Deputy Director, Sport

Job summary

We are running an information session where prospective applicants can find out more about the role. This will be hosted virtually by Emma Floyd, and will take place on:

- Wednesday 26th August at 1:30pm

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department.

It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have about the application, and the interview and assessment process.

Please register your interest before 9am Wednesday 27th August by filling out this form and you will be sent an invitation.
Invites will only be sent after this deadline has passed.

This will take place virtually, via Microsoft Teams.
If you wish to attend the session anonymously please ensure that you have changed how your name appears before joining the call. Please note that the session will not be recorded.

Job description

As Deputy Director of Sport within DCMS you will lead a team an exceptional team navigating a fast-moving, high-profile brief that drives the Government’s
vision for sport and physical activity across the UK. We sit at the intersection of public health, economic growth, and national pride, using the unique power of sport to transform lives, strengthen communities, and project the UK’s soft power on the global stage.
The critical SCS1 role works with the sector, four Arm's Length Bodies and across government on:
● Participation Strategy: Formulating the long-term strategic blueprint to get more people active, specifically addressing stubborn demographic inequalities in physical activity.
● Sector Growth & Integrity: Partnering with the commercial and grassroots sport sector to accelerate the growth of women's sport, drive inward investment, and promote world-class governance.
● Elite Sport Delivery: Working alongside UK Sport to maintain our proud standing as a top-five Olympic and Paralympic superpower.
● Societal Value: Leveraging sporting investments to achieve cross-government objectives, from enhancing local community cohesion to projecting international soft power.

As Deputy Director, you will lead a high-performing, multi-disciplinary team of around 30 professionals dedicated to delivering high-impact policy across the high-profile sport sectors. This vibrant team brings together subject matter experts, specialist analysts, and policy professionals who thrive in a fast-paced, politically sensitive environment.

Leading through two team leaders you will set strategic direction on priorities ranging from improving the health of the nation through increasing levels of physical activity to maintaining a high performance sport system that retains the UK’s position as a global leader. You will hold oversight and sponsorship of three key delivery partners: UK Sport, Sport England, and the Sports Ground Safety Authority, working closely with them to ensure robust governance and alignment.

While we operate as a cohesive national unit, our geographic footprint is strategically evolving. Our Manchester hub is a key growth area, currently hosting approximately 30% of the wider directorate alongside our London hub (60%) and regional offices (10%). We are highly motivated to grow our senior leadership presence outside of London and actively encourage applications from candidates who wish to be based in our Manchester hub.

Person specification

The ideal candidate would have the following key skills and experience, please note that desirable skills will only be used in the event of tied candidates:

Essential Requirments
● Leadership: Proven ability to inspire, direct, and develop a high-performing, multi-disciplinary team (up to 30 professionals across multiple hubs) to drive forward-thinking policy debates, shape national conversations, and deliver complex regulatory outcomes in a high-profile landscape.

● Seeing the Big Picture: Proven experience translating macro-level economic, social, and political trends into cohesive strategy, ensuring long-term policy and delivery proactively anticipates market innovations and broader public impacts.

● Working Together: Outstanding relationship-building and communication skills. You have a proven ability to to cultivate influential relationships across a complex, high-profile sector, challenge constructively, and unite commercial, grassroots, and international stakeholders around shared nati

● Innovative Delivery & Execution: A proven track record of moving from strategy to concrete execution - whether in the private, third, or public sectors. You foster a culture of innovative thinking, spotting emerging market trends and translating them into tangible services or protections for the public.

● Managing a Quality Service: Ability to ruthlessly prioritise workloads and establish clear boundaries, protecting long-term strategic delivery while successfully navigating high volumes of fast-paced, reactive demands.

Desirable Skills

● Experience working in the sport sector.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £86,000, Department for Culture, Media and Sport contributes £24,914 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).

DCMS values its staff and offers a wide range of benefits to everyone who works here. We’re committed to developing talent, and supporting colleagues to have great careers in our department. To support with that, some of the benefits we offer include:

• Flexible working arrangements and hybrid working - DCMS staff work on a flexible basis with time spent in offices, and time spent working from home

• 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing to 30 days after 5 years’ service

• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

• Access to the Edenred employee benefits system which offers discounts to popular retailers and access to various useful resources such as financial and savings advice

• 3 days of paid volunteering leave

• Up to 9 months maternity leave on full pay + generous paternity and adoption leave

• Staff reward and recognition bonuses that operate throughout the year

• Occupational sick pay

• Access to the Employee Assistance Programme which offers staff 24/7 confidential support and resources such as counselling, debt guidance and management advice

• Active and engaged staff networks to join including the LGBT+, Ethnic Diversity, Mental Health and Wellbeing and Gender Equality Networks

• Exceptional learning and development opportunities that you can explore alongside your day to day work

• Season ticket loan, cycle to work scheme and much more!

Terms and conditions at SCS grades will vary. Those applying for SCS roles should refer to the candidate information pack for more information on terms and conditions.

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 vacancy, you will need to submit the following, via the Civil Service Jobs portal, which will assessed against the essential criteria for the role:

➔ A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements.
◆ Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained.
◆ The CV should not exceed more than 2 sides of A4 and you should copy and paste your CV into the "Job History" section on Civil Service Jobs on the Civil Service Jobs application form.➔ A Statement of Suitability explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role.
◆ You must make direct reference to the essential criteria and back-up your statement with evidence rather than relying on assertions.
◆ This should be 2 sides of A4 and no more than a maximum of 1000 words.

For the shortlist, we will select applicants who demonstrate the best fit for the role by considering the evidence provided in your application and how this meets the essential requirements. Following the shortlist there are no further pass/fail assessment stages and all candidates shortlisted will be invited to the final interview stage.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Shortlist
The panel will assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit with the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the
criteria set out in the ‘essential requirements’ section of this pack. Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application.

Feedback
Following interview, all shortlisted candidates will receive their outcome along with some short written feedback on performance at interview.
Please note you will only receive feedback if you complete the interview stage.

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 : SCS Recruitment
• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact the Head of Resourcing at recruitment.team@dcms.gov.uk, in the first instance.

Attachments

Deputy Director, Sport DCMS Accessibility Pack Opens in new window (docx, 28kB)476548 - Deputy Director, Sport - Candidate Information Pack (2) (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 4808kB)