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. 

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

Person specification

For this role, we want candidates to show:

• Cyber leadership - experience working closely with senior cyber, digital and risk leaders to create feasible security strategies, grounded in threat intelligence,  that improve cyber resilience outcomes
• Strategic problem solving - experience diagnosing complex organisational or systemic problems, applying concepts drawn from protective security and from other specialisms/enablers
• Implementation and delivery leadership - experience translating strategic objectives into practical, deliverable plans and outcomes 
• Leading high-performing teams -  a track record of empowering and developing specialist teams through coaching, delegation and trust  
• Influencing and stakeholder management - experience building relationships, securing commitment and delivering change across organisational boundaries
• Government cyber context - knowledge of the Government Cyber Security Strategy, Government Cyber Action Plan, or comparable public-sector cyber environments 

Benefits

There are many benefits of working at DSIT, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for the King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk  

Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home). 

Things you need to know

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. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

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.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

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 (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name: gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk 

Email: gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk 

Recruitment team

Email: gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk 

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact gds-complaints@dsit.gov.uk in the first instance.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission by email: info@csc.gov.uk  or in writing: Civil Service Commission, Room G/8 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.

Apply now