Job description
Senior Risk & Resilience Specialist
Contract Type: Permanent
Location: London
Salary: Newcastle based-c.£70,, London based-c.£82, (more may be available for exceptional candidates + Civil Service Pension
Are you ready to play a pivotal role at the heart of government accountability?
The National Audit Office (NAO) supports Parliament in holding government to account and improving public services. The NAO Strategy – sets two strategic outcomes: improving the productivity and resilience of public services and strengthening financial management and reporting across government.
About the role
As the Senior Risk & Resilience Specialist within the NAO’s Financial & Risk Management Hub, you will play a pivotal role in shaping and strengthening risk and resilience standards across public services. This high-profile position offers direct access to senior stakeholders and the opportunity to influence national policy at the highest level. Acting as the organisation’s specialist adviser on risk and resilience, you will provide expert guidance to both the NAO and government departments across Whitehall and Parliament, and the wider public sector, to shape good practice and drive continuous improvement. The breadth and complexity of this role mean you will be trusted to deliver authoritative insights and make a transformative impact on public sector resilience and risk management.
Working within the Financial & Risk Management (FaRM) Hub, you will lead and develop the NAO’s risk and resilience insight capability, supporting audit teams, designing and shaping approaches to auditing, curating good practice, and helping improve whole system risk management and resilience across government through influence, collaboration and partnership.
This is an extraordinary opportunity to shape the future of public service delivery, helping to safeguard the nation’s vital operations and ensure lasting change.
HOW TO APPLY
To apply, candidates should submit no more than two sides of A4, clearly outlining their suitability and providing concrete examples of how they meet each of the five key shortlist criteria listed above. In addition, applicants are required to submit their CV alongside their supporting statement.
Key Criteria
-Technical leadership in risk management and resilience: to credibly lead the NAO’s risk and resilience expertise
-Insight generation and knowledge: to turn complex risk and resilience knowledge and activity into insights that others can use
-Influence, judgement and communication: to exercise independent judgement and influence senior stakeholders and experts
-Collaboration, networks and engagement: to operate effectively across a complex and varied range of stakeholders to establish and build durable and effective partnerships
-Capability building and inclusive leadership: to build and nurture sustainable specialist capability, leading and managing by example
Selection Process
1. Application
Candidates are required to submit their CV and covering letter on the essential criteria above by Thursday 12nd March .
2. Shortlisting
Initial shortlisting will focus on five key criteria to determine which applicants move forward.
4. Interview
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to the 1st stage- telephone interview, where their experience will be verified and explored in greater detail. Successful candidates will then be invited to the final 2nd stage Interview. Finalists will attend a stakeholder panel process, where they will be asked to deliver a short presentation and lead a discussion on a relevant topic to showcase their influence and communication skills. This will be followed by a competency and values-based interview.
5. Decision
The final decision-making process will take place week commencing on 13th April .
Equal opportunities and diversity
Disability and Reasonable Adjustments
Applicants with a disability who wish their application to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme should confirm this when submitting their application. Under this scheme we guarantee an interview to an applicant with a disability who meets the minimum requirements for the role. You should also let our HR team know if you wish us to consider any Reasonable Adjustments at any stage of the process (HR Service Desk ().
Applicants will not be discriminated against on the grounds of any protected characteristic or any other extraneous factor.
Nationality Requirement:
• UK Nationals
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with (or eligible for) status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
Please note, we are not able to sponsor work visas or accept temporary visas as we are looking to hire on a permanent basis. Please contact the HR Service desk () should you have any questions on your nationality eligibility.
Responsibilities Key criteria and role responsibilities
Technical leadership in risk management and resilience: to credibly lead the NAO’s risk and resilience expertise
-Lead the risk management and resilience components of the FaRM Hub, acting as a centre of expertise for audit teams and senior stakeholders.
-Provide expert advice on risk management, operational and strategic resilience, and the integration into audit planning and delivery.
-Deploy subject matter expertise in financial audit and VfM work, contributing insight and helping raise capability and expertise across the organisation.
-Bring a strong understanding of public sector challenges in financial and risk management and the implications for resilience, alongside a strong grounding in risk management best practice.
Demonstrate experience developing, maintaining and applying risk and resilience approaches (risk frameworks, risk appetite, horizon scanning, stress testing, scenario analysis), with desirable experience in resilience-related areas such as business continuity, crisis management, operational resilience, cyber.
-Insight generation and knowledge: to turn complex risk and resilience knowledge and activity into insights that others can use
-Shape, develop and maintain NAO risk and resilience knowledge, good practice, tools, and audit methodologies.
-Curate, develop and maintain authoritative insight on risk and resilience practices across government, drawing on financial audit, VfM, specialist hubs and through the external landscape.
-Produce and share knowledge products: guidance, tools, good practice notes, training materials and thematic insights.
-Keep abreast of emerging trends in risk and resilience, including knowledge of cross-government systemic challenges, such as climate risk, cyber resilience, supply chain vulnerabilities and national risks.
-Work with knowledge management teams to ensure effective capture, organisation and dissemination of content.
Influence, judgement and communication: to exercise independent judgement and influence senior stakeholders and experts
-Support communication of key findings and insights across government, Parliament, and external partners.
-Represent the NAO in relevant forums to shape public sector risk and resilience practice and influence cross-government maturity.
-Provide clear, evidence-based advice to teams and senior leaders, with examples of decisions made independently and their outcomes.
Collaboration, networks and engagement: to operate effectively across a complex and varied range of stakeholders to establish and build durable and effective partnerships
-Build and maintain internal networks across financial audit, VfM and specialist hubs to enhance the NAO’s collective capability.
-Build and sustain external partnerships across government functional leads, risk and resilience communities, and professional bodies.
-Build strong, collaborative working relationships across corporate services, financial audit, VfM and specialist hubs.
Capability building and inclusive leadership: to build and nurture sustainable specialist capability, leading and managing by example
-Shape and deliver the Hub’s learning pathway, leading on risk management and resilience, including delivering seminars and promoting learning through internal events and interventions.
-Support development of staff through training, mentoring, coaching, and contributing to personal development planning.
-Lead, manage and motivate diverse teams and individuals, supporting others to reach their potential and creating an inclusive, psychologically safe and high performing environment.
-Demonstrate credibility, expertise and the ability to bring together insights from teams across the NAO, working collaboratively and comfortably across all levels of the organisation.
-Promote and champion the NAO’s diversity & inclusion strategy through leadership behaviour and team culture.
Skills required
Educational requirements Qualifications
Relevant professional risk qualification (e.g., IRM, PRMIA, GARP or equivalent).
Relevant resilience experience within a complex organisation; complementary professional certifications (e.g., BCI, EPS, ICM) are desirable.
Additional postgraduate qualification (MBA/MSc) and public sector experience are desirable.