Director, Grenfell Community and Memorial, and Director, Remediation Policy (2 posts)

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in 5 days

Policy

Full time

£100,000 - £120,000 per year

Job summary

Introduction from Katie Farrington, Director General, Buildings, Fire and Resilience:

"We are advertising two excellent Director roles within the Buildings, Fire and Resilience Group at MHCLG: the Director for Grenfell Community and Memorial, who will lead the cross-government response to support the bereaved, survivors and wider community, oversee delivery of deconstruction of the Tower and the community-led memorial; and the Director, Remediation Policy, who will lead the Government’s work to accelerate the remediation of unsafe buildings and oversee major regulatory and funding levers.

These roles are key members of my Senior Leadership Team in the Buildings, Fire and Resilience Group. We have 750 people working across 16 sites in MHCLG to deliver policy, analysis and interventions to keep people safe in their homes and communities. We are preventing and responding to mitigate threats and support communities; enabling and reforming, working in partnership with industry; and shaping the future, leading the system and creating fitting memorials to preserve memory. We also want to be open to different perspectives and challenge; have empowered and accountable teams; and be collaborative and outward-looking. We work closely with colleagues across MHCLG, with building developers, and with local communities.

If you are interested in either of these jobs, I would be very pleased to hear from you."

Job description

Director for Grenfell Community and Memorial

The tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in 2017 devastated hundreds of lives and deeply affected the North Kensington community. Recovery continues to be complex, sensitive and long-term. The department continues to engage with bereaved families, survivors, and the wider community. This Director will ensure that the community’s voices shape policy and operational decisions, and that government commitments are followed through with accountability. The Director is also Senior Responsible Owner for the programme to deconstruct the Grenfell Tower, and the next phase of the independent community-led Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission’s work to construct a memorial. This includes oversight of a significant design and construction programme and responsibility for the ongoing management, safety and maintenance of the tower site. The Director will manage a complex set of operational, legal, commercial and community relationships and prepare for eventual site handover to a community-supported body.

Key Responsibilities:

Support Ministers in engaging sensitively and effectively with the Grenfell community.
Ensure community views and concerns are clearly understood and translated into credible advice, commitments and delivery plans.
Act as SRO for the programme to deconstruct the Grenfell Tower safely and deliver of the Memorial Commission’s proposals, establishing strong programme, commercial and design capability.
Plan and deliver an eventual site handover to a community-supported organisation.

The Person:

You will be able to operate with empathy, sensitivity and deep personal resilience, working closely with people who have experienced profound trauma. You will combine strategic policy awareness with strong operational capability to lead a major construction-related programme and manage a highly sensitive live site. You will be a credible and trusted partner to Ministers, local government, senior officials and community groups. Some regular travel to North Kensington will be required.

Director for Remediation Policy

The Director, Remediation Policy leads our policy and strategy on the remediation of dangerous clad buildings in England. The Grenfell tragedy exposed systemic building safety issues across England’s housing stock, and although progress has been made on the highest-risk buildings, significant work remains. The Government’s Remediation Acceleration Plan (RAP) sets out ambitious targets for completing remediation and improving the support offered to leaseholders.

The Director leads a large Directorate of c.150 staff responsible for setting the policy direction for remediation, driving progress across the system, and overseeing major funding and regulatory levers. This includes development and implementation of a £multi-billion Building Safety Levy from 2026. The Directorate works closely with Homes England, the sister remediation delivery directorate, and major developers operating under the Government’s legally binding self-remediation regime.

Key Responsibilities:

Ensure sustained progress against RAP commitments, including securing passage of the Remediation Bill in early 2026 and tackling wider blockers to pace.
Oversee the implementation of the Building Safety Levy and ensure robust performance of all wider debt-recovery activity.
Provide strategic leadership across the wider Group, contributing actively to the SLT and supporting sustained improvements in culture, delivery and performance.
Maintain strong senior relationships across central government, industry, leaseholder groups and delivery bodies, shaping strategy and enabling informed Ministerial decision-making.

