Ministry of Defence permanent secretary David Williams will leave the civil service this autumn, the department has confirmed.
Williams's exit comes after a major data breach was revealed last month that put thousands of Afghans seeking resettlement to the UK at risk, along with British spies and soldiers.
According to BBC News, defence secretary John Healey had a "conversation" with Williams before the breach became public knowledge in mid-July and "made clear that this was the right time to make a change".
Confirming the departure, an MoD spokesperson said: “Permanent secretary David Williams will step down this autumn and the recruitment process for his successor is under way.
“Since 2021, David has led the department through a period of significant activity, and we thank him for his contribution.”
Williams has led the ministry since April 2021, meaning his exit in autumn will come around six months short of the usual five-year contracts that perm secs get. Before becoming perm sec, Williams held several roles in both the MoD and the Department of Health and Social Care, including second perm sec at the latter.
BBC News reported that sources said this was "an appropriate time for a transition" due to the completion of the Defence Review in June and the creation of a new leadership “quad” earlier this year, and that the department will seek to attract "successful, ambitious people" from outside government. The MoD will target “corporate leaders who have experience of driving change in big organisations, and of major procurement, handling big budgets, and delivering efficiencies", they said.
An advert for the role has gone live on the Civil Service Jobs website, offering a salary of £185,000-£200,000.
The ad says the perm sec, which is accountable to parliament for the department’s performance and expenditure and manages a budget of around £62bn, must have “the breadth and depth of experience” to fulfil these significant accounting officer responsibilities, “including the ability to interact effectively with HM Treasury counterparts”.
It says the perm sec will need to provide “strong engaging leadership” by translating ministers’ ambitions into “a clear vision to our people, setting a clear direction for that vision and ensuring it is organised, resourced and motivated to support ministers effectively, and deliver their key priorities”.
The ad also says the perm sec “drives reform and transformation, providing strong change leadership to optimise opportunities, focused on organisational reform, higher standards and stronger delivery whilst embedding innovation and adopting greater flexibility in ways of working to deliver operational efficiencies”.
It also sets out the perm sec role’s as the primary policy adviser to the defence secretary and their ministerial team in setting the overall strategy and policy for the department, ensuring it is “cost effective, evidence-based and achievable”.
The ad also says the successful candidate will need to be able to motivate and engage staff to strengthen and develop their capability, reinforcing and supporting “a culture of continuous improvement, high performance and excellent delivery”.
It says the perm sec will work alongside the other chiefs in the leadership “quad” to improve the overall workplace culture within defence “through the reaffirming our standards change programme”, and to ensure the delivery of the government’s ambitions on defence.
Other key requirements of the role including representing the department and defence secretary across Whitehall “to ensure defence equities are understood and embedded into wider government priorities, such as the growth agenda”, and representing the department with international counterparts to promote UK interests and strengthen UK alliances.