Design-Out Sprint Lead

Job summary

Information about the Command

Economic crime affects more UK citizens, more often, than any other criminal threat to our national security. It undermines the integrity of the UK economy, our global reputation as a global financial centre. Finances are integral to trade and investment, and the ease of doing business is vital for our prosperity. However, our open financial systems and strong economy continue to be exploited by those seeking to generate, move and invest criminal money, from street cash up to the proceeds of the highest levels of bribery and corruption. The National Economic Crime Command consists of three cross-functions that operate independently from one another: the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), the United Kingdom Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) and the Proceeds of Crime Centre (PoCC).

The NECC brings together law enforcement agencies, government departments, regulatory bodies and the private sector, with a shared objective of driving down economic crime in the UK. From targeting corrupt elites to tackling fraud, our work is high profile and focused on the highest harms to protect the most vulnerable.

Information about the Business Area

At the heart of this response is the Online Crime Centre (OCC) - a new national capability established as part of the UK's Fraud Strategy. Building on more than 10 years of the NECC’s public-private partnership model, the OCC represents the next evolution of coordination action against online crime, with an initial focus on tackling high-priority fraud and cyber-enabled crime.

Led jointly by the Home Office and the National Crime Agency, and delivered in close partnership with the City of London Police, the OCC brings together law enforcement, the UK Intelligence Community, and the private sector to tackle online-enabled crime in a more coordinated and systematic way.

Operating as a multi-agency hub, the OCC focuses on identifying and targeting the systems, platforms, and services that enable criminal activity. It delivers action at scale to prevent, detect, block, and disrupt online crime, coordinating operational and strategic interventions across the UK and internationally.

Job description

Role Summary

The Design-Out function sits at the heart of the Online Crime Centre’s (OCC) approach to tackling online crime at scale. Its core mission is to identify, target, and design out the key enablers of online crime - focusing on the systems, platforms, processes, and vulnerabilities that criminals exploit.

Bringing together insights from law enforcement, industry, technology, and intelligence partners, the function develops and delivers interventions that prevent, disrupt, and reduce crime upstream. Through structured design-out sprints and collaborative problem-solving, it drives systemic change - making it harder for criminals to operate while strengthening resilience across the digital and financial ecosystem.

The Design-Out Sprint Lead plays a critical role in delivering this mission, leading the execution of design-out sprints and translating identified opportunities into practical, high-impact interventions.

Working closely with the Innovation Ops Manager, you will coordinate multi-disciplinary teams across a complex, multi-agency environment, ensuring that sprint activity is effectively delivered and contributes to tangible outcomes in the fight against online crime

Role Description

As Design-Out Sprint Lead, you will be responsible for the end-to-end delivery of design-out sprints within the OCC, ensuring they are well-planned, consistently executed, and deliver high-quality, actionable outputs that target the enablers of online crime.

This is an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront of the UK’s response to online crime, collaborating with partners across government, law enforcement, and industry to design and deliver innovative solutions - including technical interventions - that tackle high-priority fraud and cyber threats at scale. We are looking for a motivated, energetic, and engaging individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment and brings curiosity and adaptability to complex challenges. You will be comfortable thinking differently, challenging assumptions, and working creatively with others to develop practical solutions to emerging threats.

Working from prioritised opportunities set through the OCC’s pipeline, you will translate defined problems into structured sprint activity, developing clear delivery plans, objectives, and success measures. You will lead all core sprint processes, including planning, stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives, ensuring activity is delivered in a structured, transparent, and outcome-focused way.

You will operate as the central point of coordination for delivery, bringing together multidisciplinary teams from across law enforcement, government, and industry. This will include managing inputs, maintaining delivery momentum, and ensuring alignment across all contributors throughout the sprint lifecycle.

Working closely with the Innovation Ops Manager, you will agree sprint scope, priorities, and requirements, ensuring delivery is aligned with OCC strategic objectives and focused on high-impact interventions.

A key aspect of the role is ensuring that sprint outputs are practical, high-quality, and capable of implementation. You will support the transition from sprint activity into delivery, working with partners to enable handover into operational, policy, or industry-led action. This includes engagement with the Home Office policy function where relevant and contributing to the development of policy recommendations arising from sprint activity.

