Job summary The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) touches the lives of every citizen in the country at some point in their life. It is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy. As the UKs biggest public service department, it administers the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million c laimants and customers. DWP works in partnership with other government departments, and with the private and voluntary sectors, providing services under the brands of Jobcentre Plus, the Pension Service, and the Child Maintenance Service. The Department aims to: Enable people to get into work and to get on at work, ensuring employment opportunity for all. Tackle child poverty and hardship, ensuring financial security for all. Shape the pensions system to serve the interests of savers and pensioners, ensuring decent, secure retirement incomes for all. Pursue a just, equal and inclusive society, ensuring independence and control for all disabled people. Deliver high quality efficient services, ensuring that people are treated with dignity and respect. DWP is one of the largest departments in the Civil Service, employing nearly 85,000 colleagues and operating out o f over 800 sites across the UK. The Department is currently reforming how the welfare system works, with major reforms to the Pensions System, Universal Credit, counter fraud measures, and Statutory Sick Pay in this parliamentary session alone. DWP has also taken on responsibility for apprenticeships, adult further education, skills, training and careers, and Skills England. Further information can be found in the attached candidate pack. Job description The Permanent Secretary is the lead adviser to the Secretary of State; they represent the Department for Work and Pensions at the highest level and are responsible for overseeing operational delivery of essential services at a large scale. Specifically, the Permanent Secretary: As Principal Accounting Officer, is accountable to Parliament for the Departments performance and expenditure. Department spend on pensions and benefits (AME) in 2026 27 is expected to be around 330Bn and DEL is expected to be around 16.5bn, with the inclusion of the skills portfolio. AO responsibilities include the Synergy Cluster to create shared corporate services across DWP, Ministry of Justice, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and the Home Office. To do this successfully the Permanent Secretary will have the breadth and depth of experience to fulfil the significant Accounting Officer responsibilities, including the ability to interact confidently and expertly with HM Treasury counterparts; Drives reform and transformation, including by progressing AI adoption work in the department, providing strong change leadership, overseeing major welfare reform and embedding innovation, and agility in ways of working to deliver better for Ministers; Acts as the primary policy adviser to the Secretary of State and ministerial team, providing sound and objective advice on issues across the Departments remit to support effective policy delivery; Provides strong leadership to the Department by translating Ministers ambitions into a clear vision to staff, setting the strategic direction for the organisation and ensuring the Department is organised, resourced and motivated to deliver its priorities; Manages, motivates and engages staff to develop their capability, and is a role model for the values of the Civil Service, reinforcin g and supporting a culture of continuous improvement, high performance and excellent delivery; Builds a strong senior leadership team to strengthen capability, and to shape how the Department delivers and transforms services; Provides oversight of DWPs Arms Length Bodies (ALBs) ensuring they use their resources effectively in the delivery of the governments aims; and, As a member of the wider collective leadership of the Civil Service, works with permanent secretary colleagues across government to lead the UK Civil Service for the future. Works with the Cabinet Secretary and Permanent Secretaries to reform and rewire radically the Civil Service overall to become recognised for excellence in delivery, adoption of tech and AI, and with the purpose and pride that comes from high performance. Person specification The Civil Service is open to talented people from anywhere in the United Kingdom, and from any career background; we will always seek to identify transferable skills from the individuals experience. To help you succeed in this role, you must have a strong commitment to the Civil Service values of impartiality, honesty, integrity and objectivity, and you will likely have the following essential criteria : A successful track record leading organisational excellence by transforming large-scale operations and culture to deliver superior customer service and productivity; Practical and effective experience of leading the delivery of frontline services to significant scale and impact, with the ability to build a talented, productive, engaged and motivated workforce; The ability to secure the confidence of Ministers and senior leaders in developing and delivering complex policy and strategy alongside a successful track record of working collaboratively across organisations. Proven ability and experience to successfully discharge the responsibility for managing multi billion-pound revenue and capital budgets to deliver significant public value and to the satisfaction of key stakeholders; and, Proven ability to manage complex relationships and interests and to build strong collaborative partnerships to support effective delivery of cross-cutting agendas; Benefits Alongside your salary of 200,000, Department for Work and Pensions contributes 57,940 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. 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 The recruitment process is being undertaken by Russell Reynolds Associates on behalf of DWP. The closing date for applications is 23:55 GMT on Monday 27th April 2026. Please submit your full application by email to responses@russellreynolds.com quoting reference number P2603-118L in the subject heading of the email. All applications will be acknowledged. Your submission should include: Your CV, with educational and professional qualifications and full employment history, including an explanation of any gaps in your employment history, and details where possible of budgets and numbers of people. A short supporting statement of no more than two A4 sized pages (1,000 words) explaining why this appointment interests you and how you can evidence your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the what experience will you need section. A Diversity Questionnaire : The Civil Service is committed to achieving a workforce that reflects the society it serves, at all levels including the most senior. We ask all candidates to complete the Diversity Questionnaire as part of the application process. This information is used solely for monitoring purposes, is treated in the strictest confidence, and is not shared with those involved in assessing your application. If you would prefer not to provide this information, prefer not to say options are available. A completed Declaration of Interests Please note that applications will not be accepted unless the form is returned. Details of two referees these will only be contacted for shortlisted candidates, and not without prior notice. Further information on how to apply can be found in the attached candidate pack. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. Security 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 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 the Civil 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 : Russell Reynolds Email : responses@russellreynolds.com Recruitment team Email : responses@russellreynolds.com Attachments SPEC - Department for Work & Pensions, Permanent Secretary (3).docx Opens in new window (pdf, 614kB) Apply at advertiser's site