** Risk, Compliance & Business Continuity Officer

Job summary

The Home Office works to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter-terrorism, policing, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports.

Immigration Enforcement is responsible for enforcing the government’s immigration laws, tackling illegal migration, removing foreign national offenders and immigration offenders from the UK. We also aim to disrupt the organised criminal groups that exploit the vulnerable for their personal gain. Learn more on our careers pages.

Criminal & Financial Investigation (CFI), part of Enforcement, Compliance & Crime (ECC), investigates immigration crime and takes robust action against those who seek to abuse the UK’s border and immigration systems.

The Home Office values of being Courageous, Collaborative, Compassionate and Respectful are central to how we work in CFI, alongside the high standards required by the criminal justice system.

We train our staff to become fully accredited criminal and financial investigators and provide the equipment they need to work effectively. For this role, additional training will be provided in risk management, compliance and business continuity.

Job description

An opportunity has arisen for a Chief Immigration Officer to support the His Majesty’s Inspector lead for risk, first-line compliance, fraud and integrity, and business continuity within the CFI Operational Guidance, Risk and Compliance Team.

The Operational Governance, Risk and Compliance (OGRC) function ensures that risk is identified, managed and reported effectively across Criminal and Financial Investigation (CFI). It also supports effective first-line compliance checks, fraud and error prevention, and business continuity arrangements at team and business unit level.

The role supports frontline colleagues working to tackle organised immigration crime by helping teams manage risk, report on compliance activity, and maintain effective business continuity arrangements. You will provide advice and guidance to frontline criminal and financial investigation teams, helping to strengthen risk management, compliance and governance arrangements.

You will also help identify new and emerging threats, as well as opportunities to strengthen processes and improve investigative outcomes.

The role requires adaptability and flexibility to respond to changing priorities and short-notice work directed by CFI senior managers.

Key Responsibilities

Specific responsibilities include but aren’t limited to:

• Support the review and maintenance of CFI and regional risk registers, liaising with risk owners and the Immigration Enforcement Risk, Integrity and Resilience team where required.
• Assist with deep dives into first-line CFI compliance returns, coordinate action plans, and support responses to second-line assurance findings and external reviews, including those from the Criminal Investigation Assurance Team, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, and the Government Internal Audit Agency.
• Contribute to CFI business continuity arrangements by collating local plans, coordinating exercises, and supporting conformity with agreed processes.
• Help identify legal, operational and emerging threats that may affect CFI delivery, working with partners to mitigate risks and improve investigative outcomes.
• Support actions arising from the quarterly CFI Risk and Assurance Committee and contribute to wider fraud and error reporting arrangements.
• Liaise with the CFI risk community, promote risk management best practice locally, and collate emerging risk information.
• Draft and deliver awareness sessions on relevant topics, both in person and via Teams.

You may be required to undertake the same or a similar role within a different team or teams, where possible at your base location or within reasonable travel distance, depending on business priorities. With appropriate training and support, this will provide opportunities to broaden your experience and skill set.

Working Pattern

Due to business requirements, this role is offered on a full-time basis only.

Shift Working

Successful candidates will need to be able to attend for all shifts including early starts, late night finishes, and overnight shifts. These shifts may be outside of public transport operating hours.

Training

You will receive full training and support to do the job. You work as part of a team where there is always someone around for advice and support.

This role can be physically demanding and if successful you will be required to complete and pass specialist training including Personal Safety Training (PST) Level 3, which develops skills in personal safety, arrest and restraint techniques. This demands physical activity and physical contact with delegates on the course. You will be required to complete a PST health declaration and, if necessary, attend a medical examination. A formal offer will be conditional upon you being physically fit to undertake and pass the training.

Further information on what the training involves can be found on our website.

Person specification

Essential criteria

• Professionalising Investigation Programme (PIP) Accreditation Level 1 or Scottish equivalent is required for this role (see below). This must already be held.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to develop and maintain strong support networks and engaging with stakeholders and key enablers
• Strong analytical skills and with ability to draw conclusions from complex operational, policy and legal issues and present conclusions with clarity
• An ability to develop and build strong support networks and engaging with stakeholders and key enablers
• Well organised and able to apply attention to all aspects of the role you take ownership of problems and develop solutions
• Self-motivated, good at balancing priorities, and able to deliver to tight deadlines where required

Desirable criteria

• Experience of risk management, auditing, business continuity or counter-fraud
• Experience of delivering training or public speaking.

Licences

Due to the nature of the work and the geographical area, some travel by official vehicle or hire car will be inevitable and applicants must hold a full UK valid manual driving licence.

