Chief Strategy Officer

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the UK’s sovereign regulator for medicines, including biological medicines, medical devices, and blood products. Our primary purpose is to ensure that products intended for the UK market are safe and effective and to monitor the ongoing safety of licensed products.

The Chief Strategy Officer is responsible for setting and stewarding the organisations long‑term strategic direction and ensuring that the strategy is translated into clear priorities, policies, programmes and outcomes. The post‑holder provides corporate leadership across strategy development, business planning, performance insight, governance, policy reform and delivery, and acts as the organisation’s senior lead for economic growth and external strategic relationships.

This role leads the Strategy Group which sits at the centre of the organisation’s coordination architecture, enabling greater clarity, alignment, prioritisation, sequencing, and coherence across the organisation.

The role operates at executive level, advising the Chief Executive, Chair, Executive Committee and Board, and represents the organisation with Ministers, senior officials, national partners and external stakeholders.

For full details please refer to the Candidate Pack attached. High level responsibilities are;

• Provide authoritative strategic advice to the Chief Executive and Chair, Executive Committee and Board on emerging risks, opportunities and external trends.
• Translate long‑term strategy into annual business plans, corporate priorities and measurable outcomes.
• Own the annual business planning cycle, ensuring strong integration between strategy, resources, risk and delivery.
• Lead the organisation’s business intelligence and performance framework, providing high‑quality analysis, insight and reporting to support decision‑making.
• Ensure corporate governance, organisational risk management and compliance frameworks are in place that ensure high standards of transparency, assurance and accountability
• Lead and manage the Private Office, including oversight of briefings, correspondence and diary coordination for the Chief Executive and Chair
• Provide executive oversight of project delivery across the organisation, ensuring delivery is aligned to strategic priorities.
• Lead and sponsor the Enterprise Portfolio Management Office (EPMO), embedding strong portfolio management, prioritisation and benefits realisation.
• Provide strategic leadership on policy and regulatory reform, including UK‑wide and EU‑derived reforms and primary/secondary legislation.
• Act as the organisation’s senior interface with sponsoring departments and partners on policy development and legislative change.
• Lead the organisation’s UK national partnerships, building effective relationships with government, regulators, agencies and delivery bodies.
• Contribute as a full member of the Executive Committee to collective leadership, culture and organisational effectiveness.

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)

Deadline for submission by 23:55 17th September 2026, providing the documents outlined below

• A two-page CV 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 Statement of Suitability (no longer 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the criteria listed in the person specification.
• A Diversity Monitoring Form. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select ‘prefer not to say’. All monitoring data will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not be provided to the selection panel. The information you provide when submitting your application will help us monitor our progress towards the Civil Service becoming the most inclusive employer.
• The names of at least three referees who may be contacted at shortlist stage, i.e. before the final interview, describing in what capacity and over what period of time they have known you. Referees will not be contacted without your consent.

MHRA is a ‘Disability Confident Employer’ under the government’s Disability Confident Scheme which denotes organisations that have a positive commitment towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum selection criteria as set out in the essential criteria of the person specification are guaranteed an interview. Selection will be on merit. If you wish to claim a guaranteed interview, you should declare so at the point you submit your application.

Should you need any adjustments to make the recruitment process more accessible to you, please contact a member of the team at the application address indicated above. The preferred method of application is online.

If you are unable to apply online please email: careers@mhra.gov.uk . All applications will receive an automated response.

Shortlist

You will receive an acknowledgment of your application through the online process. The panel will then assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit with the post by considering the evidence you have provided against the essential criteria within the person specification. Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application. The indicative timeline in this pack indicates the date by which decisions are expected to be made, and all shortlisted candidates will be advised of the outcome as soon as possible thereafter.

Assessment

If you are shortlisted, you will be asked to take part in a Stakeholder Engagement Assessment. This assessment will not result in a pass or fail decision but is designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at the panel interview.

For further information regarding the assessments please visit – https://scs-assessments.co.uk/

Interview

The panel interview will be a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification and may also include a presentation.

Full details of the assessment process and interview will be made available to shortlisted candidates. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

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