Director Investigations

Job summary

Provide clear leadership and direction to the Operations directorate on both proactive and reactive investigations, ensuring that our resources are targeted against the highest priority threats, and the full range of disruptive options are considered in the UK and overseas.

Job description

Main Responsibilities

Fulfil the role of Head of Profession for Investigation within the NCA, providing talent management and opportunities for learning across the directorate professionalising the investigations community and seeking opportunities to address future capability and skills gaps. Looking across the agency and outside to nurture new talent and building a responsive investigations cohort who have the necessary skills to be deployed against the changing SOC threat.

Lead a team of high performing investigators who are capable of delivering both reactive and proactive investigations, making risk-based judgements according to the threat whilst ensuring high levels of welfare and professionalism are maintained. Promote priorities, objectives and wellbeing to the directorate through the clear communication of the organisational strategy.

Maintain criminal justice standards delivering, high quality prosecutions and casework with prosecutors.

Ensure that investigation activity is suitably briefed to stakeholders, partners and the wider agency including under the accountability regime.

To lead transformational change within the Command developing tactics, capabilities and ways of working that respond to the changing threat environment.

Person specification

The role holder will be an inspirational and supportive leader with significant experience of delivering digital, data and technology capabilities at an enterprise level.

Criteria:

In your application you will need to demonstrate evidence against the below criteria:

We ask that you write a statement of suitability no more than two x A4 pages, font Arial 11, using examples to explain how your skills and experience meet the essential criteria:

Proven knowledge and experience in leading successful investigations and operations against priority threats from a range of serious and complex crime investigations. This should include evidence of practice as an investigator in Illicit Finance, Borders, Serious and Organised Crime or Counter Terrorism. If drawing on a policing background you will have operated at least at the Assistant Chief Constable rank or equivalent.

Inclusive leadership skills –Proven track record of operating in a large and complex operational environment, with a demonstrable commitment to lead, develop and nurture a highly performing, diverse and talented workforce. You will have experience of delivering interventions that ensure Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is embedded in the organisation’s way of working.

Proven track record of articulating a strategic forward vision for a large, complex organisation or system, ensuring that a wide range of internal and external stakeholders were engaged and supported.

Proven ability to lead and deliver change, with a track record of delivering substantial improvements to increase operational effectiveness and value for money, including through running programmes and setting up new capabilities.

Experience of successfully translating strategy into operational delivery, and of doing so not just in your own organisation, but also with and through partner organisations.

Experience of successfully building effective partnerships across either government, the UK public or private sectors and with international partners at a senior strategic level. You will be able to manage strategic and operational risks.

Exceptional communication, negotiating and influencing skills. You will be able to commission effective communication campaigns and feel comfortable communicating complex issues to a wide audience, including ministers and the media.

At interview, we will explore your technical experience in more depth, and alignment to the behaviours of:

• Leadership
• Culture/EDI (Leadership)
• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture

Please Note

The NCA is a 24/7 organisation, and working patterns must support business requirements. You may be expected to participate in an on-call rota (approx. 2 – 3 weeks per year).

On-call runs 1800-0800 Mon-Fri and 24/7 weekends and bank holidays and training will be given prior to joining the rota.

This is a corporate requirement, and no additional remuneration is paid.

Examples for on-call include staffing incidents; building issues (flooding etc); operational incidents; cross-government liaison.

You will be required to be in the office at least 60% of the time in line with CS policy, but this cannot be guaranteed and will change from week-to-week based on business needs and security constraints.

This role will require frequent attendance at our London office so you will need to be prepared to spend time there, if not based there.

Individuals will be required to undertake and pass a substance misuse test as part of pre-employment checks.

If successful, the offer made will be conditional on you being able to obtain and retain security clearance Enhanced Developed Vetting (DV) prior to commencing in the role.

You must be able to obtain STRAP once in post.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £149,999, National Crime Agency contributes £43,454 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).

Civil Service Pension

A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire.

If you are an active police pension member immediately prior to joining the NCA, you can continue your membership throughout your employment with us.

Annual Leave

25 days annual leave on entry (plus one privilege day for the King’s Birthday), plus 8 Bank Holidays, increasing to 30 days after reaching 5 years continuous service (plus one privilege day for the King’s Birthday), plus 8 Bank Holidays.

If qualifying criteria is met new joiners to the NCA from UK Police Forces or 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 30 days leave (plus 1 privilege day for the King’s Birthday).

Parental Leave

Family friendly policies including paid maternity, adoption, paternity and shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks.

Access to the government Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. Existing employees may be able to continue to claim childcare vouchers.

Flexible Working

Flexible working arrangements allowing you to split your work between the office and home, subject to the nature of the role.

Alternative working patterns such as part-time and compressed hours options subject to business needs.

Support for officers who are Reservists and Special Constables.

Learning and Development

Access to a range of learning and development activities, and opportunities to support career progression.

Paid time off to facilitate continuous professional development, and access to Civil Service Learning up to 5 days per year.

