Resilience & Business Continuity Testing and Exercising Manager

Job summary

The Integrated Corporate Services (ICS) is a shared corporate service. It provides corporate services (HR, Finance, Digital, Commercial, Security and Estates) across the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT).

Our team of over 400 professionals will be leading the way in how these functions will be delivered in the future. Our ambition is to be the leading provider of integrated corporate services for government and set the standard for quality, efficiency, and innovation in our field.

We offer great working benefits including a world-class pension, flexible working options and a career where your learning and development is taken seriously. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.

Find Out More

You can also follow our LinkedIn Careers Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/desnz-careers/

Job description

This role is based within the Integrated Corporate Services (ICS) Departmental Security Unit (DSU), which delivers protective security, business continuity and resilience support and assurance to both the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) through a shared service approach.

Person specification

This is an exciting new role within the ICS Resilience Team to design the departments’ exercising strategy approach and associated delivery programme. It will involve creating an exercise programme to test readiness against both internal and external risks and undertaking outreach work across ICS and customer business areas to build our organisational resilience.

We are seeking a proactive, organised, methodical and flexible Testing & Exercising Manager to provide project management with the planning and delivery of Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) training and exercises across the ICS customer organisations.

As the Testing and Exercising Manager, you will be required to support and deputise on occasion for the Resilience and Business Continuity Manager. You will be responsible for planning and preparation of EPRR training programmes and exercises to ensure that ICS and its customer organisations maintain robust, resilient and proportionate business continuity arrangements, strengthening organisational resilience and preparedness for disruptive events.

This role is pivotal in enabling preparedness for a wide range of potential disruptions and alignment with ISO 22301 and Business Continuity Institute best practice, working closely with a wide group of stakeholders, this new strategy will test the department’s capabilities in responding to disruptive or destructive events.
Please contact the vacancy holder if you would like to discuss this role in further detail.

The post holder will:

• Plan and liaise with Subject Matter Experts to facilitate and deliver Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) training and exercises across ICS and customer organisations.
  
• Develop and deliver a structured exercising and testing programme, ensuring lessons from exercises and incidents are captured and used to drive continual improvement.
  
• Support customers with post-incident reviews, co-ordinate the production of insightful reporting and management information, and oversee the implementation of appropriate remediation actions.
  
• Support the Resilience & Business Continuity Manager to maintain the BCMS framework, policies and standards, ensuring alignment with ISO 22301, the BCI GPG, and relevant government resilience guidance.
  
• Deputise for the Resilience & Business Continuity Manager.
  
• Collaborate with the ICS Security Culture lead and other stakeholders to enhance positive resilience culture and support organisational learning.
  
• Act as Duty Officer with occasional participation in the on-call rota (with allowance) approximately 4 weeks per year.
  
• The responsibilities of this role may evolve in line with business needs.

Essential Criteria

• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, able to manage multiple activities and stakeholders concurrently.
  
• Demonstrable experience of using project and programme management tools and techniques to plan, manage and deliver structured programmes of work, including tracking milestones, managing dependencies and reporting progress to stakeholders.
  
• Ability to work at pace and adapt quickly to changing priorities and customer needs.
  
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
  
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to build strong networks, to influence and motivate at all levels and confident and effective when engaging with senior stakeholders.
  
• Proficient use of Microsoft products to support delivery i.e. Excel, Word, Power Point, co-pilot etc.
  
• Ability to analyse results and produce Management Information to shape the wider Resilience strategy.

Desirable Criteria

• Demonstrable experience of designing, planning and facilitating business continuity or EPRR exercises, including tabletop, functional and/or live play formats, with evidence of capturing lessons learned and driving improvement.
  
• Demonstrable experience of working within a government department or similar complex organisation.
  
• Memberships: CBCI or MBCI (or willingness to work towards professional accreditation).

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service

Technical skills

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

• Business Continuity

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,765, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £12,678 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).

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

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, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete a Test, Civil Service Judgement Test. If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application.

Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is 23:55 on 29th June 2026. If you fail to complete the online test before the deadline your application will be withdrawn. Guidance for the test will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website.

Our online test supplier will be performing scheduled maintenance between 4pm and midnight on 28th June 2026. You will be unable to access tests during this period.

If you are in the middle of a test when the maintenance begins, your progress will be paused. You will be able to resume your test from where you left off via your application centre once the downtime has ended. Please note that you will not be able to launch any new tests while the system is offline.

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.

Please use your personal statement (in no more than 500 words) to tell us how you would be a good fit for this role by addressing the essential criteria.

Applications will be sifted on CV and Personal Statement.

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the personal statement only.

Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

The interview will consist of behaviour, technical and strength-based questions.

Interviewees will be asked to deliver a presentation; further details will be provided nearer the time.

The link to the technical/professional competency framework that candidates will be assessed against, for their reference:

Click here

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DESNZ Candidate Guidance. A DESNZ Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

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

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

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

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Candidates who meet the minimum benchmark may be placed on a Reserve List for consideration for similar roles, including those at a lower grade. Candidates who narrowly miss the benchmark and are not placed on the Reserve List may still be considered for an offer in a similar role at a lower grade.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

DESNZ does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

DESNZ cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DESNZ holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service /Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

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.

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

Feedback

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 : Rob Kennedy
• Email : rob.kennedy@ics.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Attachments

DESNZ TCs v1.2 Opens in new window (doc, 174kB)