Chief Risk Officer (PB1)

Why this role matters

The Home Office operates in a complex and high-profile environment, delivering work that has a direct impact on the public, the Department and wider government.

Strong risk management is essential to ensuring that senior leaders can make well-informed decisions, anticipate challenges early and maintain confidence in the Department’s ability to deliver its priorities.

This role is central to strengthening that capability: leading the Department’s approach to strategic risk, improving assurance and controls, and supporting the Accounting Officer, Executive Committee, Director Generals and Ministers with clear insight on the risks that matter most.

By embedding high-quality risk management across the organisation, the postholder will help improve delivery, strengthen governance and support better outcomes for the public.

Key accountabilities

• Leading and developing a team to deliver a broad portfolio across risk, assurance and improvement - positioning the team as expert advisors to the business, our Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee and senior leaders across the department.
• Communicating the importance and value of risk management and being visible as its senior sponsor.
• Facilitating and driving management discussions, decisions and strategies on risk and assurance with Directors General, the Executive Committee, and Audit Committee.
• Leading the Home Office’s risk framework and strategy, ensuring robust identification, management and reporting of organisational risks through proactive engagement with the business.
• Overseeing cross-departmental programmes to enhance risk controls and to ensure best-practice delivery.
• Being a core member of the Performance, Risk, Assurance & Governance directorate’s senior leadership team, contributing to our collective leadership of the team and cross departmental governance.
• Engaging with other Government Departments, internal and external auditors, and industry to develop insight and best practice on risk management.

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)

Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online by 23:55hrs on 5th October 2026.

You will be asked to provide:

• A CV – (2 pages max) setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role. Please provide reasons for any gaps within the last two years.​​
• A Statement of Suitability – (limited to 1250 words) providing examples of how your experience meets the essential criteria.​​ This is your opportunity to give examples and show how your skills and experience fit the job requirements.

When writing a supporting statement, it is important that you:

• Read the job specification so you are clear about the job requirements. Structure your personal statement to reflect the essential criteria listed in the advert.
• Make sure you provide evidence against each of the listed criteria - i.e. ‘experienced in leading high performing and diverse teams and promoting inclusivity.’ When have you led a team, how large, what did you do to promote inclusivity, how did you handle diversity?
• Ensure any evidence you provide demonstrates the impact of your actions in that situation, provide statistical evidence where relevant.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.