The Person:

You will bring a strong track record of strategic policy leadership and programme delivery. Experience in housing, construction, or regulatory environments is helpful but not essential. You should be highly motivated by improving building safety outcomes and supporting leaseholders who have faced significant impacts. Some travel may be required for external engagement and site-related meetings.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

The successful candidate in each role will need to demonstrate evidence against the following criteria:

An inspiring, confident and empowering senior leader, able to set strategic direction, lead through complexity and scrutiny, and build inclusive, high-performing teams.
Significant experience of strategic policy thinking, with the judgement, analytical capability and political awareness to shape policy and navigate complex or sensitive environments.
A track record of delivering major programmes or operational services at pace, demonstrating grip, pace, effective risk management and the ability to drive progress.
Highly developed stakeholder and partnership skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders in the public or private sector and work effectively in partnership.
Strong communication and interpersonal skills, able to engage credibly at senior levels.

Desirable criteria

Director, Grenfell Community and Memorial:

Experience of trauma-informed community engagement or working with highly sensitive, emotionally complex issues.

Director, Remediation Policy:

Proven ability to provide strategic system leadership across a fragmented landscape.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £100,000, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £28,970 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 click the Be Applied link to provide the required information and complete your application through the Be Applied website by 23:55 on Sunday 18th January 2026

You will be asked to enter some personal details, upload your CV and to provide your responses to the role’s advertised essential criteria.

You will have the opportunity to state on your pre-application form whether you wish to be considered for one of the available roles or both.

When prompted to upload your CV, please upload a single document consisting of:

a CV (including the names of 2 referees and your current remuneration) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities, achievements and your academic qualifications, specifying subject and degree level achieved. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
a statement of suitability explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria provided in the person specification. (max. 2 pages)

Please remember to save these two items in one document. Both items will be assessed to determine sift outcomes.

Please note that only completed applications through the Be Applied route will be considered and that any further progress updates will be sent through Be Applied. For an informal discussion about the role, please contact the Recruitment team by emailing scs.recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

The selection panel will be made up of:

Elizabeth Hambley – Civil Service Commissioner and Chair
Katie Farrington, Director General, Buildings, Fire and Resilience and Hiring Manager
Brendan Threlfall – Director General, Strategy and Communications
Cathy Francis – Director, New Towns, Infrastructure and Housing Delivery

Selection process and assessments

During sifting, both your CV and Statement of Suitability will be assessed against the role’s Essential Criteria. These Essential Criteria will also be used to form the basis of the panel’s questions in your final interview.

If a role lists Desirable Criteria, these will only be used to determine the merit order of candidates who rank evenly when assessed against the Essential Criteria.

Candidates that are shortlisted may be invited to attend a staff engagement panel.

At MHCLG we hold staff engagement panels as an integral part of the recruitment process for Senior Civil Servants (SCS) – they are designed to help us build up a rounded picture of each candidate and give us an insight into how you might engage and interact with your team should you be successful. The purpose of the session is to help us assess your engagement and communication skills and is not about testing your subject knowledge or expertise for this particular role. Feedback from the session is passed onto the selection panel for consideration alongside the final interview.

Shortlisted candidates may also be invited to a meeting with a Minister or the Secretary of State, and/or other senior stakeholders. This is not a formal part of the selection process but an informal chance for candidates to find out more about the role and the organisation.

Shortlisted candidates may also be invited to give a short presentation or complete an exercise at the beginning of their final interview. Further details will be provided to shortlisted candidates when invited to interview.

Full details of the assessment process will be provided to shortlisted candidates at the earliest opportunity.

All of the evidence presented as part of the process will be considered in the final assessment.

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

Contract

This is a permanent appointment. This role is full-time and issuitable for a job share. MHCLG encourages flexible working.

Location

Bristol, Darlington, London, Manchester and Wolverhampton.

The Grenfell Director role, given the need for close contact with the Local Community, would be beneficial to be based in London, or will require very regular travel to London.

During the application process you will be asked to express a location preference, from the advertised locations. Any offer made will be based on that specific location. Please note that, as your normal work location, costs cannot be claimed for travel to and from your base office location.

Salary

For external appointments, remuneration for this role will be circa £100,000 - £120,000 p.a. 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 SCSPB2 (£100,000 p.a.). 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.

Reserve List

In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details in a reserve list for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this.

Near Miss Offers

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign.

Security Clearance

In addition to the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), all Senior Civil Service staff are required to have at least Security Clearance (SC) prior to starting the role.

For more details of vetting levels and requirements please refer to the Cabinet Office HMG Personnel Security Controls.

Complaints Process

Please see candidate pack slide 23 for details.

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 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

Salary range

£100,000 - £120,000 per year