Deputy Head National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence - United States (NCGI-US) and Senior Liaison Officer to the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) St. Louis

Job summary

As an important part of the Ministry of Defence, Defence Intelligence (DI) provides intelligence analysis, specialist outputs and advice that supports decision makers across government. At the heart of DI is the National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence (NCGI).

Everything happens somewhere. NCGI produces intelligence that is referenced in time and space to help decision makers to understand, plan, navigate, and target: to understand what is going on.

NCGI is the primary provider of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) advice and expertise, comprising imagery intelligence, geospatial analysis, geospatial services, foundation data, military mapping and, in partnership with the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) and the Meteorological Office, assured data for safety of navigation. We are a national capability, recognisably operating alongside other national intelligence agencies and as the primary interface between the UK and international geospatial intelligence partners.

You may think you need to be an analyst or have an intelligence background to work for NCGI; this is not true. There is a wide range of exciting roles available. Without our highly dedicated teams of enabling staff, such as IT support, finance, security, and facilities management, our critical outputs would just not be possible. We employ many Civil Servants who play a pivotal role in Defence, nationally and internationally, and we are proud to be part of a diverse, forward thinking, broad organisation.

Based in the United States, the NCGI - US team leads the UK’s GEOINT engagement with key regional partners as part of the broader Defence Intelligence Liaison Staff - United States (DI-USA). The team is based in the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in Springfield, Virginia and St. Louis, Missouri.

This is an exciting opportunity for an effective, motivated and engaging individual to take on the role of Deputy Head of NCGI-US. This is a leadership position supporting the delivery of the UK’s GEOINT mission in the United States and is the Senior Liaison Officer to the US NGA in St. Louis. This involves significant engagement with Senior US decision makers, the sphere of influence being both internal and external to the US NGA. This role is also the NCGI-US lead for engagement on foundation geospatial services, data, military mapping and assured data for safety of navigation.

This role is advertised at 37 hours per week. Tour length is 3 Years with the option to extend a further 2 years.

Job description

This role requires strong strategic awareness, excellent stakeholder engagement skills, and the ability to operate confidently with senior decision makers in a complex, international environment. The successful candidate will play a key role in protecting and strengthening one of the UK’s most important intelligence partnerships. This involves sensing and reporting to UK customers on GEOINT issues to ensure UK-US polices, capabilities and priorities are understood, and where feasible aligned, to achieve operational interoperability. You will also work with FVEY (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, USA) intelligence and GEOINT partnership partners and support multinational GEOINT Fora.

The key responsibilities of this post include, but are not limited to:

• Deputise for and represent Head NCGI-US as the lead GEOINT representative for the UK in all aspects of US and FVEY engagement.
• Lead on developing the NCGI-US engagement strategy.
• Handle relationships between US and UK offices, facilitating introductions, video conferences and visits up to ministerial level as the need arises.
• Collaborate closely with the NGA St. Louis Executive and NGA senior leaders as the UK’s focal point in St. Louis across the GEOINT business spectrum. Also represent wider UK DI and UK government in the Mid-West region on GEOINT matters.
• Lead the NCGI-US Foundation GEOINT portfolio as the senior Subject Matter Expert for foundation GEOINT issues across NGA and US Intelligence Community.
• Enhance relationships and improve GEOINT interoperability, exchange, co-production, collaborative working agreements, tradecraft, standards, training, and technical capability.
• Improve burden sharing through the exchange of GEOINT data, products, and services between the UK, US and other FVEY partners to meet crisis response, current operations, and contingency readiness, developing and maintaining policy and MOUs to meet these needs.
• Support FVEY and multinational Foundation GEOINT fora and working groups.
• Advise and influence the development of UK foundation GEOINT capabilities through the monitoring and assessment of US initiatives and capabilities and find opportunities to improve foundation and analytic GEOINT collaboration, partnership, and burden sharing.
• Lead on Aeronautical Information policy/ Flight Safety Navigation and be the focal point for liaison between NGA and NCGI’s Aeronautical Information capability.
• Lead on the developing the UK’s interaction with the St. Louis Area Geospatial Ecosystem.
• Identify opportunities within the new NGA Campus in St. Louis, including developing a strategy to improve the opportunities afforded by the new location, and feed back lessons learned to inform similar UK-based projects.

This role has direct line management of one civil servant and oversight of one RAF Flight Sergeant.

In Defence Intelligence (DI) our people solve problems, create understanding and give perspective to the diverse and complex Defence threats and challenges in a rapidly changing world. Together our civilians and military personnel inform decision making in Defence, manage complex finance programmes and develop new technology.

