senior stakeholders across government departments, local resilience structures, and external operational partners.
• Proven leadership of high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams in demanding environments, creating clarity of purpose, empowering delivery, and maintaining performance through periods of pressure, change or surge demand.
• Excellent judgement and communication skills, with the ability to rapidly interpret complex and incomplete information and provide clear, confident advice, assurance and challenge to Ministers and senior leaders.
• Experience of re operational delivery with evidence of driving measurable improvements in outcomes for the public in government, local government, emergency services or equivalent sectors.

Please note given the nature of this role:

• The postholder will be expected to participate in an on-call rota of 1 – 2 days per week, including weekends and bank holidays. SCS do not receive additional remuneration for duty.
• Occasional travel within England will be required to support operational coordination, engagement with local resilience partners, and attendance at meetings or exercises.
• This role requires Developed Vetting (DV) clearance. By applying, you confirm that you either currently hold DV clearance or are willing to undergo and successfully obtain DV clearance as a condition of appointment.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government 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).

• 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

Duty requirements - The successful candidate will be part of the SCS Duty Response Director rota, providing cover 1 – 2 days per week, including weekends and bank holidays. SCS do not receive additional remuneration for duty.

How to apply - To apply you will need to submit a CV and Statement of Suitability via the Be Applied link. Your CV (up to two pages) should set out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years. Your Statement of Suitability (up to two pages) should explain how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential and desirable criteria for the role.

Equal opportunities - We encourage candidates to complete the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Data via Be Applied. The data will be treated in the strictest confidence and used for monitoring and statistical purposes only.

Interview schemes - MHCLG is a Disability Confident employer and is committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health of all colleagues and applicants. We also operate the Great Place to Work for Veterans and Redeployment schemes. Applicants applying under these schemes who meet the essential criteria, will be invited to interview.

The panel:

• Zainab Agha, Director and Line Manager.
• Katherine Richardson, Director of Resilience, London Resilience
• Suzy Powell, Director, Emergency Preparedness and Health Protection, DHSC
• 1 other panel member TBC

The panel may be joined by one of our staff representatives from a pool of volunteers as part of our commitments to diversity and inclusion.

Shortlist - Applications will be sifted after the closing date and shortlisted candidates will be invited to the next phase of assessment and interview. Your CV and Statement of Suitability will be assessed against the essential criteria, these will also be used to form the basis of the panel’s final interview questions. Desirable criteria will only be used to determine the merit order of candidates who rank evenly against the essential criteria.

Assessment - Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend a Staff Engagement Panel, designed to provide insight into how you engage and interact with your team. Feedback from the session is passed to the panel for consideration alongside your final interview.

Candidates may also be invited to meet with a Senior Stakeholder. This is not a formal part of selection, but an informal chance to find out more about the role and organisation.

Shortlisted candidates may also be invited to undertake an exercise ahead of interviews - further details will be provided when invited to interview.

Expected timeline*

• Advert closes: 5th July 2026
• Shortlisting: W/C 6th July 2026
• Assessments: W/C 13th July 2026
• Interviews: W/C 20th July 2026

*Please note that we try to offer flexibility where possible, but it may not always be possible to offer alternative interview dates.

Salary - For external appointments, remuneration for this role is advertised at £81,000 pa plus a bonus opportunity depending on performance (within the normal Civil Service pay arrangements) and attractive pension. ​

For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If appointed on promotion you would get the higher of 10% uplift or the new minimum for SCSPB1 – Deputy Director. Please also note that, if successful, any existing specialist allowances you currently receive will not automatically transfer or be retained upon moving to this role.​

Future pay awards will normally be made in line with current SCS performance-related pay arrangements.​

Eligibility - This post is advertised on level transfer or promotion to existing civil servants, and externally.

Security Clearance – All MHCLG roles require candidates to meet the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) to confirm identity and employment history. Senior Civil Service (SCS) appointments require Security Check (SC) clearance as a minimum; however, this role ultimately requires Developed Vetting (DV) clearance. DV clearance will be undertaken as part of a single, continuous UK Security Vetting (UKSV) process, which incorporates SC-level checks before progressing to DV-specific assessments. All offers are conditional on successful completion of the required vetting. Further information is available in the Cabinet Office HMG Personnel Security Controls.

Full information & benefits - Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements
• Civil Service Nationality Requirements
• Right to Work
• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles
• CV Declaration
• Sponsorships
• Salary and Grade
• Existing Civil Servants
• Conflict of Interest
• Location and Flexible Working
• Fixed Term Contracts
• Internal Fraud Database
• Appeals and Complaints

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 : SCS Recruitment
• Email : scs.recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scs.recruitment@communities.gov.uk