Head of International and Returns Services Command

Home Office

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 3 weeks

Management

Full time

£81,000 - £91,000 per year

Job summary

The Role

The Head of International & Returns Services Command (IRSC) provides senior operational leadership for the command, overseeing complex operational, international engagement and system-delivery functions to remove those within the UK without status, including foreign criminals. This is a demanding and important role with a varied and high profile portfolio. The work has a high operational tempo and you will lead teams based across the UK and overseas.

The Head of International and Returns Services will enable and support delivery against operational returns activity which is central to the Home Office goal of controlling migration and Immigration Enforcement’s (IE) mission of tackling illegal migration by removing those with no right to be here. This fast-paced, important and complex work sits at the centre of the Home Secretary and Ministers’ high levels of ambition and expectation of optimising and maximising returns and is rarely out of the ministerial, public and parliamentary spotlight.

We are looking for someone with a strong delivery mindset, who can work at speed, is comfortable working in the ministerial, parliamentary and media spotlights and, above all, can bring energy and drive to achieve challenging outcomes through strong leadership, problem-solving and effective engagement.

In order to secure the removal of those without permission, the government needs a set of capabilities including strong co-operation with receiving countries; an ability to secure flight routings (be those flights chartered or scheduled operations); strong contacts with airlines and other suppliers to assist with escorted returns; and an ability to address any barriers which may otherwise prevent returns.

You will be responsible for the national escorting removal contract and operations, as well as programmes leading future procurement and build of escorted removals capabilities. The postholder will lead large, geographically-dispersed teams, including those based in Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs).

You will support the design, development and delivery of the strategic and operational returns plans for Immigration Enforcement in line with the Government’s immigration priorities. You will communicate a clear and strong vision for the Command as well as being an active member of the wider Returns Directorate and Immigration Enforcement (IE) senior leadership team. High tempo, challenging and rewarding, this role provides the opportunity to work in IE’s highest profile area with frequent engagement with the ministers and senior officials.

Within this role you will lead around 500 people and manage a budget of over £250m

Job description

Key Responsibilities include:

Delivery of Government’s goal of maximising returns by managing a blended balance of charter flight operations and scheduled flights to maximise returns.
Driving and influencing country relationships to protect existing routes and expand new ones utilising cross Whitehall levers and exploiting opportunities for joint working with international partners to benefit UK returns activity.
Innovating, developing and improving processes to ensure the swift securing of necessary approvals associated with identity and nationality verification for those we are seeking to remove.
Leading teams responsible for detention decisions including safeguarding..
Overseeing the Home Office scheduled and chartered returns operations, including oversight of complex cases.
Ensuring that the UK has excellent returns cooperation with receiving countries.
Delivery of the national Escorted Removals Contract, operationally, contractually and for the future procurement programme.
Leading a Command of around 500 staff based across the UK and around the world, ensuring they work together to deliver the Government's returns priorities.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their knowledge, experience, capability and behavioural approach to a high standard against the following key criteria:

Inspirational, compelling and resourceful operational leadership of large teams which are capable of delivering stretching goals.
A proven track record of working with ministers and senior stakeholders and delivery under pressure.
Significant delivery experience, possessing a strong problem-solving approach and with a successful track record delivering high performance.
Excellent stakeholder influencing skills, including experience working with senior domestic and, where necessary, international stakeholders.
The ability to plan, implement and monitor the delivery of stretching goals, identifying innovative ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the use of resources.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Home Office contributes £23,465 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

Online Application

Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online, no later than 23:55hrs Monday 1st June 2026

Provide some basic personal information;

1.A CV - setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, including details where budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years;

2.A Statement of Suitability – (limited to 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

3.Diversity Monitoring - 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 characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy: 2022 to 2025 (HTML) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for more information.

It is essential that in your written application you give evidence, using examples, of proven experience. These responses will be developed and discussed with candidates invited for interview.

Failure to submit both a CV and Supporting Statement will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

For further information on SCS careers and the application process, please see attached candidate pack.

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 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

Salary range

£81,000 - £91,000 per year