Project Lead, National Security Policy & Research CoLab (NSPARC)

Job summary

The National Security Policy & Research CoLab (NSPARC) is a multidisciplinary policy innovation team within government, hosted by Policy Lab. Its mission is to improve national security policymaking through design, innovation and human-centred approaches.

NSPARC does this in three ways:

• Build new approaches, or recombine existing approaches in new contexts, to tackle complex national security challenges.
• Demonstrate the value of those approaches through live projects and real-world policy and operational challenges.
• Share what it learns so others across the national security community, and where appropriate beyond it, can benefit.

We are looking for a Project Lead who brings strong national security experience, excellent project leadership and sound judgement. The successful candidate will lead high-quality work across NSPARC’s portfolio, build trusted relationships with clients and partners, and help ensure the team delivers impactful work in a sustainable and well-run way.

This is a hands-on role for someone who is comfortable working in ambiguity, shaping work as it develops, and delivering tangible outcomes in complex and sensitive environments.

Job description

Policy Lab is a multidisciplinary team that works openly and collaboratively across government. It brings together expertise in policy, lived experience research, experimentation, systems thinking, futures and design, and operates on a cost recovery basis.

Within that wider context, NSPARC works with commissioners and partners across the national security community to develop and apply innovation-led approaches to difficult policy and operational challenges.

As Project Lead, you will play a central role in helping NSPARC deliver its mission. You will lead client-facing projects from scoping through to delivery, working across complex issues and using a range of approaches to generate insight, test ideas in practice and support better policymaking.

You will also contribute to the wider running and development of the team. This includes supporting financial oversight, shaping new work with clients, and helping ensure NSPARC operates as a high-performing and sustainable capability.

The exact balance of the role can be shaped around the strengths of the successful candidate, but we expect the postholder to take on many of the responsibilities below.

Lead projects and client relationships

• Lead one or more NSPARC projects or workstreams from scoping through to delivery, ensuring work is well planned, appropriately resourced and focused on delivering tangible impact.
• Act as the main relationship manager, from commissioners and key partners, building trust and maintaining momentum across complex and sensitive work.
• Shape and adapt project plans and delivery approaches with clients and colleagues as evidence, learning or circumstances evolve.
• Oversee delivery of live policy or operational projects, including demonstrator work, in ways that clearly show the value of innovation-led and human-centred approaches.

Design, test and translate insight

• Design and run practical activities such as workshops, experiments, prototypes or demonstrators to better understand problems and test ways forward.
• Use and adapt appropriate methods to generate insight, drawing on qualitative, quantitative or mixed approaches as needed.
• Facilitate collaborative sessions that support shared understanding, creative thinking and effective decision-making.
• Translate evidence, insight and experimentation into clear and practical implications for policy, strategy or operational delivery.
• Contribute to sharing learning, methods and approaches in ways that strengthen capability across the national security community.

Support team operations and sustainability

• Line manage one or more team members and support their development, wellbeing and performance.
• Oversee elements of team finance, including budget planning, expenditure tracking and ensuring value for money.
• Support the development and shaping of new commissions, including working with clients to define problems and approaches.
• Project manage functional workstreams that support the wider running of the team, such as planning, governance, operations, capability building or knowledge management.
• Commission and manage external experts or suppliers where needed, ensuring high-quality inputs and good value.
• Contribute to the ongoing development of NSPARC as a high-performing, inclusive and innovative team.

Security clearance
You will need to hold, or be willing and able to obtain and maintain, Developed Vetting (DV) clearance for this role.

Please Note: regular travel to our London Sanctuary Buildings Hub will be required as part of the role.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Relevant policy or operational experience: Experience of working on complex, sensitive or high-profile policy or operational issues in government or related contexts. This could include work relevant to national security, resilience, public protection, serious and organised crime, cyber, economic security or other similarly complex areas.
• Leading innovation-led projects or programmes: Experience of leading complex projects, programmes or initiatives from scoping through to delivery, using appropriate approaches to generate insight, test ideas and deliver tangible impact in policy or operational contexts.
• Relationship management and collaboration: Experience of building trusted relationships with clients, commissioners, senior stakeholders or partners, including working effectively across organisational boundaries or in matrix environments.
• Team leadership: Experience of supporting the effective running of a team, project or capability, including some combination of team leadership, inclusive working, planning, governance, budget oversight, supplier management or operational improvement.

Technical skills

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

• Relevant policy or operational experience.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,185, Department for Education contributes £16,856 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.
We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

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 Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

If you would like to apply for this position, please complete the Civil Service Jobs application form by clicking the "apply now" button at the top or bottom of this advert.

Stage 1 – Application

At sift stage, you will be assessed on your Experience and Technical Skills in line with the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job advert.

To apply for this role, please provide:

Your CV – Set out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role.

Your Statement of Suitability – In no more than 750 words, provide examples of how your personal skills, qualities and experience meet the essential criteria. This is not intended to be a cover letter, instead work through each essential criteria in turn. You may wish to follow the STAR technique to help focus your examples. The key things we are looking for are what you did, how you did it and what the outcome was.

To confirm, the maximum word count for the statement of suitability is 750 words. Please adhere to this limit as anything over 750 words will not be taken into account.

Your Technical Statement - In no more than 250 words, please tell us about a time when you worked on or led an innovative approach to a complex, sensitive or high-profile policy or operational issue relevant to national security or a similarly complex area. What was the context, what was your personal role, how did you approach the work, and what impact did it have?

The CV and Statement of Suitability will be assessed against the essential criteria detailed in the advert.

Should there be a high volume of applicants, candidates may be sifted on the first two (2) essential criteria.

Sifting is expected to commence 20th May 2026. Please note these dates are subject to change.

CV details must be contained within the template on the application form. Any CV or Statement of Suitability that has been emailed to our team will not be considered.

Stage 2 - Interview

The interview will last approximately 1 hour. You will be asked Experience questions aligned to the essential criteria listed above to determine your level of experience in these areas. You will also be asked Strength and Technical questions.

If invited to interview, you will have 5 minutes at the start of the interview to speak to the 250 word example you provided in your Technical Statement and answer follow-up questions.

Interviews will take place towards the beginning of June 2026. Please note these dates are subject to change.

Interviews will be held over video conferencing using MS Teams. If you are invited to interview, please ensure that you have access to this software and that you have your video turned on. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We receive many applications, and unfortunately we’re not able to provide feedback for candidates who aren’t shortlisted. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

All communications will be electronic therefore it is vitally important that you check your Civil Service Jobs account regularly, as well as your spam/junk email folder.

Other Information

Interviews may be via Microsoft teams or face to face; the vacancy manager will confirm prior to the Interview.

In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you.

This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window).

Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your:

• name/title

• educational institutions

• age

• gender

• email address

• postal address

• phone number

• nationality/immigration status

We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.

The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Candidates will be posted in merit order based upon location preference. Where more than one location is advertised you will be asked to state your preferred location.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

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.

Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs

Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information.

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 Department of Education via centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

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

Please refer to the attached ‘Reasonable Adjustments Guide 05_2025 – accessible version’ at the bottom of the advert, for further information.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

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 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 : NSPARC team
• Email : nsparc@policylab.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk

Further information

The Department for Education’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly with the department concerned via CentralRecruitment.Operations@education.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages

Attachments

DFE Terms & Conditions - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 215kB)Reasonable Adjustments guide 05_2025 - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 723kB)OGD Transfer Supplementary information - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 327kB)