Abbey Wood Bristol, Shrivenham, MOD Sealand (Flintshire), London or Aldershot.
Job Summary
As the MOD Technical Authority and Head of Specialism for Above Secret Physical and Technical Security, Head of Security Services Group (Hd SSG) is responsible for anticipating challenges against assessed risks and leading the delivery of appropriate, assured and proportionate security architecture operationally, commercially and financially to a demanding MOD and cross-Government customer base.
Strong engagement is a key part of this role as Hd SSG will act as the MOD's Strategic Expert Advisor and work collaboratively across government to promote security mindedness, to offer SSG technical security expertise and to ensure the niche Defence owned IDS capability is optimised to meet strategic priorities cross-Government in support of UK National Security and resilience.
Innovation sits at the heart of this role. As Hd SSG you will collaborate across the Government Security Profession, security industry (including specialist manufacturers and consultants) to drive best practice in addition to exploiting new and emerging technology advances to future proof the SSG and its bespoke Defence capability in response to the changing threat environment, emerging business requirements and government policies.
Job Description
Key Responsibilities:
* Provide visible and effective leadership of a geographically dispersed and multi-functional organisation of up to 325 staff with Developed Vetting, providing a 24/7 technical security capability in support of Defence, wider Government and UK critical national infrastructure across the UK and overseas. The post holder will be expected to lead the response to urgent security operational requirements on an ad hoc basis, including in relation to out of hours events.
* Ensure SSG outputs are delivered safely, in accordance with Defence and cross-Government priorities and supported by a robust delivery assurance regime, in accordance with the Army and Ministry of Defence policies. Oversee the financial management and a team budget of circa £32m. Provide a well governed and assured through life training and education opportunity for all members of SSG and to support the workforce model, provide consistency of engineering standards and enhance the employment offer to SSG employees.
* MOD Head of Specialism for Technical Security and the Departmental Technical Authority for Above Secret, Secret Strap and Attractive to Criminals and Terrorist Organisations (ACTO) equipment. Build strong and collaborative relationships with key security stakeholders across Government to ensure Defence's Incident Prevention and Response (IPR) Owned Sovereign capability is optimised in its delivery. Provide expertise across the Defence enterprise and more broadly across Government and external bodies to collaborate, support and enable requirements across Government and UK National Critical Infrastructure in relation to Technical Security.
* Set the standards to which Defence organisations and contractors should install and maintain security systems in addition to providing a bespoke Government use only sovereign capability Intruder Detection System (IDS) and associated products.
* Development of a Futures SSG Research and Development team to enable Defence to have the right technology to meet current and future threat, which itself is linked across Government and Academia as required to retain SSG as Defence's key in-house security capability.
Key Responsibilities
* Provide visible and effective leadership of a geographically dispersed and multi-functional organisation of up to 325 staff with Developed Vetting, providing a 24/7 technical security capability in support of Defence, wider Government and UK critical national infrastructure across the UK and overseas. The post holder will be expected to lead the response to urgent security operational requirements on an ad hoc basis, including in relation to out of hours events.
* Ensure SSG outputs are delivered safely, in accordance with Defence and cross-Government priorities and supported by a robust delivery assurance regime, in accordance with the Army and Ministry of Defence policies. Oversee the financial management and a team budget of circa £32m. Provide a well governed and assured through life training and education opportunity for all members of SSG and to support the workforce model, provide consistency of engineering standards and enhance the employment offer to SSG employees.
* MOD Head of Specialism for Technical Security and the Departmental Technical Authority for Above Secret, Secret Strap and Attractive to Criminals and Terrorist Organisations (ACTO) equipment. Build strong and collaborative relationships with key security stakeholders across Government to ensure Defence's Incident Prevention and Response (IPR) Owned Sovereign capability is optimised in its delivery. Provide expertise across the Defence enterprise and more broadly across Government and external bodies to collaborate, support and enable requirements across Government and UK National Critical Infrastructure in relation to Technical Security.
* Set the standards to which Defence organisations and contractors should install and maintain security systems in addition to providing a bespoke Government use only sovereign capability Intruder Detection System (IDS) and associated products.
* Development of a Futures SSG Research and Development team to enable Defence to have the right technology to meet current and future threat, which itself is linked across Government and Academia as required to retain SSG as Defence's key in-house security capability.
Person specification
Skills
The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate against the following essential criteria in their professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post, as well as the leaderships skills to succeed at the SCS PB1 level in the Senior Civil Service:
* Outstanding leadership skills able to build, inspire and motivate multi-functional teams and drive inclusion to create a supportive and resilient environment that delivers high performance and nurtures talent.
* Experience of leading a complex security function, delivering high quality and excellent customer service to achieve agreed outcomes ensuring security best practice coupled with sound assurance, financial and commercial processes.
* Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills with a proven ability to earn trust and build relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders to deliver effective and efficient security solutions and outcomes.
* Proven ability to blend technical expertise, realising digital and/or technology with strategic thinking skills in a multi-stakeholder environment in support of both business-as-usual requirements or in response to emerging threats and risks.
* Proactive and delivery focused, who can deliver multiple concurrent workstreams at pace in environments where there is high levels of ambiguity and challenge, showing resilience and demonstrating calm control in your leadership.
Alongside your salary of £95,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £27,521 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%
Selection process details
To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process no later than
23:55 Sunday 12
th
October 2025
and will involve providing the two documents outlined below via the Civil Service Jobs portal:
* A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
* A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role.
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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
External candidates who join the MOD and are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.
For further information about the role and full application process, please refer to the candidate pack attached below. If you wish to receive any material in a different format for accessibility, then please contact People-CivHR-
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 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.
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.
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).
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 : SCS Recruitment Team
* Email : People-CivHR-
Recruitment team
* Email : People-CivHR-