Deputy Director, UK Presence Strategy and Pavilion Delivery

Job summary

About the Project

DBT is leading preparations for the UK’s participation at Expo 2030 Riyadh, taking place from 1 October 2030 to 31 March 2031. World Expos are major global events - with an expected 42 million visitors and 197 participating countries, Expo 2030 will be a major moment for the UK’s presence on the world stage and an opportunity to highlight the importance of the bilateral relationship between the UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ​

​Designed to appeal to diverse audiences, including diplomatic partners, businesses, and the visiting public, the UK Pavilion at Expo 2030 will provide an immersive experience that allows visitors to engage with the UK in a dynamic and memorable way. Every aspect - from the architecture and landscape, through to the interiors, visitor experience, and programme of public and VIP events - will be designed to show the best of the UK.​

This is an exciting and challenging role, providing senior leadership and strategic direction to ensure the UK has an impactful presence at World Expo 2030. Leading a multi-disciplinary team, the role integrates strategy, UK Pavilion design, build and operations oversight, commercial negotiations and supplier management and the development of private sector partnerships into a unified vision that advances HMG priorities, strengthens the UK–KSA relationship through our presence at Expo, and delivers an exceptional visitor and stakeholder experience.​

This role is critical to the success of the Project – delivering a brilliant visitor experience at the UK Pavilion on time, on budget, and fully staffed.​

​The ideal candidate is a solutions-focused problem solver who will lead on strategic stakeholder engagement, (including Whitehall departments and the embassy network in Riyadh), procurement strategy and commercial delivery (working closely with the DBT Commercial team), operational planning, communications, private sector investment and supplier management to broker delivery at pace. Working with the Project SRO, you will be expected to clearly communicate and oversee the creative direction of the UK Pavilion visitor experience and events programme, ensuring its join up with the UK’s strategy and messaging, together with the design, build and operational planning of the UK Pavilion itself. The successful candidate will be able to direct a team to ensure efficient completion of milestones on the Project’s critical path for “Day 1” opening in October 2030. ​

The candidate will be expected to demonstrate and promote civil service values across the team.

Job description

Strategic Leadership and Programme Direction

• Working with the SRO, set the overarching strategic direction for the UK Presence at Expo 2030, ensuring all workstreams operate to a shared narrative, strategic objectives, and four-year delivery plan.
• Provide senior leadership across strategy, creative design, pavilion design and build, operations, private sector partnerships, supplier management and communications ensuring coherence, ambition, and high standards across the UK programme.
• Provide strategic oversight and advice to the Project SRO; leading on resolving key strategic issues where required.

Governance, Performance, Assurance and Financial Oversight

• Oversee strategic, financial and delivery governance frameworks, ensuring robust decision making and performance management.
• Ensure commercial strategy, procurement activity and supplier performance management drive best value.
• Support the SRO in overseeing business case development and financial scrutiny across multi-million-pound budgets

Leadership and People

• Provide strong and visible leadership as a key member of the programme Senior Leadership Team
• Line manage at least three G6 workstream leads and champion capability-building across multidisciplinary teams.
• Lead workforce planning for a team that will scale over the Expo lifecycle.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, psychological safety, and high performance.
• Drive delivery by developing, inspiring, engaging and motivating a diverse team.

Person specification

• Strong experience of leading and delivering large-scale, public facing international events including oversight of creative design, event operations, and design and management of public-facing hospitality and retail offerings.
• Strong experience of leading and managing complex commercial deliverables, including high value procurements, sponsorship and brand partnerships.
• Strong experience of delivery through collaboration and partnering in complex environments and with senior stakeholders, including evidence of high personal impact and judgement.
• Strong financial acumen and experience of contract and supplier management, overseeing large budgets and supplier ecosystems.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and influencing skills, with the ability to build effective relationships and articulate complex issues with clarity to diverse audiences;
• Be an outstanding people leader with a proven track record of inspiring and motivating large, dispersed and multidisciplinary teams; with experience of establishing high-performance and a collaborative ‘can do’ culture, including during periods of significant pressure and uncertainty.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Department for Business and Trade 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.

• 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

How to apply​​

Please follow the online instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply for this role. Applications must be submitted no later than 23:55 on 17/05/26.

You will be asked to upload the two documents outlined below.

It is essential you add your full name to both documents:

1. A CV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role. Please provide reasons for any gaps within the last two years.​​
2. A Supporting Statement of around two pages of A4, providing examples of how your experience meets the essential criteria.​​

Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification. ​​

Candidate Information Call ​

The hiring manager for this position; Paul Kellett will be hosting a virtual call for any interested applicants to discuss the role and answer any questions. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process. ​

​This will be held via Microsoft Teams on 13 May at 2:30pm (UK time). ​

Please click here for the meeting link.

For further details on the recruitment process please refer to the Candidate Information pack attached at the bottom.

If you encounter any issues or are unable to apply online please contact SCSRecruitment@businessandtrade.gov.uk in the first instance​.

DBT now host Senior Civil Service (SCS) Candidate Support sessions for those wanting to learn more about the application and recruitment processes for SCS roles within DBT, if you are interested, please register for a session here - https://registration.crowdcomms.com/dbtscsrecruitment

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.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 : SCSRecruitment@businessandtrade.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : SCSRecruitment@businessandtrade.gov.uk

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact DBT by email at SCSRecruitment@businessandtrade.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: Civil Service Commission Complaints​

Attachments

2026-04-17 DD, UK Presence Strategy and Pavilion Delivery Opens in new window (pdf, 6088kB)Accessible Candidate Pack - Deputy Director, UK Presence Strategy and Pavilion Delivery Opens in new window (docx, 153kB)