Exercising and Lessons Officer

Job summary

Are you able to rapidly familiarise yourself with new skills, including those needed for crisis response, debriefing, or exercising?

Can you think innovatively and strategically to analyse complex information and data?

Have you built and maintained effective working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

The Transport Resilience, Analysis, International and Sanctions Directorate within the Department for Transport (DfT) houses the Resilience Division, whose primary objective is to ensure the Department can prepare for, mitigate, and respond to major incidents affecting the UK transport network and wider government interests.
As part of this Division, you will collaborate with partners across DfT, other government departments, and industry to strengthen resilience against future threats and hazards. These could range from terrorist incidents and cyber-attacks to severe flooding or volcanic eruptions.

Find out more about what it's like working at Policy opportunities at the Department for Transport - Department for Transport Careers

Job description

The post holder will join the Major Events preparedness (MEP) team, who’s role is to ensure the department is well prepared for both planned and unplanned major events. This includes:

• Leading the Department’s exercising programme to ensure departmental emergency plans are effective, and officials have the appropriate skills to respond effectively to unplanned emergencies
• Lead the departments lessons-identified portfolio post major events or exercises to ensure the department continually improves
• Coordinate the transport provisions for one-off, high-profile government priorities such as ceremonial, political, and sporting events (G7 summits, Tour de France, Euro 2028 etc.)

In this role, you will oversee the Department’s lessons identified and exercise programmes, ensuring both processes enhance resilience and preparedness. Following significant events, you will facilitate debriefs, capture participant feedback, and conduct research to produce clear, evidence-based reports with actionable recommendations.

Alongside this, you will design and deliver departmental exercises, working closely with policy leads to define objectives, coordinate logistics, and assess feasibility. This includes meeting departmental exercise commitments and contributing to the Government’s annual national exercise programme. Together, these activities are critical to testing plans, mitigating future risks, and ensuring the Department can respond effectively to major incidents.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Coordinate the Department’s Exercising and Lessons Programme; Take ownership of planning and delivering exercises and lessons learned activities that strengthen resilience and preparedness across the Department
• Lead the DfT’s Lessons identification processes; deliver structured debrief sessions with stakeholders, capture feedback, and produce evidence-based reports with actionable recommendations that will drive business improvement and mitigate risk.
• Design and Deliver Exercises; Work with policy leads to define objectives, coordinate logistics, and assess feasibility for departmental exercises.
• Collaborating with modal policy experts to understand the impacts of different risks facing the department, and escalating appropriately to senior leaders.
• Supporting the development and subsequent implementation of the Transport Resilience Strategy.
• Supporting the planning for major events to ensure transport is factored into central government Concept of Operations.
• Deputising for the Head of Major Events Planning, Exercising and Lessons at internal
  management, cross-Whitehall and external meetings.

Person specification

Required experience:

To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:

• Though previous experience in crises response, debriefing or exercising is not essential, you will need to familiarise yourself rapidly with the skills needed in such roles so that you can effectively develop the team’s products and deliver. The ability to think around an issue, listen effectively, and solve problems will all be critical to making this role a success.
• You will be an innovative and strategic thinker who is able to communicate complex information and data into clear and usable insights for Ministers, Senior civil servants, and other decision makers.
• You will have experience of building effective relationships, and the ability to engage persuasively and confidently at all levels. You will display quality drafting skills for ministerial advice and briefings.
• You will have excellent policy development skills, and the ability to assimilate a wide range of information quickly.
• You will have excellent networking and negotiation skills, and a track record in obtaining and retaining trust with colleagues and stakeholders at all levels.
• You will be comfortable working in a changing environment and a variety of structures, working independently, or delivering as part of a team.
• You will not need to have previous experience of managing or leading others, but you should be willing to do so, potentially in a matrix-management system. In any case, you will need to have (or develop) leadership skills as you lead pieces of work across the team. You will have the ability to quickly grasp new complex subject areas.

Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week.

This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.

The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

Regular travel to our London office will be required, which may involve overnight stays.

If you have a question about hybrid working, part time/job share hours, flexible working, travelling for work, or require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Vacancy Holder during the recruitment process to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role (see below for contact details).

Visa Sponsorship

DfTc does not offer Visa Sponsorship for this role.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,241, Department for Transport contributes £12,816 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave).
• 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King’s birthday.
• Access to the staff discount portal.
• Excellent career development opportunities and the potential to undertake professional qualifications relevant to your role paid for by the department, such as CIPD, Prince2, apprenticeships, etc.
• Joining a diverse and inclusive workforce with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues.
• 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff.
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Find out more about the benefits of working at DfT and its agencies (opens in a new window).

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

How to apply:

Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's qualifications, skills, and potential fit within our organisation.

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Sift of CV and personal statement

Stage 2: Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Stage 1: Sift

At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Experience – you will be asked to provide a CV and personal statement (750-word count). Please provide evidence of your Experience of the following:

•Designing, delivering, or contributing to exercises (e.g., tabletop, command post or live-play) to test skills, plans and procedures—setting clear objectives, developing realistic scenarios, coordinating logistics, and managing delivery risks.
• Leading, or participating in, lessons identified/lessons learned activity, e.g., gathering evidence, identifying root causes, and turning findings into practical recommendations to support continuous improvement.
• Awareness of the government crisis mechanisms and resilience arrangements (for example emergency planning, security or civil contingencies), or the willingness to build this knowledge quickly—ideally with some operational knowledge and experience of working with operational teams.

The sift will take place form 18/05/2026.

Stage 2: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours – Seeing the Big Picture, Working Together, Making Effective Decisions and Communicating and Influencing

• Experience – See Role Profile

The interviews will take place from 08/06/2026

This interview will be conducted in person at our Birmingham and Leeds offices. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site (opens in a new window).

Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change.

Further information on the selection process

We will also hold a 12-month reserve list for this role, which may lead to potential opportunities beyond the role you applied for. You can read more about our reserve lists here.

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you cannot access the information on our website for any reason, please email DRGComms@dft.gov.uk for assistance.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit theHow We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

Pre-employment Checking

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.

If your application is successful but you have been dismissed from the Civil Service within the last 12 months, your application could be removed at the pre-employment checking stage.

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.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

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.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Belinda Stephens
• Email : belinda.stephens@dft.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.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, in the first instance, you should contact Government Recruitment Services via email: dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website Here

Attachments

Exercising and Lessons - Role Profilev3 Opens in new window (pdf, 208kB)