Job Description
Do you want to work for an organisation that values difference and includes everyone? Then the Environment Agency is the organisation for you! This is an exciting opportunity to shape and influence our approach to risk management. We’re offering an experienced risk professional to lead the implementation of our Risk Management Framework and drive a programme of work that strengthens our risk culture across the organisation.
In this influential role, you’ll work collaboratively with colleagues at all levels, providing expert advice and enabling teams to identify, assess, and manage risks with confidence and consistency. Your leadership will help ensure our decisions are informed, our operations resilient, and our people empowered.
Whilst the role is mostly internal facing, there are opportunities to build networks with other Government Departments.
Responsibilities
* Champion and maintain our Risk Management Framework, ensuring it aligns with HM Treasury’s Orange Book and meets organisational needs.
* Lead the rollout of consistent risk management processes across the organisation.
* Deliver an annual programme of activities to embed good risk practices and foster a proactive risk culture.
* Provide senior leaders with clear, insightful reporting to support strategic decision‑making.
* Build trusted relationships across teams, offering expert advice and constructive challenge.
* Collaborate with other functions (e.g. health & safety, programme management) to integrate risk management into everything we do.
* Coach and support team members, helping them grow and deliver with confidence.
* Respond to incidents as a central part of the role, including availability to provide business continuity support during incidents. Additional payment and full training may be provided.
About the Team
The Risk and Assurance Team sits in Strategy, Transformation and Assurance. We set the standards, shape the processes, and provide the tools that help teams make confident, informed decisions. From expert advice to engaging training and practical resources, we support colleagues at every level to manage risk in a way that’s consistent, effective and empowering. This is a technical leadership role and there may be an opportunity for line management in the future.
Experience and Skills Required
* Extensive understanding of risk management and the Orange Book.
* Proven track record of successfully implementing and embedding risk management initiatives through collaborative working and delivering through others across multiple teams.
* Excellent written and verbal communication skills with experience providing expert risk advice and engaging with senior leaders.
* Ability to build strong, trusted relationships across all levels whilst challenging firmly and constructively.
* Experience working in a complex and fast‑paced environment, adapting quickly to changing circumstances and managing competing priorities.
Ideally you will also have
* A risk management qualification or relevant professional membership (e.g. IRM Certified).
* Understanding of other risk‑based functions such as project/programme management and health and safety.
Location and Working Arrangements
This is a hybrid role; the successful candidate can be based at any Environment Agency office. Some travel will be required to attend national meetings, with occasional overnight stays. Flexible working patterns, including job share, are welcomed.
Contact
For questions relating to this role, contact Claire Sunshine at Claire.sunshine@environment-agency.gov.uk.
This vacancy closes on 7 November 2025. Interviews are expected to be held w/c 1 December via MS Teams. A call for interested applicants will be held on 23 October at 10:00 to provide more details – please contact riskandassurancepa@environment-agency.gov.uk for call details.
If you consent to be recruited onto a reserve list, your details will be held for six months, and alternative posts may be offered.
Competencies
Influences and Persuades Others
Description: Presenting a case convincingly and attractively to win people over, encouraging them to follow plans willingly; often succeeding where logic and reason alone would fail. In this role, you will need to influence and persuade a variety of stakeholders, including senior leaders. Provide an example where you have won people over, encouraging them to willingly follow your plan. What were the challenges, and how did you do it?
Focuses on Efficiency, Innovation and Quality
Description: Identifies and seizes opportunities to create, introduce and implement new or improved methods, processes, improving efficiency without compromising quality or accuracy. A core part of this post is shaping and implementing improved approaches to risk management. Describe a time where you identified, created and implemented a new, innovative way of working that improved efficiency.
Delivers Results Through Others
Description: Harnesses the team to deliver results on time, to required standards and in line with organisational processes and procedures. This role will require you to deliver a large programme of work through teams that you do not line manage. Describe a time when you have harnessed resources within and outside your immediate team to deliver complex projects or pieces of work amid significant obstacles and challenges.
Communicates Effectively
Description: Listens and questions to understand and engage. Conveys information and ideas clearly, accurately and persuasively through speech and writing. Describe an occasion where you had to distil complex, technical information into clear messages for senior audiences so they can make decisions.
Additional Information
If you are applying from the Civil Service, note that the Environment Agency is not part of HM Civil Service and you would not be a Crown Servant in the event of being appointed, so you will not be eligible for continuous service. For applicants who currently work in local government or other bodies listed under the Redundancy Payments (Continuity of Employment in Local Government etc.) modification order 1999, you may be eligible for continuous service for reduced redundancy calculations. If unsure, contact your own HR team.
We are fully committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. Flexible working patterns, including job share, are welcomed. We also have a Guaranteed Interview Policy to support those with a disability who are seeking employment. We guarantee an interview to anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria.
As a Non‑Departmental Public Body, we use Central Government frameworks and contracts for all external recruitment needs. We do not engage directly with the market via post, email or phone. For suppliers: visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/become-a-crown-commercial-service-supplier/…
Artificial Intelligence can support your application, but all examples and statements must be truthful and factually accurate, taken directly from your own experience. Misrepresentation may lead to withdrawal or disciplinary action.
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