In DI we believe your unique experiences, view and understanding of the world could provide a vital perspective and contribution to our work. We recognise that great minds do not think alike and are striving to increase our diversity representation at all levels. As an equal opportunities employer we hire, train and promote people based on merit and inspire to create an inclusive workplace free of discrimination. We also offer flexible working arrangements such as flexi-time, job share and compressed hours.

All jobs advertised in DI are subject to fair and open competition.

If you need to contact Defence Business Services (DBS) regarding this vacancy, please indicate that your vacancy is being handled by Resourcing Team 1. If you experience any technical difficulties with the CS Jobs system, please contact the Support Team at candidate@support.oleeo.com

Person specification

The following are all highly desirable (essential) skills, knowledge and experience:

• An understanding of the UK GEOINT capability and how it operates within Defence Intelligence and wider Defence, with the ability to apply this knowledge at both the operational and strategic levels.
• Experience representing the UK in a foreign or multinational organisation, able to distil high level direction into actions to develop and maintain the UK’s status as a capable and credible ally.
• Experience of operating autonomously with tact, diplomacy and good judgement, and adept at forging and managing strong relationships with partners.
• Leadership and management skills, including the ability to develop and mentor both staff you directly manage and others within your wider team.
• The ability to work remotely from your management and team with autonomy and confidence, including establishing and maintaining constructive working relationships at a distance and keeping yourself and others well informed.

Having the following knowledge and experience is also desirable:

• Working in an international setting with partners and allies.
• Working in wider Defence Intelligence.
• An understanding of the Foundation Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) environment as defined in the Defence Geography Functional Competence Framework.

We will assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Changing and improving
• Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Leadership

All applicants will need to meet US State Department eligibility criteria for accreditation, notably this bars dual US Nationals/Lawful Permanent Residents, has a minimum age of 20 years old, and an expectation that you will not have held another accredited post in the USA within the 3 years prior to posting.

U.S (United States). visa law does not recognise common-law relationships. Where only a tourist Visa is given by USA immigration, we are unable to accept the partner as ‘officially recognised’ and the employee is classed as unaccompanied for the overseas tour. This is in line with the current policy which states that whilst we might recognise SOWER status, we are still bound by the host countries VISA requirements, and we can only support the partner if a full VISA is provided not a tourist VISA.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Changing and Improving
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £61,630, Ministry of Defence contributes £17,854 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%
• Leave entitlement - 25-day annual leave allowance per year increasing by 1 day per year (maximum 30 days per year). In addition, 8 statutory Bank Holidays and 1 privilege day per year.
• Special Paid Leave to volunteer up to 6 days a year.
• Health and Wellbeing - staff have access to the exceptional gymnasium facilities within the new NGA campus at St. Louis.
• The new NGA campus in St. Louis has free car parking and other facilities including dining facilities.
• This position is in the USA and offers full relocation allowances subject to availability. Cost of Living Overseas Allowances is payable based on personal circumstances and marital status.

Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

Discover My Benefits
Please follow the link to visit the Discover My Benefits site which showcases the benefits and discounts offered when working as a civilian for the MOD: https://discovermybenefits.mod.gov.uk/civilian/

This post offers full relocation allowances subject to availability. Cost of Living Overseas Allowances is payable based on personal circumstances and marital status.

Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

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.

Applicants should apply for this role online, via the website.

This vacancy will be assessed at Grade 7.

At sift, applicants will be sifted against the essential and desirable experience and skills criteria defined in the Personal Specification, using evidence provided in the candidate’s CV and Personal Statement.

All applicants will need to provide a personal statement, of no more than 750 words, including evidence of the essential and desirable criteria requested within the job advert.

At Interview, applicants will be assessed against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

Behaviours:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Changing and Improving
• Leadership
• Communicating & Influencing

A CV will be required for this position, this cannot be uploaded to the advert. You will submit using the CV template provided on the CS Jobs dashboard in part two of your application, detailing job history, previous experience, and skills.

Should there be a large number of applicants the sift will be based on the essential experience and skills defined in the Personal Specification.

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.

There may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all DCS candidates that meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example, in certain recruitment situations such as a high volume of applications, seasonal demand, or peak periods, the employer may wish to limit the overall number of interviews offered to both DCS and non-DCS applicants.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigation's can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

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

Open to UK nationals only.

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 : Colonel Nicky Bell, Hd NCGI-US
• Email : nicky.bell173@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DBSCivPers-ResourcingTeam1@mod.gov.uk

Further information

Please see Further Information document attached.

Attachments

Further Information - External (1) Opens in new window (docx, 34kB)Ministry of Defence – Revised Terms and Conditions of Service (TACOS) (2) Opens in new window (pdf, 298kB)Defence Civil Service Offer (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 1562kB)Unmarried Partners Guidance - USA only Opens in new window (docx, 63kB)