Director, Services

Job summary

The Department for Business and Trade promotes UK trade, investment and economic growth across key sectors. The Services Directorate leads work across a range of sectors including professional business services; retail and hospitality; agriculture, food and drink; international education, etc.​

The Director for Services is a senior leadership role within Business Group, reporting to the Director General. The postholder is responsible for setting strategic direction and delivering policy, trade and investment activity across the Services portfolio, working closely with Ministers, Whitehall partners, foreign Government officials and diverse industry leaders. This is a high-profile role with responsibility for supporting the services sectors to grow, shaping the policy environment and leading engagement with senior stakeholders to strengthen the UK’s position as a global leader across Services sectors.

Candidate Information Call ​

The hiring manager for this position; Jaee Samant, will be hosting a virtual call for any interested applicants to discuss the role and answer any questions. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process. ​

This will be held via Microsoft Teams on 10th July at 14:00-14:45 (UK time). ​

Please click here for the meeting link.

Job description

• Lead an excellent directorate (c. 65 colleagues) which should be the centre of expertise for DBT’s Services portfolio, to drive trade, investment and policy outcomes that support UK economic growth.​
• Drive strategic engagement with industry and build senior relationships across DBT, Whitehall, the overseas network and international partners, working closely with business leaders and representative bodies to inform priorities, delivery, and act as a trusted ambassador for DBT and UK services sectors.​
• Shape domestic and international policy and regulatory frameworks, working closely with HM Treasury and partner departments such as DCMS, DfE, FCDO, HO and Defra, to maximise economic impact and ensure the growth agenda is integrated into policy development across HMG.​
• Develop and deliver sector strategies, campaigns and initiatives, aligned to cross-government growth objectives, especially Industrial strategy and trade strategy priority areas, directed towards strengthening global competitiveness and driving growth.​
• Oversee international engagement and investment activity, including trade missions, major events, global campaigns to unlock opportunities.​
• Ensure strong governance, ministerial engagement and team leadership, overseeing programmes, convening secretariat functions for sector councils and stakeholder interactions while setting clear direction for a high-performing, dispersed team and growth. ​
• Be an effective member of DBT’s Senior Civil Service and of Business Group’s senior team.

Person specification

• Senior Leadership: A visible, credible and inspiring leader with experience leading large, complex and geographically dispersed teams, fostering an inclusive, high-performance culture. ​
• Strategic Thinking: Strong intellectual capability with the ability to interpret data and evidence, shape strategy and lead delivery across a broad and complex policy and operational landscape. ​
• Delivery at Pace: A proven track record of delivering high impact outcomes, with the ability to prioritise effectively, make decisions in ambiguity and respond to emerging challenges. ​
• Stakeholder Engagement, Influence and Collaboration: Excellent communication and influencing skills, with a strong track record of engaging senior stakeholders and decision-makers (e.g. ministers, executives or board level leaders) and working across organisational boundaries (including government, private or third sector environments), building trusted relationships to deliver results. ​
• Sector and Commercial Insight: Experience working closely with business and industry, with a strong understanding of economic drivers and factors affecting growth, trade and investment and working with one or more services sectors such as professional and business services, consumer sectors, etc. ​

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Benefits

Alongside your salary of £100,000, Department for Business and Trade 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 (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

How to apply​​​​

Hays, an Executive Search firm, have been appointed to assist with this recruitment campaign. To apply for this post, you will need to submit documentation below via the following link, by no later than​

23:55PM 19th July 2026.​
​​

LINK TO APPLY ON HAYS WEBSITE​

​​If you have any issues accessing the link or questions regarding the documentation, please contact:​​​​

Andrew Timlin: 07887777735 Andrew.timlin@hays.com ​​​

Owen Quant: 07867695217 Owen.quant@hays.com​​​​

Documentation:​​​​

1. A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.​​​
2. A Supporting Statement of around two pages of A4 explaining how you meet the requirements of the person specification as far as you are able to, including your language ability for the role.​​
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Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification. Please ensure that both documents contain your full name.

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 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 : Andrew Timlin
• Email : andrew.timlin@hays.com
• Telephone : 07887777735

Recruitment team

• Email : owen.quant@hays.com

Further information

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service​
Commission’s Recruitment Principles. ​
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 Georgia Defeo (at SCSRecruitment@businessandtrade.gov.uk) in the first instance.

Attachments

Director, Services Candidate Information Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 6385kB)2026-03-25 Director Services Candidate Pack Accessible Opens in new window (docx, 146kB)