Director of Technical and Regulatory Operations

Job summary

As a member of the Executive Board, the Director of Technical and Regulatory Operations is VCA’s senior leader for technical authority, regulatory assurance and the performance of its core approval and certification services.

The postholder is accountable for ensuring that VCA’s technical judgements, testing, inspection, certification and conformity activities are robust, consistent and defensible, and that services are delivered with the quality, responsiveness and operational credibility required by government, industry and the public.

The role leads Type Approval, Technical Services, Conformity of Production, Regulatory and Technology activity, Dangerous Goods certification and other technical or statutory services within the agreed portfolio. It provides strategic leadership for VCA’s engineering capability, technical quality and future readiness, including the capabilities required for connected, automated, software-enabled and low-emission vehicle technologies. The role is responsible for ensuring the VCA acts as a knowledge hub across government and international stakeholders, to provide technical and regulatory advice, to shape organisational strategies and inform the development of better regulation.

As a corporate leader, the Director contributes to the collective leadership of VCA, shaping organisation-wide direction and trade-offs, ensuring technical and regulatory insight informs policy, strategy, investment and organisational priorities.

Please take the time to watch the short video here from our Chief Executive Pia Wilkes.

Job description

Key Responsibilities:

• Technical Authority and Regulatory Assurance- Provide agency-level leadership for the integrity, consistency and defensibility of VCA’s technical and regulatory decisions.
• Operational Performance and Service Delivery- Set the strategic direction accountable for the performance, transformation and modernisation of VCA’s technical, regulatory, approval and certification services, ensuring that operating models, processes, systems and ways of working remain effective, resilient and fit for future organisational, regulatory and customer requirements.
• Future Regulation, Technology and Technical Readiness- Ensure VCA is positioned to regulate and assure emerging vehicle technologies and future approval regimes.
• Engineering Capability, Quality and Professional Leadership- Build and sustain the engineering, regulatory and operational capabilities required for current and future delivery.
• Technical and Regulatory Influence- Represent VCA and secure outcomes through senior relationships across government, industry and the international approval community.
• Corporate Leadership and Stewardship- As a member of the Executive Board, contribute to the collective leadership, performance and long-term sustainability of VCA.

Please refer to the full job description which is attached to the bottom of this advert.

Person specification

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

Essential Criteria

• • Technical and Regulatory Leadership – Demonstrable success in leading complex engineering, technical, regulatory or assurance activity in an automotive regulatory environment where decisions have significant safety, environmental, economic or reputational consequences. Extensive experience of operating within a testing, inspection and certification environment.
  • Executive Leadership Through Others – Significant experience of operating at Board, Executive Committee or equivalent level, contributing beyond functional boundaries and leading through others. Demonstrable ability to shape organisation-wide decisions, make difficult trade-offs and build capable, accountable leadership teams.
  • Leadership of Complex Technical Services - A strong track record of leading multidisciplinary, geographically distributed services through others, improving quality, performance, resilience and customer outcomes while maintaining professional or regulatory integrity.
  • Strategic Judgement and Future Readiness - Demonstrable ability to make robust, evidence-based decisions where regulation, precedent or information is incomplete, and to translate technological, regulatory or market change into practical capability, workforce, service and investment choices.
  • Stakeholder Influence and External Credibility – Exceptional communication, influencing and negotiation skills, with the credibility to build trusted relationships and secure outcomes with senior stakeholders across government, industry, regulators and international partners.
  • Professional Capability and Stewardship - A proven ability to build professional standards, specialist capability, leadership depth and succession, while maintaining effective governance, performance, risk and stewardship of significant organisational resources.
  • Knowledge of accreditation and conformity-assessment frameworks relevant to testing, inspection, certification or quality management.

Professional Requirements

• Degree in engineering or a relevant technical discipline.
• Chartered Engineer status with an appropriate professional institution.

Find out more

To find out more about the role of Director of Strategy, Change and Governance, please join the Webinar on Friday 20th November, 1:00pm to 2:00pm.

VCA Director of Technical and Regulatory Operations Webinar

Prospective candidates are encouraged to join this online session to learn more about VCA, the role, and the opportunity to join our Executive Board.

Hosted by Chief Executive, Pia Wilkes, the webinar will offer further insight into VCA‘s future direction, the leadership challenge, and the opportunity for the successful candidate to lead transformation and drive sustainable improvement. Join using the link above.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £86,000, Vehicle Certification Agency contributes £24,914 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).

Benefits of working for the VCA

Competitive salary

Leave
Up to 30 days annual leave (with a minimum of 25 days). An opportunity to buy and sell annual leave.

Flexible working
Including flexi-time and home working (subject to operational requirements).

