Director for International Partnerships and Campaigns

Job summary

The Director for International Partnerships and Campaigns drives bilateral partnerships, export and capability collaboration strategies, and multilateral partnerships aligned with UK Government (HMG) objectives. We are recruiting for two Directors, who will cover two different geographic portfolios (Europe and Multilaterals, and Middle East and Rest of World).

These roles develop country and regional collaboration frameworks and plans, build global stakeholder relationships, and deliver coherent campaign plans. The Directors support UK industrial campaigns, including through trade shows, marketing, and ministerial engagements, to strengthen the UK’s international relationships and optimise UK growth and security.

These roles operate in a complex, high-profile international environment, requiring close collaboration with government, industry, and international partners. You must navigate political, commercial, and operational challenges to deliver sustainable and impactful outcomes for the National Armaments Director Group (NAD Group), MOD, and the UK’s global interests.

Job description

The current responsibilities of the roles include:​

• Bilateral and multilateral partnerships: Develop and maintain enhanced bilateral and multilateral partnerships that align with the UK Government’s (HMG’s) objectives, driving successful exports and capability collaboration. Identify and prioritise partnership options to drive successful capability collaboration and export opportunities. Support capability co-design and co-development, involving dialogue and agreement on requirements with partners, identification of appropriate options/solutions to problem statements, and negotiation via capability dialogues & relationships across Defence.​
• Country and regional collaboration frameworks: Establish, build and maintain comprehensive country, NATO, AUKUS, and regional collaboration frameworks ensuring seamless integration with MOD and NAD Group structures, and an effective and planned engagement (matrix) across the global network (in concert with Military Strategic Headquarters (MSHQ), and Department of State (DoS), Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE)). Ensure coherence and understanding of country/region requirements to align UK offers.​
• Delivery of priority-driven, coherent campaign plans: Develop, lead and deliver a structured portfolio of priority-driven export campaign plans aligned with HMG’s strategic objectives and industry capability and capacity. Lead and execute successful campaign plans, contributing to the success of UK industrial campaigns through impactful trade shows, marketing efforts, and ministerial engagements.​
• Global stakeholder relationships: Build and strengthen global stakeholder relationships that effectively support and advance UK strategic objectives.​
• International engagement strategies: Develop and execute international engagement strategies that bolster the UK’s international relationships, driving growth and enhancing national security.​
• Supporting international capability collaboration: Support the implementation of the international capability collaboration strategy ensuring this is fully aligned with HMG strategic objectives and delivering measurable outcomes.​
• Leadership of an inclusive and high-performing team: The team provides high-quality advice to Ministers and works effectively with other government departments, industry, and international partners. You will provide strong leadership to create a diverse, inclusive, and high-performing team with a strong emphasis on continuous improvement, learning and collaboration and the confidence to challenge unacceptable behaviour where necessary. ​
• Accountable for budgets: Related to International Partnerships,Collaboration and Future Campaigns, international engagements, and strategy development, including approval of expenditure and oversight of financial planning.​

Person specification

You must be able to provide tangible examples that demonstrate the following:​

• A track record of providing visible and authentic strategic leadership in a large and complex organisation with clear demonstration of how you have set a compelling vision, built high performing teams, and created an inclusive culture.​​
• Evidence of successfully leading complex programmes and budgets in challenging multi-stakeholder environments, with a demonstrable ability to use professional campaign management tools, sound judgement and evidence-based decision making to drive successful outcomes.​
• A track record of partnership working, including with international partners, government and industry stakeholders, with a deep understanding of industry, international relations, and the complexities of working across organisational and international boundaries to enable successful delivery.​​
• Proven ability to collaborate, negotiate and influence within a broad stakeholder network, with evidence of aligning strategic objectives and achieving outcomes through strong relationships, persuasion and influencing rather than positional power.​​
• Extensive experience and understanding of international markets, with demonstrable business and commercial acumen to understand bids and recognise the risks and benefits.​
• Demontrable understanding of modern technologies and their strategic application.​

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £127,200, Ministry of Defence contributes £36,849 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).

• 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

To apply for these posts, you will need to complete the online application process accessed via the Civil Service Jobs portal. This should be completed no later than 23:55 on Sunday 11 October 2026 and will involve providing the two documents which are weighted equally:​

• ​A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.​​
• A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) providing tangible examples that clearly evidence how you meet the essential criteria for the role.​

External candidates who join the MOD and are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

For further information about the role and full application process, please refer to the candidate pack attached below. If you wish to receive any material in a different format for accessibility, then please contact People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk.

Avril Jolliffe, DG International,​ will be offering an online Q&A session on the 2 October 2026 at 15:00pm – 15:45pm to provide an overview of the roles and welcome any questions you may have. Candidates can access the meeting by clicking here. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process. If you have any issues accessing the session, please contact: NAD-NAIntl-DGIntl-PrivateOffice@mod.gov.uk.

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 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 : SCS Recruitment Team
• Email : People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.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, you should contact People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment-principle…

Attachments

Candidate Information Pack - SCS2 Director International Partnerships and Campaigns Opens in new window (pdf, 210kB)