Defence Business Services (DBS) - Armed Forces & Veterans Services (AFVS) Chief of Staff

Tomlinson House, Norcross, Blackpool

Job Summary
Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?
Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence?
Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.

• Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
• Our Mission – Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability.

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of society. We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments. Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details).

DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the North West, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2026.

Come and join the DBS community today!

Job Description
The Chief of Staff (COS) is a key enabling role within the Armed Forces and Veterans Services (AFVS). Primarily responsible for leading the Business Management Team in a fast-paced environment, ensuring timely and accurate responses are provided to a wide range of enquiries including Ministerial Correspondence and Parliamentary Questions.

The COS provides direction and guidance on all AFVS matters, cohering Senior Leadership Team engagement and effective stakeholder management across AFVS and wider Ministry of Defence (MOD). The role is pivotal in delivering an effective and motivated workforce, providing advice on strategic workforce issues, easing team relations, and uniting the organisation to embed a culture of continuous improvement.

Leading a Specialised Team Of 6 Staff Across 4 Sites The COS Is Responsible For Overall Oversight In Delivering The Following Specific Tasks:

• Business Management
• Strategic input into prioritisation of all key business matters across a workforce of over 800 people.
• Provide accurate and timely advice and information on critical business and resourcing issues to ensure that competing business priorities and deadlines are met.
• Lead on all AFVS Secretariat business for Parliamentary Questions, Ministerial Correspondence, Parliamentary Debates and Defence Orals.
• On behalf of Head AFVS, lead on ensuring the successful transition of all AFVS Norcross staff to new town centre location in Blackpool, ensuring estates and infrastructure requirements are met and key workforce risks are highlighted and appropriately mitigated.
• Develop and implement appropriate AFVS specific induction activities across all AFVS sites.
• Assist the AFVS Deputy Head, to work on staff survey activity for AFVS, briefing Head AFVS on feedback and recommending and implementing appropriate actions and plans in response.
• Oversee all activity in support of Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees, including the delivery of events and support of recruitment activities through ministerial offices, drafting and submitting ministerial submissions on behalf of Hd AFVS.
• Manage all outer office activities in support of Head AFVS, to ensure the principal is sufficiently supported in cross departmental strategic activities and decision making.
• Strategic Workforce Planning
• Work with HR Business Partner, Assistant Heads and Deputy Heads to ensure succession planning is undertaken to best effect and relevant skills are retained.
• Manage the AFVS L&D plans, coordinating requests and prioritising them accordingly against business need and skills gap analysis work. Align decision making on L&D with future requirement. Ensure team compliance with mandated learning needs.
• Oversee coordination and lead on the prioritisation of recruitment activities. Use skills, knowledge and relevant data to make sound assumptions on future workforce demands and articulate these clearly in line with workforce planning and strategic decision making.
• AFVS staff point of contact for people matters including staff performance, discipline and restoring efficiency, escalating where appropriate to the Head AFVS with recommended courses of action.
• Maintenance of MI suite to enable effective resource management and reporting AFVS internal management boards.
• Deputise for AFVS Deputy Head at the DBS People Board, providing input on strategic workforce activities.
• Financial Planning
• Review the central and management budgets; monitoring of resource against control totals including monthly forecasting.
• Lead financial planning reviews and Annual Budget Cycle (ABC) activity for AFVS, setting recommendations for resource allocation.
• AFVS Performance and Governance
• Lead on driving appropriate governance across AFVS, appropriately aligning governance structure with relevant external stakeholder boards.
• Chair AFVS Performance Risk and Review meetings, ensuring they are structured effectively in order to maximise discussions and deliver tangible actions and outputs to drive improvements in AFVS performance.
• Lead on the development and implementation of an AFVS performance dashboard, identifying appropriate metrics to measure performance, using both extant data and new.
• Using performance data to track and monitor performance across all AFVS projects and programmes to identify and highlight dependencies, risks and opportunities across the AFVS portfolio. In particular, identify cumulative impacts on our customer base across the various workstreams of activity and work with project teams to develop recommendations on how to address them.
• Lead stakeholder engagement across the senior leadership team to gain cooperation in the development of suitable performance metrics, and draft briefings to wider stakeholders, such as DBS Chief Operating Officer and DBS Chief Executive Officer on AFVS performance progress.
• Ensure the team deliver papers for governance boards in advance of the meetings and that there is clear recording actions and decisions.
• Deputise for AFVS Deputy Head in times of absence at the Delivery Board.

