Senior Operations Manager

ContentsLocation

Belfast, Birmingham, Bridgend, Bristol, Calder (Normanton), Chelmsford, Crawley, Dover, Exeter, Gartcosh, Gatwick Airport(Crawley), Heathrow Airport, *London, Slough, Solent(Winchester), Stevenage, Tolworth( Kingston Upon Thames), Gillingham, Warrington, Nottingham, Sunderland, Liverpool

*To note for candidates selecting London as a preference Your contractual place of work will be Endeavour Square, Stratford. It is likely that site will be operational from Summer 2025, in the interim period you will be required to carry out your contractual duties from Spring Gardens, Vauxhall, or such other reasonable location, on a temporary basis. For the avoidance of doubt as your contractual place of work is Endeavour Square, Stratford the move from any temporary place of work will not give rise to any entitlement to payments for travel time or costs under the Relocation and Excess Travel Policy.

About the job

Job summary

NCA Investigations Command is a world class Investigation capability, delivered by highly skilled and motivated officers, flexibly responding to intelligence-led, centrally tasked, Agency priorities. It is the core crime fighting capability of the NCA and concentrates on tackling the criminals and risks to the public which are beyond the capability or capacity of other law enforcement bodies.

Our teams respond to a broad range of threats, many of which also remain a responsibility for police forces and other agencies as well as private industry.

Job description

We are looking for Senior Managers to lead multi-functional teams; to quality assure, develop and deliver strategic and tactical operational activity to Agency operations, investigations and prevention initiatives. You will also be required to provide advice on legislation, policy, tactical options and evidential opportunities to manage risk (e.g. of harm to vulnerable persons) and to oversee and take overall responsibility for operations within your teams that are targeting the highest risk of highest harm offenders. You will be expected to set the highest standards of professional behaviour in order to provide a positive, inclusive working environment that fosters a dynamic, multi-skilled workforce.

Please note we have active vacancies in Bristol, Dover, Exeter, Gartcosh, Gillingham (Kent) and Solent. For all other named locations, successful candidates will be added to a pipeline vacancy list.

Duties and Responsibilities

Operational Management

Ability to manage investigations to deliver successful criminal justice outcomes. Be threat led and data -driven in decision making, navigating your team members through ambiguity by making evidence and/or values-based decisions to prioritise strategically. You are proactive and ambitious on efficiencies,

finding opportunities to remove duplication and standardising and simplifying where possible. Doing so, you will balance financial and people resources to deliver against changing priorities.

Leadership

Ability to lead a multi-function team. You will actively coach and engage people, building their resilience through supporting roles and enabling well being.

Prioritising

Ability to oversee and authorise operations and projects and ensure that all operational activity is prioritised and aligned with strategic objectives, nationally agreed standards, complies with statutory provisions and relevant control strategies.

Changing and Improving

Manage organisational change activity and effectively plan and communicate proposed changes with staff and stakeholders. Be passionate about diversity and developing people inclusively, strengthening their ability to deliver and enabling them to grow in their roles and careers.

Team Working

As part of the Senior Management Team, contribute to the strategic and operational development of the department, deputising for the Regional Head of Investigations as required.

Performance Management

Oversee the achievement of performance indicators and budgetary controls in support of business / operational planning.

Stakeholder Management

Act as designated authorising officer for legal authorities (as

**To be considered, you will need to successfully complete SC enhanced clearance before commencing the role and achieve DV clearance whilst in post - if DV is not obtained your contract of employment is at risk of termination**

Person specification

Skills, Knowledge & Experience	Description
Communication	Good communication skills with the ability to listen, empathise, provide support and adapt language, form and message to meet the needs of different people and audiences.
Legislation (UK and International law)	An in-depth knowledge and use of relevant legislation (UK and International law) affecting agency activity/the delivery of Serious Organised Crime investigations and operations.
Leading and management	Proven experience of leading and managing the deployment of operational teams at a senior level.
Investigations operations	Experience of Investigations, operational planning, risk management and leading multiple projects or programmes.

Qualifications

PIP 2 Manager or equivalent experience.

Please ensure the dates of any accreditations you are relying on, are entered onto the CV. Should you progress to the assessment stage of the process, you will be required to provide a copy of the original certificate. Failure to provide evidence at interview may result in your application not progressing to the next stage.

Any applications from candidates not meeting this eligibility criteria will not progress

Behaviours

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

Changing and Improving
Working Together
Leadership
Seeing the Big Picture

Technical skills

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

Proven experience of leading and managing the deployment of operational teams at a senior level. (Lead Criteria)
Experience of investigations, operational planning, risk management and leading multiple projects or programmes.
An in-depth knowledge and use of relevant legislation (UK and International law) affecting the delivery of Serious Organised Crime Investigations and Operations.
A strong understanding of the cultural challenges facing the Agency or wider Law Enforcement environment.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £70,658, National Crime Agency contributes £20,469 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

All officers in the NCA are members of the UK Civil Service. You will be eligible for:
Civil Service pension scheme 26 days annual leave rising to 31 on completion of 5 years continuous service.