Qualifications

Successful candidates must currently hold minimum PIP Level 1 accreditation or Scottish equivalent.

Professionalising Investigation Programme (PIP) is a four-level accreditation programme under the auspices of the National Police Chiefs Council and the College of Policing. A professional accreditation of Professionalising Investigation Programme (PIP) Level 1 or Scottish equivalent is mandatory. For further information please see the attached documents.

An initial check prior to interview will be made on candidates holding PIP 1 accreditation or Scottish equivalent. Candidates who are confirmed as not being accredited will automatically have their application rejected and will not attend an interview.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Changing and Improving

Benefits

In addition to your salary, a career with the Home Office offers a range of benefits, including:

• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• In-year reward scheme for one-off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements.
• 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service to 30 days.
• Eight days of public holidays, plus one additional privilege day.
• Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office.
• This role currently attracts Annualised Hours Allowance (AHA) of 23.19% of salary, which equates to an additional £9,160 per annum based on salary minimum. Further information can be found on our website.
• See more of our benefits on our careers website.

Sign-up on our website to receive emails with information about careers at the Home Office

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 and Experience.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

We will endeavour to conduct the selection process in line with the dates indicated below, but cannot guarantee that these will not, where necessary, be revised.

1. Application – by 06 July 2026

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

• CV
• Personal Statement (maximum 1000 words).
• Evidence of the Behaviour - Changing and Improving (maximum of 250 words per Behaviour).

Your CV should consist of your career history, qualifications and skills/experience, including any key achievements in each role. Your CV will be scored against the experience required for the role as noted within the essential criteria.

The Personal Statement should be aligned to and demonstrate how you meet the skills and experience set out in the essential criteria, detailed in the job description.

For guidance and information on how to construct your application (Personal Statement and Behaviours), you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers website.

2. Sift – 08 July 2026

The sift will be held on the CV, Personal Statement and Behaviour - Changing and Improving, as listed in the advert.

Should a high volume of applications be received, an initial sift will be conducted on the CV and Personal Statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will then be progressed to a full sift that will consist of all the remaining elements submitted Behaviour - Changing and Improving.Candidates who fail to meet the minimum pass score for the initial sift will not have their remaining submitted elements scored and will only receive a sift score for that assessed at the initial sift.

3. Interview – 10 August 2026

If you are successful at sift stage, you will be invited to an interview that will be Behaviours (as listed in the job advert) and Strength based questions.

The interview will take place MS Teams.

For guidance and information on what to expect and how to prepare for an interview, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers.

Problems during the application process

If you experience problems accessing this advert, or you think you’ve made a mistake on an initial application, please contact hocandidates.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk, including the vacancy reference, at least two working days before the vacancy closes. Further information can be found on our website.

Do not create or attempt to submit another application, online test or use a different Civil Service Jobs account to proceed as this would be in violation of the candidate declaration.

Location Preference

You can select up to threelocations in order of preference. Please ensure that these are locations you are prepared to travel to. If you are offered a role at one of your preferred location(s) and you decline, your application will be withdrawn.

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made. There is no guarantee that being held on a reserve list will lead to a job offer. Further information can be found on our website.

Reserve lists will be held for each location and profession. Candidates will be appointed in merit order by location and profession.

Breaking Tied Scores

The behaviours and strengths have been ranked in order of importance to enable us to differentiate between candidates with tied interview scores.

Appearance

This is a uniformed post and as such requires the highest standards. Further information on this and policies regarding tattoos can be found on our website.

Standards

All Civil Servants are expected to comply with the Civil Service Code, and its core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.

Integrity Check

As well as successfully obtaining UK Security Vetting clearance, you will also be subject to an additional Integrity Check, as part of the pre-employment process, to determine your suitability to work for Border Force or Immigration Enforcement. For further information on what this involves, please visit our website.

Further Information

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

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

For further information on the Access NI confidential checking service telephone: the Access NI Helpline on 0300 200 7888 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email accessni@ani.x.gsi.gov.uk

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is 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 Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as 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

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

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.

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

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 : Home Office Resourcing Centre
• Email : HORCCampaignTeamIE@homeoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles. and you wish to make a complaint, then contact the Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

Attachments

Undercover policing - Authorised Professional Practice Opens in new window (pdf, 380kB)Candidate_Information_v17_April_2026 Opens in new window (pdf, 207kB)2025-11-17 Pre-employment Checking - Document Requirements (V17) Opens in new window (pdf, 231kB)