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Job summary

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office works to make the UK safer, stronger and more prosperous by leading the Government’s diplomatic, development and consular work around the world. Our estate is central to that mission. It enables our people to operate safely and effectively across a global network, supporting UK interests in some of the most complex and challenging environments.

This is a significant leadership opportunity within the FCDO’s Estates Directorate. Our estate spans 170 countries and territories, with 282 officially designated overseas posts, including Embassies, High Commissions, Consulates and our work across the Overseas Territories. Alongside this, we manage a major UK estate in London, Milton Keynes and East Kilbride.

As Deputy Director for Construction and Project Delivery, you will play a critical role in shaping and delivering the next phase of our estate strategy. You will lead a major capital delivery portfolio, drive improvements across our global estate, reduce operational risk, and help address backlog maintenance at pace.

Job description

This is a senior leadership role within the FCDO’s Estates Directorate, with responsibility for leading the delivery of a significant capital projects portfolio across the UK and global estate. The Deputy Director for Construction and Project Delivery reports to the Director of Estates and is a member of the Estates Senior Leadership Team.

You will play a central role in delivering the infrastructure that enables the FCDO to operate safely and effectively around the world. The portfolio includes new build facilities, major refurbishments, replacement of end-of-life assets, and significant mid-life and end-of-life upgrades to building services and systems. Delivery takes place across a complex international operating environment, often involving challenging logistical, security, environmental and stakeholder considerations.

You will lead a dynamic, fast-paced, multi-million-pound capital programme, with an annual budget of approximately £120 million. This will require strong strategic oversight, commercial judgement and delivery discipline, ensuring projects are delivered to time, cost and quality standards while demonstrating value for money and compliance with public sector financial and accounting requirements.

As Deputy Director, you will lead ten Project Directors and a wider multi disciplinary team, including five further direct reports located across London, Hanslope Park and East Kilbride. You will provide visible, inclusive and confident leadership, setting clear direction, building capability and creating the conditions for high performance across the team and wider delivery network.

The role requires close working with the other Deputy Directors within the Estates Directorate, whose responsibilities cover planning, delivery, running the global estate and complex projects. You will need to work collaboratively across organisational boundaries, ensuring alignment between estate strategy, capital delivery, asset management and operational priorities.

You will be responsible for financial planning, forecasting and accounting for the operational and programme budgets within your remit. You will approve projects within your delegated authority, chair the Asset Management Portfolio Board for projects up to £5 million, and lead the development and presentation of business cases for larger projects requiring approval by the Estates Committee and the FCDO Corporate Investment Committee.

A key part of the role will be building trusted relationships with a wide range of senior stakeholders, including colleagues across the FCDO, Ministers, Heads of Mission, other government departments, consultants, contractors and senior leaders across the supply chain. You will provide leadership across the full project lifecycle, from requirements, design and construction through to commissioning, handover and benefits realisation.

You will also ensure that projects are delivered with a strong focus on whole-life asset management. This includes robust handover arrangements, effective documentation, clear interfaces with maintenance teams and a continued focus on benefits, value for money and operational resilience.

You will report clearly on progress, issues, risks and mitigations to the Programme Executive and Board, maintaining an evidence-based view of delivery confidence. You will be expected to identify and manage risks, dependencies and emerging issues proactively, bringing pace, grip and sound judgement to a complex and high-profile portfolio.

Person specification

Working at the FCDO will be the most challenging and rewarding time of your career. We want to be the best diplomatic and
development ministry in the world, with jobs that are the envy of Whitehall and the rest of the world. We aim to recruit and retain
the best people; those who are delivery focused and have a strong track record in high impact outcomes.

The Civil Service is open to talented people from any career background; we will always seek to identify transferable skills from
the individual’s experience. The Essential Criteria to succeed in this role and be selected are:

• Inspiring, people-focused leadership through change – A proven track record of leading, developing and empowering high-performing, multi disciplinary teams in complex delivery environments. You will be able to demonstrate visible, inclusive and confident leadership, setting clear direction, building capability, managing performance and creating the conditions for people and suppliers to deliver successfully across diverse stakeholder and customer groups.
• Delivery of major, complex construction programmes – Demonstrable experience of leading major, technically complex construction or infrastructure programmes, ideally across multi-site or international portfolios. You will bring the credibility and professional judgement to work effectively with senior delivery partners, contractors, consultants, surveyors, engineers and construction professionals to deliver high-quality outcomes in challenging operating environments.
• Governance and assurance of major projects and programmes – Strong experience of governance, assurance and senior oversight for complex projects and programmes, including managing risk, dependencies, benefits, value for money and delivery confidence. This may include experience of the Government Major Projects Portfolio, or comparable major project governance and assurance frameworks.
• Regulatory, legal and financial understanding of complex programmes – A sound understanding of the regulatory, legal, commercial and financial considerations involved in delivering complex, technical and design-led programmes. You will be confident engaging with regulatory authorities, statutory bodies, commercial partners and senior decision makers to ensure compliant, affordable and deliverable outcomes.
• Professional credibility and sector expertise – Professional membership of a recognised accrediting body, such as RICS, ICE, CIOB, CIBSE, RIBA or equivalent, or a willingness to work towards this. You will bring the professional credibility, technical awareness and sector insight needed to lead confidently across a complex construction and estates portfolio.

It is important that your application provides evidence and examples that meet these criteria.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £100,000, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office contributes £28,970 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).

• 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

How to apply
You must be a British Citizen at the point of application.

The recruitment process is being undertaken by Government Recruitment Service on behalf of the FCDO. To apply for this position, please follow the instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website by 9:00am on Monday 17th August 2026. All applications will be acknowledged and considered by the selection panel.

Your submission should include:

• A CV setting out your educational and professional qualifications and full employment history, including an explanation of any gaps in your employment history.
• A Statement of Suitability of no more than 1,250 words explaining your personal skills, qualities, abilities and experience relevant to the requirements of the job in support of your application with particular reference to the Essential Criteria in the Person Specification. It should also describe your vision for the job and how you would propose to approach this if appointed.
• As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a Diversity questionnaire. The FCDO is committed to equal opportunities. Our officers are recruited on merit, through fair and open competition. We seek our strength through diversity and appoint suitably qualified individuals regardless of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, social backgrounds, age or disability. To help us ensure that our recruitment activity reflects the diversity of British society, we would be grateful if you could complete the diversity monitoring form. As part of the 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 particular characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'. All monitoring data will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not be provided to the selection panel. The information you provide when submitting your application will help us monitor our progress towards the Civil Service becoming the most inclusive employer. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for more information. All data is reported in an anonymous and aggregate format and will not be seen by anyone assessing your application.

Candidate Engagement Call
We will be running a Candidate Engagement Call on Wednesday 5th August at 11am. During the call, you will have the opportunity to ask any questions that you have about this role. You can join the call here.

Timeline

• The closing date for applications will be 9:00am on Monday 17th August.
• CVs and Statements of Suitability will be ranked by Government Recruitment Service and then assessed by the Panel.
• A shortlist of the applications will take place on w/c 24th August.
• Across W/C 31st August and 7th September, shortlisted candidates will be asked to:
  -Participate in a Staff Engagement panel with a selection of people from across the FCDO.
  -Undergo an Alternative Leadership Assessment (ALA) with psychological profiling.
  -Meet with Jonathan Pepper, Estates Director at the FCDO, to learn more about the role. Please note, this is not part of the formal assessment process, and it will not be used to inform the Panel’s decision in any way.
• Final Interviews W/C 14th September 2026.

Interview

The interview panel will be chaired by Jonathan Pepper, Director of Estates (Interim). Other Panel members at interview will include but may not be limited to Tracey Tulloch, Deputy Director Commercial and Eddie Hannah, Head of Overseas Estate Department and Chief Engineer.

Candidates will be asked to make a Presentation to the panel on the expected strategic challenges of the role. The topic will be provided in advance of the interview.

The interviews are expected to be held in London, in person. There may be the option to conduct the interview by Microsoft Teams for overseas candidates. If this is preferred, you should make this clear at the application stage.

Full details will be provided to shortlisted candidates. Recognising that there are a number of steps in the process, we will do our best to arrange the sessions in a way that works for you.

Please note that references and open-source due diligence checks (including into social media accounts) may be undertaken for all short-listed candidates. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reimburse you for any expenses incurred as part of this recruitment process.

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

Recruitment team

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

Further information

The FCDO’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the principle of selection for appointment on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should, in the first instance, contact External.Recruitment@fcdo.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the FCDO, you can contact the Office of the Civil Service Commissioners.

Attachments

Candidate information pack- 464947 - SCS1 Deputy Director Construction and Project Delivery - compressed Opens in new window (pdf, 991kB)464947 - Deputy Director Construction and Project Delivery - accessibility pack Opens in new window (docx, 24kB)