If qualifying criteria is met new joiners to the NCA from UK Police Forces or UKIC will have service with those employers taken into account for continuous service purposes for Annual Leave entitlement only, this will be up to a maximum of 31 days leave (including 1 privilege day).
Training and development opportunities
Special leave
Flexible working and family friendly policies
Cycle to work scheme
Blue Light scheme
A range of sporting and other activities on offer
We can provide flexible working arrangements if the role in question is suitable. This includes flexi-time, job sharing, and compressed hours (working contracted hours over a shorter period).

For further details on benefits please visit our benefits and undefined page.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

If you wish to apply for this vacancy, you must submit your application by 05/06/2025, 23:55. This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical Skills.

Application Process

In your application you will be asked to provide the following: A statement outlining the leadership requirements (Further guidance is provided on the application form), Demonstrate how you meet the Technical skills as listed above. You will also be asked to upload a copy of your CV.

You will be asked to set out your career history, including relevant training and qualifications, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please provide reasons for any gaps in employment within the last two years. Please ensure that the dates of any accreditations you are relying on are entered. For further application guidance, please visit
https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/careers/applying-and-onboarding
Once submitted, receipt of your application will be acknowledged.

Sift Process

Candidates must pass the following criteria for their application to be progressed.

Sift

Statement of suitability - No more 1250 words demonstrating the following

Outline your motivation for applying for this role.
Outline how you meet the leadership requirements, listed below, for this role.
As a leader in the NCA you will also:
Lead your team or work stream effectively, through being flexible and open in thought and action.
Communicate with transparency, involving your team members in the agencys transformation journey.
Role model the agencys One NCA vision.
Be passionate about diversity and developing people inclusively, strengthening their ability to deliver and enabling them to grow in their roles and careers. You will actively coach and engage people, building their resilience through supporting them in their roles and enabling their wellbeing.
Be threat led and data-driven in decision making, navigating your team members through ambiguity by making evidence and/or values-based decisions to prioritise strategically. You are proactive and ambitious on efficiencies, finding opportunities to remove duplication and standardising and simplifying where possible. Doing so, you will balance financial and people resources to deliver against changing priorities.

Demonstrating your experience of PIP 2 Manager

4 technical skills demonstrating in 250 words per each Criteria

Proven experience of leading and managing the deployment of operational teams at a senior level.(Lead Criteria)
Experience of investigations, operational planning, risk management and leading multiple projects or programmes.
An in-depth knowledge and use of relevant legislation (UK and International law) affecting the delivery of Serious Organised Crime investigations and operations.
A strong understanding of the cultural challenges facing the Agency or wider Law Enforcement environment.

A panel will then assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the criteria listed within the advert. Failure to address any of all of these may affect your application.

Longlisting

This vacancy will be assessed using Longlisting.

Longlisting of applications are conducted when we are expecting a large number of candidates to apply for the role being advertised. Longlisting will be scored against the first Technical question.

Interview Details

You will then be asked to attend an interview in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence.

There will be one round of interviews, your interview will cover the following critieria:

Behaviours

Changing and Improving
Leadership
Working Together
Seeing the Big Picture

Technicals

Proven experience of leading and managing the deployment of operational teams at a senior level. (Lead Criteria)
Experience of investigations, operational planning, risk management and leading multiple projects or programmes.
An in-depth knowledge and use of relevant legislation (UK and International law) affecting the delivery of Serious Organised Crime investigations and operations.

Please note as part of the interview candidates will also be required to deliver a 10-minute presentation to cover Seeing the Big Picture and Leadership. Full details will be given to the successful candidates.

Interviews will take place throughout June/July 2025 - locations to be confirmed. Please be advised that the type of interview (Eg. virtual/face-to-face) may be subject to change and successful candidates will be notified of this prior to attending. However the interview is conducted, the interview criteria will remain as detailed within the advert.

The above sift and interview dates are an indicative timeline.

Should you be successful at sift but cannot attend on the interview date(s) listed the recruitment team cannot guarantee an alternative date. Please contact the recruitment team.

Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words.
Any instances of plagiarism including copying of examples/answers from internet sources will result in a withdrawal of your application.
Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving internal candidates.
Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants

Interview Outcome

In the event of a tie-break at interview, then the panel will use the lead criteria (behaviour/technical /experience) to determine merit order.
If the leading scores are still tied, the panel will then assess desirable criteria to determine merit order.
If scores are still tied following the review of desirable criteria, then the panel will revert to sift scores to determine merit order. Candidates will be alerted of the outcome of their interview via the Agency's recruitment portal. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. If your application is successful and we are unable to offer you a post immediately, you will be invited to join our reserve list. If over the next 12 months we are able to offer you a position, we will contact you as soon as possible. Once we make you an offer you will then go through our vetting and pre-employment checks processes.

Full advert details for this vacancy can found on the advert on the NCA Recruitment Portal. Please follow the link to apply at advertisers' site.

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

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

Security

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.

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.

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 undefined (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.

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 : central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk
Email : central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Undefined and you wish to make a complaint in relation to any stage of the recruitment and selection process please email central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk. please ensure that you refer to the campaign reference number. If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome of your complaint you have the right to contact the Civil Service Commission to pursue it further.
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.