Director Nuclear Strategy and Policy

Ministry of Defence

Whitehall, London SW1A 2HB, UK

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 3 weeks

Policy

Flexible

£100,000 per year

Job summary

The Director of Nuclear Strategy and Policy underpins the delivery of the DNE. Working to DG Strategy as part of the Strategy Group within DNE this post is responsible for ensuring we can deliver our strategy, comms plan and a wide ranging policy agenda touching everything from nuclear skills and industrial strategy to nuclear deterrent policy and planning. The postholder is responsible for providing strategic advice to Ministers, Chief of Defence Nuclear, Permanent Secretary, First Sea Lord, and other senior officials within Cabinet Office and MOD on nuclear deterrence policy and nuclear non-proliferation; nuclear planning; strategy for the Defence Nuclear Enterprise; internal and external communications and engagement campaigns; and on Parliamentary accountability across the organisation. You will be responsible for implementing the DNE's Strategic Defence Review recommendations and ensuring DNE is fully integrated into wider departmental governance and activity, including the new strategic cycles and implementing defence reform. You will work closely with other government departments, notably DESNZ, Cabinet Office, FCDO and increasingly with DEFRA, MHCLG, DSIT and DBT to deliver the PM’s Nuclear National Endeavour and the Nuclear Nation Industrial Strategy. You will be responsible for delivering UK policy objectives on nuclear deterrence policy and arms control in bilateral and multilateral fora. The Director also has oversight of the Strategic Systems Performance and Assessment Group (SSPAG) which performs an independent audit and assurance function across the end-to-end nuclear deterrent capability and its operation.

The Vacancy Holder will be offering an online Q&A session on Friday 29 May 2026 11:00 - 12:00 to provide an overview of the role, and welcome your questions. The session can be accessed by clicking here. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process. If you have any issues accessing the session, please contact: People-CivHRSCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk

Job description

The current responsibilities of the role include:

Leadership of a multi-disciplinary, civilian and military function of around 100 people, empowering and developing people to enable them to reach their potential.
Supporting DG Strategy and the leadership team drive the DNE strategy and develop and deliver the DNE plan for this Parliament.
Oversight of DNE governance, ensuring strategic consideration of DNE risks and issues within MOD and across government.
Drive implementation of the DNE's Strategic Defence Review recommendations, working across MOD and other government departments to ensure delivery.
Overseeing implementation of the National Endeavour, including the Nuclear Skills Plan, Nuclear Nation and the Defence Readiness Bill.
Advising Ministers on all aspects of nuclear policy and planning and enterprise-wide issues to support decision-making.
Representing MOD and nuclear strategy and policy issues with senior stakeholders inside and outside Government, including military and civilian stakeholders, Cabinet Office, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, HM Treasury and strategic think tanks. Build nuclear IQ, ensuring that the importance of deterrence is widely understood across MOD, NATO and external influencers and opinion formers including Parliament.
Delivering strong international relationships with USA, France and NATO on nuclear issues. Driving progress on implementing the Northwood Declaration with France.
Set the strategy for future capability planning, working across the department and ensuring Parliamentary buy-in.

Person specification

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their experience and skills against the following essential criteria:

An inspiring, confident and thoughtful leader with a proven track record of building, developing and continuously improving high performing, diverse and inclusive teams.
A proactive, driven and energetic problem solver, focused on delivering outcomes at pace and seeing initiatives through to conclusion.
Intellectually curious with experience of developing and implementing policies and strategies, using evidence-based approaches to evaluate the full range of options, understand the impacts and get the right solution.
Demonstrable ability to build and maintain a strong and effective network of collaborative relationships with a range of senior colleagues, as well as partner organisations, to ensure engagement across the Defence Nuclear Enterprise and its stakeholders.
A track record of influencing and driving change across complex systems to achieve objectives.

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a strong field of candidates when there is a need to distinguish between candidates. This will be as a second sift, after the essential criteria has been considered:

Knowledge of, or experience in, Defence and/or national security.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £100,000, Ministry of Defence 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

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process no later than 23:55 on Monday 8 June 2026 and will involve providing the two documents outlined below via the Civil Service Jobs portal:

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) explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability 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.

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

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Contact point for applicants

Salary range

£100,000 per year