The Chief of Staff (COS) is a key enabling role within the Armed Forces and Veterans Services (AFVS). Primarily responsible for leading the Business Management Team in a fast-paced environment, ensuring timely and accurate responses are provided to a wide range of enquiries including Ministerial Correspondence and Parliamentary Questions.

The COS provides direction and guidance on all AFVS matters, cohering Senior Leadership Team engagement and effective stakeholder management across AFVS and wider Ministry of Defence (MOD). The role is pivotal in delivering an effective and motivated workforce, providing advice on strategic workforce issues, easing team relations, and uniting the organisation to embed a culture of continuous improvement.

Leading a Specialised Team Of 6 Staff Across 4 Sites The COS Is Responsible For Overall Oversight In Delivering The Following Specific Tasks:

• Business Management
• Strategic input into prioritisation of all key business matters across a workforce of over 800 people.
• Provide accurate and timely advice and information on critical business and resourcing issues to ensure that competing business priorities and deadlines are met.
• Lead on all AFVS Secretariat business for Parliamentary Questions, Ministerial Correspondence, Parliamentary Debates and Defence Orals.
• On behalf of Head AFVS, lead on ensuring the successful transition of all AFVS Norcross staff to new town centre location in Blackpool, ensuring estates and infrastructure requirements are met and key workforce risks are highlighted and appropriately mitigated.
• Develop and implement appropriate AFVS specific induction activities across all AFVS sites.
• Assist the AFVS Deputy Head, to work on staff survey activity for AFVS, briefing Head AFVS on feedback and recommending and implementing appropriate actions and plans in response.
• Oversee all activity in support of Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees, including the delivery of events and support of recruitment activities through ministerial offices, drafting and submitting ministerial submissions on behalf of Hd AFVS.
• Manage all outer office activities in support of Head AFVS, to ensure the principal is sufficiently supported in cross departmental strategic activities and decision making.
• Strategic Workforce Planning
• Work with HR Business Partner, Assistant Heads and Deputy Heads to ensure succession planning is undertaken to best effect and relevant skills are retained.
• Manage the AFVS L&D plans, coordinating requests and prioritising them accordingly against business need and skills gap analysis work. Align decision making on L&D with future requirement. Ensure team compliance with mandated learning needs.
• Oversee coordination and lead on the prioritisation of recruitment activities. Use skills, knowledge and relevant data to make sound assumptions on future workforce demands and articulate these clearly in line with workforce planning and strategic decision making.
• AFVS staff point of contact for people matters including staff performance, discipline and restoring efficiency, escalating where appropriate to the Head AFVS with recommended courses of action.
• Maintenance of MI suite to enable effective resource management and reporting AFVS internal management boards.
• Deputise for AFVS Deputy Head at the DBS People Board, providing input on strategic workforce activities.
• Financial Planning
• Review the central and management budgets; monitoring of resource against control totals including monthly forecasting.
• Lead financial planning reviews and Annual Budget Cycle (ABC) activity for AFVS, setting recommendations for resource allocation.
• AFVS Performance and Governance
• Lead on driving appropriate governance across AFVS, appropriately aligning governance structure with relevant external stakeholder boards.
• Chair AFVS Performance Risk and Review meetings, ensuring they are structured effectively in order to maximise discussions and deliver tangible actions and outputs to drive improvements in AFVS performance.
• Lead on the development and implementation of an AFVS performance dashboard, identifying appropriate metrics to measure performance, using both extant data and new.
• Using performance data to track and monitor performance across all AFVS projects and programmes to identify and highlight dependencies, risks and opportunities across the AFVS portfolio. In particular, identify cumulative impacts on our customer base across the various workstreams of activity and work with project teams to develop recommendations on how to address them.
• Lead stakeholder engagement across the senior leadership team to gain cooperation in the development of suitable performance metrics, and draft briefings to wider stakeholders, such as DBS Chief Operating Officer and DBS Chief Executive Officer on AFVS performance progress.
• Ensure the team deliver papers for governance boards in advance of the meetings and that there is clear recording actions and decisions.
• Deputise for AFVS Deputy Head in times of absence at the Delivery Board.

