[PMO-NSCS] Assistant Director (Policy 3)

National Security Coordination Secretariat; Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The National Security Coordination Secretariat (NSCS) in Singapore is seeking a senior policy professional to help anticipate and coordinate national security strategies. You will lead analysis across geopolitical, economic, and social factors, and translate insights into actionable recommendations for public sector leaders.

Ideal candidates have at least five years of policy experience, strong writing and stakeholder engagement skills, and the ability to balance macro and micro perspectives

Qualifications

• At least five years of policy experience preferred."
• Intellectual curiosity, and clear logical and systems thinking;

Responsibilities

• Identify cross-cutting vulnerabilities and synthesize analyses to inform decision-making by public sector leaders.
• Mobilise collective Whole‑of‑Government efforts to tackle complex, collective-action problems and coordinate risk mitigation across agencies.

Skills

Policy Experience

Analytical Thinking

Written Communication

Stakeholder Engagement

Systems Thinking

Job description

What the role is:

The National Security Coordination Secretariat (NSCS) is a unit under the Prime Minister's Office responsible for national security planning and coordination. NSCS works with agencies and stakeholders to develop and co-ordinate strategies to address national security concerns. NSCS also works with agencies to anticipate and identify emergent security risks, and to build up capabilities and resources to deal with these. The role will give you the opportunity to strengthen:

• Critical Thinking: You will lead your team to keep abreast of national security developments and synthesise information across domains (geopolitical, economic, social, environment, information, etc.) to identify and analyse cross-cutting national security risks. These include economic security risks, digital security risks, concentration risks, and inter-dependency risks.
• Systems Thinking: You will lead your team to integrate analysis of external developments with assessments of Singapore’s vulnerabilities and how the latter will change over time. You will recommend the best way to structure the Whole-of-Government response to the risk. This will require you to suggest constructive solutions which balance multiple policy considerations across domains. For specific risks, you could contribute to the full policy value-chain from strategic planning, policy formulation, policy-operations, to comms and implementation (e.g., legislation).
• Influence: You will need to mobilise colleagues from a wide range of agencies, with different mandates and policy considerations, to work with you on the overall risk assessment. You will need to build consensus on the risk level Singapore can live with and the Whole-of-Government action needed to mitigate the risks. This would require you to build extensive and deep networks across domains and seniority levels, and develop a deep understanding of their considerations and constraints.

What you will be working on:

You will work in a team:

• To hunt out Singapore’s cross-cutting vulnerabilities (e.g., in critical infrastructure, social resilience) that could be exploited/ disrupted and build shared risk pictures (through data analysis and/ or policy analysis) to inform decision‑making by public sector leaders.
• To mobilise collective Whole-of-Government efforts to tackle complex, collective‑action problems. This could involve putting forth recommendations which could sub‑optimise agency‑specific objectives to achieve better national outcomes.

Depending on your performance and experience, you could be given the opportunity to lead a team or project.

What we are looking for:

• At least five years of policy experience preferred;
• Intellectual curiosity, and clear logical and systems thinking;
• Excellent writing skills to deliver analyses synthesising information from multiple domains, including data-driven outputs;
• Experience engaging multiple agencies and stakeholders, with skills to listen empathetically, sense dynamics, and persuade and negotiate across agencies and seniority levels to achieve desired outcomes;
• Ability to move between macro and micro perspectives;
• Preferably an intuitive grasp of Singapore’s security imperatives;
• Interest in current affairs;
• Ability to work in a dynamic environment and pick up new skills/ domain knowledge if necessary;
• Proactive, articulate, purpose-driven, persistent .

We may refer you as a potential candidate for vacancies in other agencies we assessed you to be suitable for.By applying for this job, you are aware of, and are also giving NSCS consent for the cross referral. If you do not wish to be cross referred, please inform us via this link: https://go.gov.sg/candidateoptout.

About National Security Coordination Secretariat

The National Security Coordination Secretariat’s mission is to build a shared picture of cross-cutting national security risks, and mobilise the multi‑agency effort needed to mitigate risks.We work to secure Singapore against risks in any domain that could compromise Singapore’s survival and success. This includes vulnerabilities to disruptions to day‑to‑day life, social divisions, and coercion to act against our national interest. Such risks impact multiple sectors and require multi‑sector responses to effectively mitigate risks to Singapore.