Senior Policy Advisor, Wargaming, Secretary of State’s Office of Net Assessment and Challenge, Secretary of State’s Office of Net Assessment and Challenge

This role sits in SONAC’s Challenge & Wargaming Team and reports to the Assistant Head Challenge & Wargaming (B2 / Grade 7). Established in 2020, SONAC (Secretary of State’s Office of Net Assessment and Challenge) is a small and inclusive team of at the heart of the MOD that provides independent advice to the Defence Secretary and senior MOD Officials.

SONAC uses structured methods such as net assessment, wargaming, red teaming, and strategic analysis to test and improve developing plans and strategies within the department, and to explore and develop areas MoD may be missing. SONAC also acts as a lightning rod for external thought into the department – commissioning research and hosting roundtables and conferences to bring new and fresh perspectives into MOD. The SONAC team has a deliberately diverse mix of backgrounds in academia, intelligence, policy, strategy, and analysis.

SONAC is structured into several analytical teams, of which the Challenge & Wargaming Team is one. The team uses Red Teaming and Wargaming to provide reasonable challenge to, and constructive criticism of, MoD’s strategic decision-making and to open the discussion space for creative and alternative options.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

SONAC’s Challenge and Wargaming Team is a high-performing and highly motivated team whose work supports some of the most important decisions taken in MoD and x-HMG. As Senior Policy Advisor, Wargaming you will lead the delivery of SONAC wargames which address high level strategic issues of relevance to our analytical teams, as well other teams in MoD and x-HMG. SONAC wargames range in scale up to complex exercises held over multiple days with 100 plus participants involving xHMG colleagues, allies and partners. The principal purpose of SONAC wargames is to test MoD strategies and planning, support SONAC Net Assessment analysis and develop MoD and x-HMG personnel and thinking through exposure to different scenarios. SONAC is committed to inclusivity by following the Derby House Principles of Wargaming and is looking to develop its use of AI tools and improve our approach to data capture.

You will:

• Be responsible for the design, organisation and delivery of SONAC wargames;
• Work as required with x-Defence, x-HMG or with Private Contractor providers to deliver and facilitate SONAC wargames;
• Work with stakeholders and SONAC colleagues to ensure SONAC wargames rigorously fulfil their analytical requirements;
• Analyse and evaluate the findings of SONAC wargames and produce written reports for MoD, x-HMG and international audiences;
• Brief sometimes very senior audiences on the findings of SONAC’s wargames;
• Support SONAC’s Challenge and especially Red Teaming function;
• Support colleagues in SONAC’s other analytical teams through applying your subject matter expertise;
• Collaborate with, and build effective relationships with, relevant teams x-HMG (in the wargaming, policy, strategy, intelligence, and analysis communities);
• Liaise with key stakeholders outside HMG, including selected international engagement;
• Develop credibility x-HMG and externally as a wargamer;
• Have opportunities to support or represent the team in meetings in MoD and x-HMG.

Open to UK nationals only.

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

This vacancy uses Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours and Experience. The assessment process is as follows:

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience.

Candidates will be required to provide a statement of suitability (500 Words).

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

In your Statement of Suitability, please explain how your skills and experience make you suitable for the role, including where you can demonstrate that you meet the Essential (and Desirable) Criteria.

Should there be a high number of applicants, the sift will be conducted on the CV and Statement of Suitability only.

At interview, candidates will be assessed against the following:

• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

The Communicating and Influencing behaviour will be assessed through a role play exercise, focussed on identifying and briefing initial findings of a fictional wargame to Senior Defence Official.

We will also ask you questions about how your experience is relevant to the role.

The interviews will be held on MS Teams

We will contact the candidate who is successful at interview. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

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.

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