Head of Government Cyber Implementation

This role is available as a perm opportunity, but also as a 2 year loan/secondment. If you have a preference please make it clear in your application.

The Government Cyber Unit exists to protect public services from cyber threats and digital resilience failures. Through delivery of the Government Cyber Action Plan, and in close partnership with departments, the National Cyber Security Centre and other national technical authorities, we are working to make government more resilient in the face of fast-moving technology, threat and service risks.

The Head of Government Cyber Implementation leads the team that turns system-level cyber and digital resilience risk into practical, prioritised interventions across government. The role is not simply a delivery management post. It requires a senior cyber leader who can diagnose why departments struggle to meet expectations, decide where central intervention will genuinely change behaviour, and build solutions that work in the realities of departmental ownership, limited central authority and constrained capacity.

The postholder will lead through a team of specialist G7 implementation leads. Success depends on setting clear direction, creating coherence across the portfolio, developing the team, and enabling others to lead with confidence. The strongest candidate will combine cyber credibility, strategic judgement, delivery discipline and a practical instinct for how change really happens in government.

The Team

The Implementation team sits in the Cyber Solutions directorate alongside Partnering and Communications, Technical Advisory, Security Engineering, and Transformation Programmes. Cyber Solutions works with the wider GCU to convert strategy, assurance findings and departmental insight into interventions that improve cyber security and digital resilience outcomes across government.

The Head of Government Cyber Implementation is a member of the Solutions senior management team and will deputise for the Deputy Director, Cyber Solutions, as required. The postholder may also support out-of-hours on-call arrangements for cyber and digital resilience incidents, with remuneration and/or flexible working arrangements available where applicable.

As the Head of Cyber Implementation, you can expect to:

Lead implementation of priority cyber and digital resilience intervention - identify where government faces the most significant systemic cyber and digital resilience risks and develop interventions that improve outcomes

Lead and develop the Government Cyber Implementation team - provide strategic direction, coaching and support to a multidisciplinary team of specialist leads, creating the conditions for them to succeed

Prioritise and govern the implementation portfolio - maintain a focused portfolio of implementation activity aligned to the Government Cyber Action Plan, making clear decisions about what to start, stop and defer

Coordinate cross-government and cross-GCU delivery - work with departments, NCSC and colleagues across GCU to bring together the relationships, expertise and resources needed to deliver change

Build evidence of what works - ensure interventions have clear objectives, measurable outcomes and structured learning that informs future policy and investment decisions

Represent Cyber Solutions and deputise for the Deputy Director - represent the directorate at senior forums and contribute to the leadership of GCU and the wider cyber community

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)

The standard selection process for roles at DSIT consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and to answer 2 application questions.
• a 75 Minute video interview which will feature a scenario task, details of the task will be shared with invited candidates prior to the interview

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is: Tell us about a time you led or proposed a change intended to improve cyber security or digital resilience that did not achieve what you intended. Describe what you expected to happen, what actually happened, and your analysis of why. We are interested in the quality of your reasoning about cause, not the scale of the setback — including anything you now think you misread about the people, incentives or constraints involved.

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

• leadership
• seeing the big picture
• communicating and influencing

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Cyber Framework for the Head of Cyber Security role:

• applied security capability (Expert)
• protective security (Working)
• threat understanding (Awareness)
• information risk assessment and risk management (Awareness)

Want to know more about who Government Digital and Data are? Click Here

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: 8/9/2026

Panel interviews: Starting from 15/9/2026

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

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 and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

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