Skip to content
Search jobs inside your AI agent. Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor and Grok
Connect

Department for Business and Trade

NewBe an early applicant

Senior Delivery Adviser

Posted
Discussion

Description

  • Job grade: Senior Executive Officer
  • Contract type: Permanent
  • Business area: DBT DGSI - Ministerial Strategy Directorate - Delivery Unit
  • Type of role: Policy, Strategy
  • Working pattern: Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time
  • Number of jobs available: 1

Location

Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, London, Salford

About the job

Job summary

The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade drives good growth across the UK by supporting businesses to invest, export and grow, powered by science, innovation and technology.

This is an exciting opportunity to work in the Delivery Unit, at the centre of the department in the Strategy, Delivery and Ministers Directorate. The Delivery Unit plays a vital end-to-end role in ensuring the department prioritises and funds programmes that will have the greatest impact on growth, and delivers them effectively through close monitoring, hands-on support and escalation of emerging issues to leadership.

We track performance, spot and escalate emerging issues to keep the departmental programme on track, and ensure senior officials, Special Advisers and ministers are brought in at key junctures.

You will help drive progress on the Secretary of State’s and Permanent Secretary’s priorities, working closely with policy teams, Private Offices, Ministers and senior officials to identify delivery risks, unblock issues and maintain strategic alignment across the department.

The role will suit someone who enjoys working at pace across high-priority, complex and often fast-moving areas. Depending on the portfolio, you may support policy development, coordinate strategic advice, strengthen delivery plans, or provide grip on cross-cutting departmental priorities.

You will build effective relationships with policy teams, develop a strong understanding of your portfolio, and use that insight to provide constructive challenge, escalate issues where needed, and help ensure delivery remains on track.

Job description

Typical responsibilities will include:

  • Driving progress on the Secretary of State’s and Permanent Secretary’s priorities, ensuring key delivery risks are identified, understood and escalated where needed.
  • Acting as a central link between policy teams, Private Offices, special advisers, Ministers and senior officials to unblock delivery barriers and improve join-up across the department.
  • Developing a strong understanding of priority policy areas and delivery plans, using this to assess progress, spot risks and provide constructive challenge.
  • Actively troubleshooting problems where delivery is blocked or strategically misaligned, bringing together the right people, applying constructive challenge to different teams and using available escalation routes to resolve issues.
  • Coordinating and drafting high-quality briefings, advice and updates for Ministers and senior officials, including for external engagements, cross-government meetings and Parliamentary business.
  • Supporting business planning and departmental prioritisation by maintaining a clear view of progress, dependencies and risks across your portfolio.
  • Building trusted relationships across the department and with other government departments, helping teams work together to deliver shared priorities.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

The below criteria are essential and will be assessed at application stage.

  • Proven experience of seeing the bigger picture, being politically aware, with the ability to understand and respond to a fast-changing landscape.
  • Strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to develop and maintain constructive and positive working relationships with colleagues across the department, as well as providing constructive challenge where needed
  • Strong organisational and delivery skills with an ability to deliver at pace, with evidence of working across a number of workstreams to deliver stretching outcomes and solve problems.
  • Excellent written, and oral communication skills and attention to detail, with experience of providing usable insights for senior colleagues that have been distilled from complex information
  • Experience of aligning policy and delivery with organisational priorities; experience in a central strategy or coordinating function within either the Civil Service or equivalent external experience with think tanks, consultancies, the digital space, or similar.

Desirable criteria

The below criteria are desirable only. These will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process, but will be used in the event of tied scores between candidates.

  • A genuine interest in economic policy, science and innovation, growth, business or trade issues, and how government decisions translate into real world outcomes.
  • Experience using business intelligence tools (e.g. Power BI and QuickSight) alongside Microsoft tools (e.g. Lists and Power Apps) to turn data into actionable insight and improve decision making.
  • Experience developing and applying digital tools and using AI to deliver efficiencies or improve results.

Personal Attributes & Skills

The below is a list of characteristics which may be helpful in this role. These will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process, but are laid out to help candidates understand more about the role.

You can grasp the detail of technical policy issues, alongside being able to understand, and explain, how these fit within wider departmental priorities. You will identify issues and, where possible, work to resolve them with teams and seniors.

You will be able to build strong relationships with teams across the organisation and to grasp technical policy areas at pace. You will be confident in working with uncertainty, providing constructive challenge where needed, and driving progress across multiple areas of work.

Behaviours

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

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

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,913, Department for Business and Trade contributes £13,011 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
  • Learning and development tailored to your role
  • An environment with flexible working options
  • A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
  • A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Interviews for this vacancy will be conducted virtually. We will, however, consider in-person interviews by exception.

Please ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.

To apply for this post, you will be asked to complete the following as part of the online application:

  • A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages.
  • A Personal Statement of up to 750 words, explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential criteria.

Your application will be sifted against the Experience criteria of the Civil Service Success Profiles.

It is likely that the sift will take place 1-2 weeks after the closing date and interviews 3-5 weeks after the closing date, though this is subject to change.

We aim to sift both the CV and the Personal Statement but, in the event of a large number of applicants, an initial short sift will be conducted on the CV. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

Candidates who pass the sift will be invited to interview, where we will assess you on the Success Profiles elements of Behaviours and Strengths.

Further Information

Please note, following a recent change to the Machinery of Government, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will be renamed to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) as of 20th July 2026. BIST will connect the UK’s world-class science and technology base directly to the businesses, places and workers that will drive good growth across the country. Such changes will not affect the selection process for this campaign; however, we wanted to take this opportunity to advise you of the recent changes to our department.

You can find further information here regarding recent governmental changes Machinery of Government changes: Fact Sheet - GOV.UK.

Reasonable Adjustments

We are committed to supporting candidates so they can perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. This includes making reasonable adjustments to our process. In order to request an adjustment:

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section on the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process.

Alternatively contact the Government Recruitment Service at DBTrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Please see attached Candidate Pack for further information on: Diversity and Inclusion; Benefits; Learning and Development; Working Patterns and what we deliver as a department.

Further Information:

  • A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made. Reserve Lists will be for each location and appointments made in merit order based on location preferences.
  • Any move to the Department for Business and Trade from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments.
  • The Department will not consider sponsoring a visa or issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship. We are unable to offer advice on any Visa and Immigration cases.
  • New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
  • Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty. Any applicant who has details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
  • A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
  • Terms and Conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.
  • Please note – the successful candidate will be expected to remain in post for a minimum of 18 months before being released for another role.
  • Candidates that do not quite meet the standard for this role may be offered a position at a lower grade.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service /Disclosure Scotland/Access NI on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

For further information on the Access NI confidential checking service telephone: the Access NI Helpline on 0300 200 7888 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email accessni@ani.x.gsi.gov.uk

Vetting

The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Feedback



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 : Tom Sampson
  • Email : tom.sampson@businessandtrade.gov.uk
Recruitment team
  • Email : dbtrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact DBT by email: Resourcing@businessandtrade.gov.uk.
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.
For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: Click here to visit Civil Service Commission/Complaints.

Attachments

DBT T&Cs 2025-08-18 Opens in new window (doc, 46kB)
DBT candidate pack July 2024 (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 943kB)

Share this page

  • Print
  • Email
  • Gmail
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Skills

What Senior Operations jobs ask for — and how much of it you have →
Apply

See also

Operations jobs by country — openings, pay and top skills →