You will also work closely with industry and partner leads, engaging external stakeholders where required to support delivery and ensure interventions are feasible and scalable.

The role requires strong organisation, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and drive delivery in a fast-paced, multi-agency environment. Your work will ensure that design-out sprints translate into coordinated, real-world interventions that deliver measurable disruption of online crime.

*** Please note for part time hours, the minimum for this role is 24 hours ***

Duties & Responsibilities: Overview

• Delivery - Lead the end-to-end delivery of design-out sprints, ensuring they are well-planned, consistently executed, and produce high‑quality, actionable outputs that target the enablers of online crime.
• Leadership - Provide day-to-day coordination and leadership of sprint teams, working across multidisciplinary and multi-agency partners to drive pace, alignment, and high-quality delivery.
• Sprint Planning & Pipeline Management - Develop, maintain, and communicate clear sprint plans, including defining objectives, scope, timelines, and success measures to ensure structured and effective delivery.
• Operational Delivery - Lead all core sprint activities, including stand-ups, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives, ensuring delivery is transparent, iterative, and outcome-focused.
• Multi-agency co-ordination - Enable effective multi-agency working by coordinating stakeholders across law enforcement, government, and industry. Work closely with the Outreach & Engagement function to leverage relationships and support delivery.
• Alignment & Prioritisation - Liaise closely with the Innovation Ops Manager to agree sprint priorities, scope, and requirements, ensuring alignment with OCC strategic objectives and focus on high-impact threats.
• Policy & Implementation Support - Work with Home Office policy teams and other partners to translate sprint outputs into actionable policy and operational recommendations, supporting effective implementation.
• Governance & Oversight - Track sprint progress, manage dependencies, and provide clear reporting on delivery status, risks, and outcomes to support effective decision-making.
• Assurance & Standards - Ensure design-out activity aligns with OCC and wider NCA standards, supporting assurance processes where required.

Person specification

• Delivery Management - Demonstrable experience of end-to-end delivery of complex workstreams, projects, or sprints, ensuring activities are well-planned, effectively executed, and achieve defined outcomes.
• Analytical & Problem Solving - Ability to interpret complex information, identify key issues or opportunities, and support the development of practical, actionable solutions within a delivery environment
• Stakeholder Engagement - Strong stakeholder management skills, with experience of working collaboratively across multiple organisations and engaging both technical and non-technical audiences to support delivery
• Delivery Oversight & Coordination - Experience of tracking progress, managing risks and dependencies, and maintaining oversight of delivery to ensure work remains on track and outcomes are achieved
• Agile & Sprint Delivery Approaches - Understanding of agile, iterative, or design-led delivery approaches, with practical experience of facilitating or contributing to structured delivery activities such as sprints, workshops, or collaborative problem-solving sessions.
• Leadership & Team Management - Experience of leading or coordinating teams in a delivery environment, providing clear direction, facilitating collaboration, and supporting high-performance across multidisciplinary groups

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

Technical skills

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

• Experience of delivering complex projects end-to-end, operating at pace and ensuring timely delivery
• Experience of coordinating multi-disciplinary teams and engaging stakeholders to translate requirements into effective delivery outcomes
• Experience of applying delivery approaches to plan, prioritise and manage work, ensuring effective delivery and continuous improvement

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £45,326, National Crime Agency contributes £13,130 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).

New entrants to the NCA receive 26 days annual leave, rising to 31 on completion of 5 years continuous service, plus 8 bank holidays.

If qualifying criteria is met new joiners from UK Police Forces or the UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) will have service with those employers taken into account for continuous service purposes for annual leave entitlement only, this will be up to a maximum of 31 days leave (including 1 privilege day).

Other benefits include:

• Flexible working, including flexi-time, compressed hours and job sharing (in line with business requirements)
• Family friendly policies, notably above the statutory minimum
• Learning and Development opportunities
• Interest free loans and advances, including season tickets, childcare and rental deposits
• Housing schemes - Key Worker status
• Discounts and Savings with a wide variety of services including Cycle to Work, Smart Tech schemes, dental insurance, gym discounts and savings on everyday spending, available through the Reward Gateway , Edenred and Blue Light Card schemes.
• Staff support groups/networks
• Sports and social activities, including membership to the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC)

Further information is available on the NCA Website.

