Permanent Secretary

Job summary

The Department for Business and Trade's north star is economic growth. It supports businesses to invest, export and grow - creating high quality jobs and opportunities across the country.

It has three roles:

1. Creating a dynamic and resilient domestic business environment - protecting consumers, promoting competition, effective regulation, supporting our priority industry sectors and fostering scale ups;
2. Ensuring the UK is the best internationally connected economy - negotiating free trade agreements, tackling market barriers and protecting businesses from unfair trade practices; and,
3. Delivering great services to business - including through the British Business Bank, Office for Investment, and Companies House.

For more information, please see the attached candidate pack.

Job description

The Permanent Secretary is the lead adviser to the Secretary of State, providing support, counsel and challenge in setting the strategy and developing policy.

Specifically, the Permanent Secretary will:

• Provide strong leadership to the Department by translating ministers’ priorities into a clear delivery plan, ensuring the Department has the skills and capacity needed and creating a high performance culture;
• Manage, motivate and engage staff to develop their capability and be a role model for the ambition and values of the Department, reinforcing and supporting a culture of continuous improvement, improving workforce capability and instilling a culture of high performance and excellent delivery;
• As the Accounting Officer, be answerable to Parliament for managing the Department for Business and Trade’s budget of £3.6B; acting to ensure that effective systems and processes of financial accounting are in place and that resources are used as efficiently and effectively as possible to deliver the Department’s aims; and,
• Be a dynamic, confident and highly visible leader who represents the Department and champions relationships with senior business leaders across the UK and internationally.

For more information, please see the attached candidate pack.

Person specification

The Civil Service is open to talented people from anywhere in the United Kingdom, and from any career background; we will always seek to identify transferable skills from the individual’s experience. To help you succeed in this role, you must have a strong commitment to the Civil Service values of impartiality, honesty, integrity and objectivity, and you will likely have the following essential criteria:

• A successful track record leading high performance organisations, translating strategy and priorities into successful delivery by collaborating with others in a complex environment;
• Exceptional communication skills and high personal impact and the ability to command credibility with business leaders, senior politicians and colleagues across Whitehall;
• Has championed innovation and has proven experience building cultures of continuous improvement and driving productivity across large scale businesses;
• The ability to secure the confidence of Ministers, developing and translating complex policy and operational challenges into successful delivery and transformation in an uncertain environment; and,
• Is a confident and engaging leader, with an ability to inspire others, create pride in their achievements and deliver transformational change.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £175,000, Department for Business and Trade contributes £50,697 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

The recruitment process is being undertaken by Korn Ferry on behalf of DBT. To apply please submit the following documents to ApplicationsKF@kornferry.com by no later than midday on 18 May 2026.

• Your CV, with educational and professional qualifications and full employment history, including an explanation of any gaps in your employment history, and details where possible of budgets and numbers of people.
• A short covering statement of no more than two A4 sized pages (1000 words) explaining why this appointment interests you and how you can evidence your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the criteria in the ‘experience needed’ section on page six.
• A Diversity Questionnaire: The Civil Service is committed to achieving a workforce that reflects the society it serves, at all levels including the most senior. Collecting this information enables us to identify whether we are recruiting from the widest possible pool of talent and check that all groups are being treated fairly throughout the process. This form will not be disclosed to anyone involved in assessing your application. Please note that applications will not be accepted unless the form is returned. If you do not wish to provide a response to a particular question, you should complete the ‘prefer not to say’ option.
• A completed Declaration of Interests form. Please note that applications will not be accepted unless the form is returned.
• Details of two referees - these will only be contacted for shortlisted candidates, and not without prior notice.

If you have any questions on your application, please contact Korn Ferry on: Peter.Guilder@kornferry.com

Further information on the selection process can be found in the attached candidate pack.

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

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

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 : Peter Guilder - Korn Ferry
• Email : Peter.Guilder@kornferry.com

Recruitment team

• Email : Peter.Guilder@kornferry.com

Attachments

2026-04-14 - DBT - PS - Candidate Pack FINAL (3) Opens in new window (pdf, 776kB)Annex - conflict of interest form (2) Opens in new window (docx, 18kB)Annex - diversity monitoring form Opens in new window (docx, 15kB)

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