A Civil Service Pension
Read more about Civil Service Pensions here

Rental deposit loan scheme
An interest-free advance towards the cost of your rental deposit for privately rented homes.

Family friendly policies
Family friendly policies to support maternity, paternity and shared parental leave.

Health and wellbeing support
Access to an Employee Assistance Programme, supporting a range of well-being needs.

Staff recognition
Local Recognition Award payments for individuals or teams.

Free Parking
Free onsite parking and reduced rates for vehicle charging at our larger sites.

Cycle to work scheme
Save money on a new bike and spread the cost over monthly tax-free instalments.

Employee discount scheme
Discounts on a range of products and service through our employee discount scheme.

Corporate Clothing
Annual corporate clothing allowance.

Learning and Development Structured development plans and time for learning and development. Opportunities to attend external training courses.

Volunteering time
Up to 3 days per year volunteering time.

Networking Groups
Access to a range of Civil Service and Department for Transport network groups.

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

Please apply online via Civil Service Jobs, submitting a CV and a 1,000-word personal statement.

Please use your CV and personal statement to demonstrate evidence of strategic leadership, organisational transformation, executive leadership, governance, risk management, and senior stakeholder engagement. Experience in government, regulation or the public sector, and using customer and stakeholder insight to shape strategy and improve services, would be beneficial.

Your personal statement should provide clear, evidence-based examples of how you meet the requirements in the person specification and why you are suitable for the role. We recommend using headings to structure your response and avoiding abbreviations and acronyms, ensuring all terms are written in full.

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.

As part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. 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.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with us via scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Shortlist

Your application will be acknowledged when it is received.

The panel will select a shortlist of candidates whose applications best demonstrate suitability for the role, by considering the evidence provided against the essential criteria set out in the Person Specification.

Candidates applying under the Disability Confident Scheme who meet the minimum selection criteria in the job specification are guaranteed an interview.

Assessment

Shortlisted candidates may be asked to take part in a series of assessments which could include:

• Individual Leadership Assessment – a combination of psychometric assessments
• Staff Engagement Exercise - a presentation and Q&A with a representative staff group from across the DfT.

These assessments will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, they are designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.

Interview

You will be asked to attend a panel interview in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification.

The Success Profile Framework will be used to assess and recruit the most suitable candidate. As well as Experience, we will also be using the following four behaviours at the interview stage:

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Further information about Success Profiles can be found here:

Interviews are expected to take place face to face in our Bristol office, all shortlisted candidates will be asked to prepare a 5-minute presentation.

Expected Timeline

We will try and offer as much flexibility as we can, but it may not be possible to offer alternative dates for assessments or interviews. You are therefore asked to note the below timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process, in order to meet the dates given. Please note that these dates may be subject to change.

The anticipated timetable is as follows:

Advert Closing Date – 23:55 on Sunday 29th November

Shortlist - w/c 7th December

Assessments - w/c 14th December

Panel Interviews - w/c 4th January

Further information

If you would like to discuss the role, please contact Pia Wilkes – pia.wilkes@vca.gov.uk

For more information about VCA, consult the Candidate Information Pack or follow the link below.

About Us , Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA)

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
• Please provide any information we should be aware of that will enable us to support you further in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If your application is successful but you have been dismissed from the Civil Service, your application could be removed at the pre-employment checking stage depending on the nature of the dismissal.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

All external applicants and current employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will be required to undergo a Social Media Check. A Social Media Check is a review of your publicly available online activity, typically across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and others. The purpose is to identify any public posts or content that could raise concerns for employers, such as:

• Hate speech or discriminatory behaviour
• Threats or acts of violence
• Illegal activity or substance misuse
• Sexually explicit material
• Extremist views or affiliations

Importantly, this check does not involve hacking into your accounts or accessing private messages. It only considers content you have chosen to make public. Employers use this kind of screening to help ensure their workplace remains safe, inclusive, and aligned with company values. It’s not about judging your personality or lifestyle - it’s about checking for potential red flags that might affect the role or company culture. If you have questions or concerns about the social media check, we would be happy to explain in more detail what’s being looked at and how your data is handled securely and fairly.

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 basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.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 : SCS Recruitment Team
• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Civil Service Commission 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.

In accordance with the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles, our recruitment and selection processes are underpinned by the requirement of appointment on the basis of merit by fair and open competition.
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance you should contact; scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission at info@csc.gov.uk and more information can be found at www.civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk

Attachments

VCA_Candidate_Pack_Director of Technical and Regulatory Operations Opens in new window (pdf, 5133kB)490641 Director of Technical and Regulatory Operations Accessibility Pack Opens in new window (docx, 29kB)Director of Technical and Regulatory Operations - JD Opens in new window (docx, 38kB)