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 Technical skills.

How we will assess you

Your application will be assessed against the following:Technical - this will be assessed by 250 word examples on:

• Experience of delivering complex projects end-to-end, operating at pace and ensuring timely delivery

• Experience of applying delivery approaches to plan, prioritise and manage work, ensuring effective delivery and continuous improvement

• Experience of coordinating multi-disciplinary teams and engaging stakeholders to translate requirements into effective delivery outcomes

A panel will assess how well your application demonstrates the requirements outlined above.

Longlist

In the event of a high number of applications, we may operate a longlist. Applicants will need to meet the minimum pass mark for the lead criteria.

- Experience of delivering complex projects end-to-end, operating at pace and ensuring timely delivery .

Candidates who do not meet the minimum pass mark for the lead criteria will not progress to having their other criteria assessed. Applications must meet the minimum criteria to be progressed to the assessment stage.

You will receive an acknowledgement once your application is submitted.

We aim to have sift completed and scores released within 10 working days of the closing date of the advert. For high volume campaigns this timeframe may be extended.

Scores will be provided but further feedback will not be available at this stage.

For guidance on the application process, visit:
NCA Applying and Onboarding

Assessment 1

The format of this assessment will be Interview which will be tested on the criteria listed in the Success Profiles at Assessment section.

Success Profiles at Assessment

Behaviours

• Delivering at Pace

• Working Together

Technical

• Experience of delivering complex projects end-to-end, operating at pace and ensuring timely delivery

• Experience of applying delivery approaches to plan, prioritise and manage work, ensuring effective delivery and continuous improvement

Assessment OutcomeOutcomes will be communicated via the NCA recruitment portal.
If successful but no role is immediately available, you may be placed on a reserve list for 12 months.
Reserve lists can be used to fill similar role types across the Agency where the assessment criteria is considered a match by the recruitment team and the business area.

In the event of a tie at the assessment stage, available roles will be offered in merit order using the following order:

1. Lead criteria (behaviours/technical/experience)
2. If still tied, desirable criteria will be assessed (if advertised)
3. If still tied, application sift scores will be used

Feedback is provided only to those who attend an assessment.You will be subject to vetting and pre-employment checks before appointment.Once the vacancy closes, the advert will no longer be accessible. Please save a copy for your records. We encourage all candidates to visit the NCA Careers Page for more information.

Occupational Health

Successful candidates will be expected to undertake an occupational health assessment. Depending on the role an in-person medical may be required in either London or Warrington. Unfortunately, travel costs will not be reimbursed.

Vetting requirements - SC Enhanced

Prior to commencing the role, you will need to successfully complete SC Enhanced clearance. The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.For further information on National Security Vetting checks please visit the following page Demystifying VettingIndividuals will be required to undertake and pass a substance misuse test as part of pre-employment

Things you need to know

Multi Location

Where multiple locations are advertised, appointments will be made in merit order for each location.

Please indicate up to three location preferences clearly. Only your first three preferences will be considered. You may be allocated to any of the locations you select. If you decline an offer for a location you have selected as a preference, a further offer may not be made.

If you choose to reject an offer and no alternative preferred location can be offered, you will not be able to return to the process or be placed on a reserve list.

Only the advertised locations are available; any additional notes added to the application will not be taken into account.

Near Miss

If you meet the criteria for a lower grade, you may be offered that role if not appointable at the advertised grade.

Conversely, if found appointable at a higher grade but no posts are available, you may be offered a lower-grade role.

All offers are made based on merit.

Hybrid Working

The NCA supports hybrid working. The extent of remote working will depend on the role and can be discussed at the offer stage.

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

Security

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 : Central Recruitment Team
• Email : central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint in relation to any stage of the recruitment and selection process please email central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk. please ensure that you refer to the campaign reference number. If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome of your complaint you have the right to contact the Civil Service Commission to pursue it further.
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

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