Wellbeing and Inclusion

Occupational sick pay and access to occupational health services.

A network of qualified Mental Health First Aiders and Workplace Support Officers, who can provide advice, signposting and support to all our officers.

On site facilities including fitness centres and canteens (where available). Access to a variety of active staff network groups.

Employee Savings

Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket.

Access to a wide range of discounts, offers and gift cards with a number of high street and online retailers through the Blue light Scheme and EdenRed.

Cycle2work salary sacrifice scheme to hire a bicycle up to the value of £4,000 to assist in improving health and fitness and save you money.

Access to a home and technology purchase scheme, allowing you to purchase items and spread the cost over 12 months through salary sacrifice.

Key worker status, enabling access to accommodation at a discounted rate, subject to eligibility.

Access to a range of sports, leisure and health benefits at reduced prices through membership with Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC).

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 this post, you will need to complete the online application process, outlined below. This should be completed no later than 11:55 10th August 2026.

Applications should be sent to: https://micro.green-park.co.uk/nca/

Your application should consist of:

• A two-page CV detailing your career history, including key responsibilities and achievements. It is essential that your CV reflects the role you are applying for. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any employment gaps within the last ten years.

• A statement of suitability of (no more than two x A4 pages, font Arial 11) using examples to explain how your skills and experience meet the essential criteria of the person specification on page 10 of the Candidate Information Pack.

In order to monitor the effectiveness of the National Crime Agency’s Diversity & Inclusion strategy, the NCA require certain personal details about you on submission of your application. Please note that this will be treated in confidence and will not impact your application.

As part of your application, you will be asked to complete a diversity monitoring form. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select ‘prefer not to say’. All monitoring data will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not be provided to the selection panel. The information you provide when submitting your application will help us monitor our progress towards the Civil Service becoming the most inclusive employer.

Your application will be acknowledged within 24 hours of receipt. Please ensure you check your junk mail and spam filters.

Should you encounter any issues with your application please get in touch with our recruitment partner at the following email address: address: Richard.grayling@green-park.co.uk

Longlist

The longlisting will be conducted against your submitted CV and Statement of Suitability and your fit against the requirements of the person specification.

Shortlist

A shortlisting meeting will be held in the week commencing 7th September 2026.

Assessment

A Staff Engagement Exercise which will be delivered virtually on MS Teams in the week commencing 14th or 21st September 2026. 2026.

Shortlisted candidates will also be required to complete a number of occupational psychology questionnaires and have a feedback session with a Chartered Occupational Psychologist.

This stage will not result in a pass or fail decision. They are designed to support the panel’s decision-making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.

Final Panel Interview

The interview will be held in London week commencing 28th September 2026. The panel will assess your previous experience and professional competence against the essential criteria. You will also be asked to respond to a scenario which will be
shared 45 minutes prior to the time of your final panel interview.

Full details of the requirements will be given to shortlisted candidates ahead of their interview.

Selection Panel

The panel will be chaired by Sarah Pittam, Civil Service

Commissioner and will include, but not limited to:

Rob Jones, NCA Director General Operations

Offer

Regardless of the outcome, we will notify all candidates as soon as possible.

If your application is successful and we are unable to offer you a post immediately, you will be invited to join our 12-month reserve list. Should a similar post become available during that time, we will contact you as soon as possible.

Appointments will be made in adherence to the Civil Service Recruitment Principles and in strict merit order with the highest scoring candidates being appointed first.

The NCA is a law enforcement agency and as such we are part of the Criminal Justice System. Therefore, if you are going into an operational role, we need to be aware if any of our officers have, either before they join us or afterwards, any of the following:

• Any criminal conviction (including by Court Martial), or caution or fixed penalty notice for disorder or theft;
• Any adverse judicial findings;
• Any charges or summonses where the proceedings are not complete;
• Any misconduct or gross misconduct findings or where proceedings are not complete.

You will be asked to complete a declaration form covering the above if offered a role with the NCA.

Each case will be considered on its merits, and a positive declaration does not automatically mean that your application will not be progressed. However, should you fail to disclose a relevant matter then your application or employment will be adversely affected. If in doubt, please declare it at this stage.’

Indicative Timeline

The anticipated timetable is as follows:

Advert Closing Date – 10 th August 2026
Expected longlist announcement – w/c 10th August 2026
Expected shortlist announcement – w/c 7th September 2026
Virtual Assessments – w/c 14th or 21st September 2026
Interviews – w/c 28th September 2026

Pre-employment checks

Pre-employment checks take on average 16 weeks from the point of offer to arranging a start date. This includes vetting, occupational health assessments, employment history checks and substance misuse tests. This is an approximate time frame and is to be taken as a guideline only as this can very between candidates. This is dependent on when all requested documentation is provided.

Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, which may be subject to some change, and are asked to exercise flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.

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 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 : Richard Grayling
• Email : Richard.grayling@green-park.co.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scs.appointments@nca.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles or you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, please raise it with James Greengrass at james.greengrass@green-park.co.uk

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