Person specification

• Able to work independently and with minimal direction, comfortable working in an environment which can be ambiguous and continuously evolving.
• Ability to think and act strategically, applying sound judgement in an environment where demand and priorities change at very short notice.
• Strong organisation skills and excellent attention to detail, demonstrating the ability to work accurately and meet challenging deadlines in a pressurised environment with competing demands.
• Ability to analyse and interpret performance data sets, and present findings clearly to inform decision making.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to build strong stakeholder relationships at all levels.
• Creative and innovative in their approach to problem solving.
• Experience of managing a budget, providing financial forecasting and workforce planning.
• Experience of working with UK Armed Forces

Desirable

• CIPD

Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

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

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Alongside your salary of £59,690, Ministry of Defence contributes £17,292 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• An environment with flexible working options Monday-Friday
• 25 days paid annual leave rising (1 day per year) to 30 days upon completion of 5 years’ service (pro rata). In addition to 8 public holidays per year, you will also receive leave for HM The Sovereign's birthday
• Hybrid working where role permits
• An opportunity to be considered for Reward and Recognition - £250-£5000 per year
• Family-friendly policies including - parental leave and adoption leave
• Learning and development tailored to your role
• Professional and personal development of skills
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• Minimum of 15 days special leave in a rolling 12 month period for volunteer reserve commitments
• Special paid leave to volunteer up to 6 days per year
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%

Allowances
The post does not offer relocation expenses. Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

External recruits who join the MOD who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

Employment Hours
This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience. When choosing your Behaviour examples, please make sure you use real life scenarios that relate to your own experiences. Whilst technology may help to enhance your written submission, presenting the ideas of others or those generated by technology, could result in your application being rejected.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience. Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Applications Will Be Sifted On All Success Profile Elements, But In The Event Of a High Number Of Applications, An Initial Sift Will Be Conducted On The Following Success Profile Elements:

Primary: Career - Personal Statement
Secondary: Behaviour - Leadership

At application stage you will be assessed against the following:

Experience:

• CV
• Personal Statement - In no more than 1000 words, please provide information of how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. You may wish to further include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlined in the job advert.

Behaviours:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

At interview you will be assessed against the following:

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

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

1 - Behaviour - Leadership
2 - Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing
3 - Behaviour - Seeing the Big Picture
4 - Behaviour - Delivering at Pace
5 - Behaviour - Making Effective Decisions

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the following order:

1 - Career - Personal Statement
2 - Behaviour - Leadership
3 - Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing
4 - Behaviour - Delivering at Pace
5 - Career - Previous Skills
6 - Career - Job History
7 - Career - Qualification Details

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months.

Application sifting to take place late early May. Interviews are currently taking place via MS Teams and will be conducted late May. A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews. We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs. The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

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. The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and 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.

To assist with your application please find attached - DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

(26) UK Ministry of Defence: Life, LinkedIn

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

Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check. See our vetting charter.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard 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)
• 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.

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code 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.

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 and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

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: Kirsty Carr
  Email: Kirsty.Carr144@mod.gov.uk

• Recruitment team:
  Email: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk

Further information
Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@MOD.gov.uk in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages.