Deputy Chief of Staff

Do you want to work on one or the most exciting transformation projects in the public sector?

The Defence Housing Service (DHS) is being created through the Armed Forces Bill to deliver a step-change in housing for the UK’s Armed Forces and their families following the publication of the Defence Housing Strategy on 3 November 2025, which marked the most significant change to Armed Forces housing in over 50 years. DHS will bring a dedicated focus to improving the homes, communities and lived experience of Service personnel, placing families firmly at the heart of everything it does.

This is one of the most ambitious housing transformation programmes in the UK today. Backed by a £9.2 billion investment, DHS will modernise tens of thousands of homes, introduce a more proactive and customer-focused approach to maintenance, and unlock new opportunities to develop housing on Defence land. DHS will have the focus and agility to deliver change at pace, combining public service values with greater flexibility to build the skills, systems and partnerships needed for the future.

This is a rare opportunity to be part of shaping its culture, influencing how it works, and helping deliver lasting improvements for Service families across the UK.

The Defence Housing team is currently part of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), who respond to the evolving needs of our military personnel, and the ways in which they live, work, train and deploy. We are proud to be the expert partner Defence needs for all their infrastructure requirements. From large scale infrastructure projects such as runways for the F35 fighter jets to net carbon-zero accommodation for our Service families, our activities focus relentlessly on our customers, and our outputs are unique in the UK and across the globe!

DIO , What we deliver every day.

The future delivery model for this team is currently under review and may change as part of potential organisational developments. This could include the team or function transferring to a different employer or organisational structure in the future. Should activities transfer out of the Ministry of Defence existing employees transferring with those activities will maintain the same, or substantially the same, terms and conditions of employment.

This is a high-profile senior leadership role at the heart of the Defence Housing Service (DHS), providing strategic leadership across the Chief Executive's and Board Chair's private office, board and executive governance, corporate risk and assurance, and the wider corporate support functions that enable DHS to operate with pace, confidence and effective oversight.

As Deputy Chief of Staff, you will act as the senior integrator of the Chief Executive's priorities, establishing the strategic direction and operating rhythm for the organisation and ensuring the Chief Executive, Board Chair, Executive Committee, Board and its Committees receive high-quality governance, briefing, assurance and decision support through a network of functional leads.

Working closely with the Chief Executive, Board Chair, Chief of Staff, Executive Directors and senior MOD and sponsor stakeholders, you will help shape and coordinate the organisation's forward agenda, ensuring key decisions, commissions, stakeholder priorities and emerging issues are effectively managed and aligned to strategic objectives.

The role provides strategic leadership across corporate governance, risk and assurance, business management and private office functions. You will set the framework for delivery, commission and challenge work through functional leads, assure the quality of outputs, and ensure issues are escalated and resolved through the appropriate senior decision-making channels.

What you'll be doing

• Lead the private office, governance, business management, risk and assurance functions, ensuring a coherent corporate centre aligned to organisational priorities.
• Set strategic direction and priorities across corporate support functions, driving delivery, continuous improvement and high professional standards.
• Act as Deputy Chief of Staff, coordinating executive priorities, governance rhythms, key commissions, risks and stakeholder issues.
• Oversee cross-organisational priorities, bringing together teams to resolve issues, unblock delivery and ensure progress against strategic objectives.
• Provide strategic support and advice to the Chief Executive, Board Chair and Executive Committee on governance, decision-making and organisational performance.
• Ensure effective planning, coordination and delivery of business across directorates, aligning activity to executive and board priorities.
• Represent the organisation at senior meetings, exercising delegated authority where appropriate and influencing key stakeholders.
• Provide oversight of Executive Committee priorities, ensuring risks, dependencies and decisions are effectively managed.
• Lead the organisation's approach to governance, accountability and assurance, promoting effective stewardship and transparency.
• Support the Board and its Committees by ensuring high-quality governance, scrutiny and decision-making processes.
• Champion a strong risk and assurance culture, ensuring effective risk management, internal controls and continuous improvement.
• Lead and develop a high-performing team, fostering collaboration, inclusivity and professional excellence.

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)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Your application will go through the following stages of assessment:

At sift stage, applicants will be required to provide:

• A CV in the Job History section, ensuring it clearly demonstrates how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification. We encourage you to use specific evidence from your experience to illustrate your suitability for the role.
• A personal statement (no more than 500 words) providing specific examples of how you meet the two most critical criteria for the role. Further guidance is given within the Personal Statement section of the application.

Applications will be assessed against the essential criteria, with each criterion scored on a scale of 1 to 7. An overall score will then be calculated using the average of all criterion scores. To progress beyond the sift stage, applicants must achieve a minimum score of 4 on every essential criterion. This means that even if your overall average score is 4 or higher, you will not progress if you score below 4 on any individual essential criterion.

Please note that, in the event of a high volume of applications, the selection panel reserves the right to increase the overall pass mark.

We’ll assess you against these behaviours & experience during the interview process:

Behaviours

• Communicating and influencing
• Making effective decisions
• Leadership
• Seeing the big picture
• Managing a quality service

Presentation

• You’ll be asked to prepare and deliver a presentation (5 minutes max.), details will be provided prior to interview.

In the event of a tied score at interview, the order of merit will be distinguished based on the ranking of the assessed behaviours above.

We will try and offer as much flexibility as we can, but it may not be possible to offer alternative dates for interviews or assessments.

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