Risk & Assurance Adviser

Work at the centre of Defence, helping to strengthen assurance, improve performance and support better decision-making.

This role sits within Defence Risk & Assurance (DRA), Defence's Risk Centre of Excellence. DRA supports the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) in strengthening risk management, assurance and governance across Defence and provides advice and insight to senior leaders.

As a Risk & Assurance Adviser, you will support Defence's assurance activity by tracking audit management actions, coordinating assurance information and working closely with the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) and stakeholders across Defence. You will analyse assurance data, identify themes and trends, and help produce reporting and insights for senior leaders.

This is a great opportunity for an organised, analytical and curious HEO to develop expertise in risk, assurance and governance while working on high-profile issues at the centre of Defence.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

As a Risk & Assurance Adviser within Defence Risk & Assurance (DRA), you will help provide a clear picture of audit activity, assurance findings and improvement actions across Defence. You will work closely with the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA), colleagues across DRA and stakeholders throughout the Department to ensure audit management actions are effectively tracked, monitored and reported.

You will support assurance activity by coordinating information and evidence, monitoring progress against agreed actions, and identifying key themes and insights. Your work will help senior colleagues understand how effectively risks and controls are being managed and where further action or improvement may be needed.

A key part of the role is analysing information from a range of sources and turning it into clear, accessible insight. You will produce dashboards, reports and briefing material to support governance forums and senior decision-makers.

You will also help improve the tools, processes and reporting used to support assurance across Defence, contributing to better quality information, more effective oversight and a stronger assurance culture across the Department. As part of a small, collaborative team, you will have opportunities to contribute to a wider range of risk and assurance activities, developing your knowledge and experience across governance, assurance and risk management while supporting the wider work of DRA and Defence’s Risk Centre of Excellence.

Responsibilities

• Track and manage audit management actions (AMAs), ensuring timely delivery, clear ownership and accurate reporting.
• Support assurance activity by coordinating evidence, reviewing information and identifying insights into risk management and control effectiveness.
• Coordinate internal and external audit activity, working with stakeholders across Defence to support information requests, evidence gathering and follow-up of agreed actions.
• Maintain high-quality audit, risk and assurance information, ensuring data is accurate, consistent and accessible for reporting.
• Analyse data to identify trends, themes and areas of risk, control weakness or improvement, drawing on audit, assurance, risk, performance and governance information.
• Produce clear reports, dashboards and briefing material for senior leaders, boards and governance forums.
• Support the day-to-day management of the GIAA contract from a delivery and information perspective, including tracking audit activity and coordinating relevant information.
• Work with the Innovation & Improvement team to mature assurance reporting and management information, helping to develop more consistent, accessible and insightful reporting across Defence.
• Build effective relationships with stakeholders across Defence to improve understanding of assurance, governance and risk management and support continuous improvement.
• Support the wider work of Defence Risk & Assurance, with opportunities to develop broader experience across assurance, governance and 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)

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

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

Your CV should include your career history, full qualification details and skills and experience, and any key achievements in each role. It will also be assessed against the essential criteria.

Candidates will be required to provide a Statement of Suitability (500 Words)

Your Personal Statement should provide real-life examples of how your skills and experience meet the requirements of the role and how you would apply them in practice. It will be assessed against the essential criteria and used to supplement the evidence provided in your CV.

At sift, candidates will be assessed against their CV and Statement of suitability and the following:

• Making Effective Decisions

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, the sift will be conducted on your Statement of Suitability.

At interview, you will be assessed on your Strengths and the following Behaviours:

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions

Further information:

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. It is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system.

Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

Candidates will be required to complete an online Verbal test and Civil Service Judgement test.

The Civil Service Judgement Test is not bankable and therefore must be taken on every vacancy where it is applied.

Should you be invited to complete the online tests, please allow sufficient time to complete the tests and the remainder of the full application form; only candidates who are successful at the test stage will be invited to complete the remainder of the application by clicking ‘Submit Application’. Your application must be completed by 23:55 on the closing date of the vacancy. Late submissions cannot be accepted. The tests are not timed, as they work by giving you harder questions if you answer the previous question correctly, and easier if you get it wrong. You should allow up to an hour for each test, and each test must be completed before you will be invited to complete the second part of your application. Internet access will be required for the duration of the test. Please refer to the attached Candidate Guidance for further information.

Candidates that reach the minimum required pass mark will have their results saved as a banked score against the following tests:

• New Civil Service Verbal Test
• New Civil Service Numerical Test

When a candidate has a banked score they’re not asked to re-take the same test providing it is set at the same level. Scores will be banked for a 6 month period from the date of test completion. If a candidate is invited to take the same test against multiple vacancies, the banked score will be recognised against all vacancies and all active applications will progress.

CSJT scores cannot be banked as each test is generated from the behaviours required for a specific role which will vary between recruitment campaigns.

If you require any particular arrangements (for example due to a disability or health problem) to be made in order for you to complete the online test you MUST contact the DBS Enquiry Centre on 0800 345 7772 BEFORE accessing the online test.

Opening times Mon -Friday 0800- 1600 hrs.

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