Deputy Director, Office for Clean Energy Jobs

Reporting into the Director for Clean Energy Investment, this role will provide Senior Civil Servant leadership of the Office for Clean Energy Jobs, engaging with Ministers and senior external stakeholders, and taking responsibility for delivery of actions from the Clean Energy Jobs Plan.

DESNZ established the Office for Clean Energy Jobs (OCEJ) in July 2024 to drive action to build the clean energy workforce. OCEJ plays a strategic coordinating and convening role, to build analysis of future clean energy workforce needs, ensure the wider skills and employment system delivers for the sector, promote good quality work including strong trade union recognition, and deliver targeted interventions to support those objectives.

OCEJ takes a data-driven approach, assessing sectoral and occupational skills needs. It plays a convening role between industry, trade unions, and training providers to identify critical skills gaps, aligning them with deployment plans across clean energy sectors, and ensuring that job quality is kept at the forefront.

It also works closely with devolved governments and across central government, including Department for Education, Skills England, Department for Work & Pensions, Department of Business & Trade and the Home Office, to ensure training provision and workforce interventions match future workforce needs.

This is a high-profile role, with significant ministerial interest, and will suit an experienced leader with knowledge of skills and employment policy. We would welcome applications from existing Civil Servants and from candidates with relevant experience elsewhere in the skills, employment, or energy system.

Key Responsibilities

This senior position will help shape the organisational culture, priorities, external engagement, and delivery of OCEJ objectives. Key responsibilities include:

• Provide effective, empowering, and inclusive leadership to the Office for Clean Energy Jobs, building a strong, diverse, and multidisciplinary team.
• Lead engagement with the Secretary of State and other DESNZ Ministers on skills, workforce planning, and labour market policy including the role of trade unions in supporting quality jobs and workplace rights.
• Deliver the priority workstreams in the Clean Energy Workforce Strategy, ensuring the clean energy transition delivers hundreds of thousands of good jobs, at good wages, with strong trade union representation.
• Ensure DESNZ has a clear understanding of future workforce needs, working with analytical colleagues.
• Build strong partnerships with industry, trade associations, and trade unions to co-develop policy and communicate the Department's priorities.
• Develop in-depth insights into customers, services, communities and markets affected by the OCEJ’s work and ensure policy is rooted in this, taking a place-based approach.
• Collaborate with colleagues in the Devolved Governments to coordinate skills and employment policy for the Clean Energy Workforce across the UK, as a devolved policy area.
• Represent DESNZ across Government on skills and labour market policy, including with Skills England, the Department for Education, the Department for Work & Pensions, and HM Treasury.
• Oversee delivery and programme management of targeted skills interventions, such as the North Sea Jobs Service.

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.

How to apply

To apply for this post please follow the instructions on the CS Jobs website by no later than 23:55 Sunday 22nd November 2026. As part of the application process, you are asked to complete the following:

• CV - Your CV should be no longer than two pages and cover your career history, skills and achievements. This should not be a list of posts but rather full details of the responsibilities you held, the scale of the role and what you delivered for each post. Detailing your achievements in this way will help the hiring manager understand the true depth of your experience and differentiate your application at shortlisting.
• Personal Statement - Your statement should be maximum 1250 words. Your statement is not a cover letter for your CV, rather it's your chance to showcase how you meet each of the essential and desirable criteria for the role, as outlined in the role advert. The vacancy holder will be looking for specific examples of your work that demonstrates how you meet the criteria. Bullet points should be avoided, instead it is helpful to structure these examples with the situation, task, action and result to show the breadth of your experience.
• 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.

Interview

• Final Interview - To best prepare for your interview you should build on the information you have provided in your application, developing examples of how you meet the requirements for the role. Ahead of your interview you may be asked to prepare a presentation on a topic related to the role and deliver this at the start of the interview. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

Behaviours assessed at interview will be:

Leadership

Working Together

Making Effective Decisions

Delivering at Pace

Arrangements for interview

The final selection panel interview will be held virtually. You will receive full details in your invite.

Following your interview, you’ll receive the interview outcome and feedback within 2 weeks; successful candidates move to the offer and onboarding phase. If you meet the required standard but are not the top candidate, you will be placed on a Reserve List for up to 12 months for potential future similar roles. If unsuccessful, we recommend utilising the feedback to help guide your future job search and upskilling efforts.

Appointment

Reserve lists

If you perform well at interview, meeting the standard required for the role, but are not the top candidate in merit order you will be added to a Reserve List for up to 12 months. Being on a Reserve List will give you the potential opportunity to be offered a role which is the same or very similar without going through the full recruitment process again, should one become available.

Civil Service Commission

Selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

In accordance with the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles, our recruitment and selection processes are underpinned by the requirement of appointment on the basis of merit by fair and open competition. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance you should contact; scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission at:

Civil Service Commission, Room G/8, 1 Horse Guards Road SW1A 2HQ. www.civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk

Email: -info@csc.gov.uk

Alternative Formats

If you wish to receive a hard copy of the information, or in an alternative format e.g. Audio, Braille or large font then please contact: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

If you are unable to complete your application online, and need assistance, we may be able to put a reasonable adjustment in place to help. If this is the case, please contact us at: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk and we will look into this situation for you.

Please note we are unable to accept any applications after the closing date, if you require a reasonable adjustment, please let us know prior to the closing date.

Further Information

If you have any questions about applying for this role or want to discuss the role further with the vacancy holder, please contact: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk Please ensure you quote the job title and reference number in your email.

Indicative Timeline

Please note that these dates are only indicative at this stage and could be subject to change. If you are unable to meet these timeframes, please let us know by contacting scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. Please ensure you quote the job title and reference number in your email.

If candidates are required to prepare a presentation for their interview, you will be given at least one week’s notice of the subject.

Expenses incurred by candidates during the recruitment process will not be reimbursed by the Department except in exceptional circumstances and only when agreed in advance.

Candidates are asked to note the timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process. The anticipated timetable is as follows:

Advert Closing Date – 23:55 Sunday 22nd November 2026

Shortlist Announcement – w/c 30th November 2026

Interviews – w/c 7th December 2026

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DESNZ Candidate Guidance. A DESNZ Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

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