Economic, Serious and Organised Crime (ESOC) Senior Operational Leader

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP); Eastbourne; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A government agency is seeking a Senior Operational Leader to oversee criminal and financial investigations. This role involves leading a diverse team, driving performance, and collaborating with senior stakeholders across multi-agency environments. Ideal candidates will possess strong leadership skills, a passion for coaching, and a willingness to pursue relevant accreditations. Join a committed team dedicated to tackling serious crimes and improving public service delivery.

Qualifications

• Experience leading diverse teams in an investigations environment.
• Ability to motivate teams and drive continuous improvement.
• Excellent relationship-building skills with senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead a large, diverse team of investigators.
• Drive performance and improve service delivery.
• Engage with and communicate key messages to teams.

Skills

Leadership experience

Great communication skills

Coaching ability

Creative thinking

Risk management

Education

Accreditation in Criminal or Financial Investigations

Job description

Overview

As a Senior Operational Leader, you can expect to be involved in a range of the following:

• Report directly to the Grade 7, being fully accountable for the leadership of a large, geographically diverse team of Criminal or Financial Investigators, setting strategic business priorities for your areas of responsibility and driving performance against key objectives.
• Be a self-starter, able to use your own initiative and make sound, complex decisions at pace.
• Lead performance within your business area, undertaking regular face-to-face performance reviews with your direct reports, identifying risks to performance achievement, and driving forward continuous improvement.
• Have experience and knowledge of leading diverse teams in an investigations environment, through effective coaching and mentoring, to improve service delivery.
• Work alongside multiple, senior representatives from other government departments/external bodies, building strong, collaborative relationships which enhance our reputation and achieve excellent outcomes.
• Provide visible, effective leadership through regular site visits, taking a personal lead in engaging with and communicating key messages with clarity and passion to obtain buy in.
• Motivate teams to operate flexibly, seeking feedback, listening, and acting on this, setting performance standards.
• Encourage creative thinking and collaborative working between teams and directorates to drive innovation and service improvements.
• Contribute to people planning activities, ensuring appropriate and effective deployment of people and resources within and between sites.
• Ensure all matters are dealt with promptly and sensitively, in line with DWP policies and procedures, and legislative frameworks, managing risk exposure by overseeing compliance.

Are you looking for a new challenge? Do you have leadership experience, great communication skills and enjoy coaching others? Do you have, or are you willing to work towards, an accreditation in Criminal or Financial Investigations?

Disability Confident

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to .

Then DWP may be the place for you. This is an exciting opportunity to join our Counter Fraud and Compliance Directorate (CFCD) on a team committed to tackling fraud encountered through our Economic, Serious and Organised crime team. You will be at the forefront of tackling serious and organised crimes against DWP which often has links into wider criminality of modern slavery, human trafficking, and identity fraud. You will work with senior leaders across multi law enforcement agencies on high profile and serious fraud operations involving many suspects in multi-million-pound criminality. As Senior Operational Leader, you will role model excellent senior management leadership, overseeing investigations into either criminal or financial teams, taking responsibility for the flexible, effective, personalised delivery of customer service, quality, and performance. You will provide transformational leadership to the site and beyond - leading through others, driving people engagement, and inspiring colleagues to deliver objectives. CFCD is a great place to work where the leadership team are passionate about attracting the best talent whilst nurturing and valuing new and existing colleagues to be the best they can be. We are looking for people who can demonstrate our values and commitment to leadership which are based around Collaboration, Resilience, and Inclusivity. We look for emotionally aware leaders who enable teams to be innovative, adaptable, and flexible. We want you to be comfortable challenging the norm and finding daring and dynamic solutions that support our values and enable colleagues to shine in whatever role they do.