Head of Security Risk

Pay up to £82,026, plus 28.97% employer pension contributions, hybrid working, flexible hours, and great work life balance.

This is a rare opportunity to shape security risk at national scale, influencing decisions that directly protect millions of citizens and the UK’s most critical public services.

The Head of Security Risk leads DWP’s strategic security risk function, operating at enterprise scale across all security domains: cyber, personnel, physical and supply chain security.

In this role you will provide authoritative, organisation wide security risk insight to senior leaders, enabling them to make confident, well informed decisions that protect departmental objectives, services and UK citizens.

This is a role with national significance, given DWP’s scale: 96,000 staff, £250bn in annual payments, personal data on every living UK citizen, and a threat landscape spanning everything from frontline operational incidents, insiders, organised crime groups and state sponsored cyber actors. The Head of Security Risk shapes how DWP identifies, understands and responds to these risks, ensuring the department delivers services safely, securely and resiliently.

The Head of Security Risk leads a team of approximately 15 staff and is responsible for strengthening DWP’s security risk capability, embedding high‑quality analytical standards, modern methodologies and clear strategic reporting. It also provides expert security risk support to core business functions that do not have their own dedicated security risk capability.

Key responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Direction

• Own and lead DWP’s enterprise level security risk function, setting direction, standards and methodology for how the department conducts security risk analysis.
• Define, maintain and continually improve the security risk framework, including structured analytical techniques and consistent reporting approaches.

Production of Strategic Security Risk Assessments

• Lead the creation and maintenance of DWP’s strategic security risk assessments, covering all security domains.
• Produce risk insights for Director Generals, the Executive Team and the Departmental Audit & Risk Assurance Committee (DARAC).
• Provide regular (monthly/quarterly) senior‑level briefings on cyber, personnel and supply chain security risks.

Influencing and Senior Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a trusted advisor to DG‑level decision‑makers, articulating complex technical risks in plain English, with clear implications for departmental objectives.
• Provide actionable, board ready narratives, recommendations and insights.

Supporting Security Policy & Standards

• Deliver bespoke risk assessments to inform security policy, standards and strategic direction for the department.

On‑Demand Risk Support Across DWP

• Provide expert risk support to parts of the organisation without their own embedded capability.

Transforming and Professionalising the Function

• Build a modern, credible risk profession aligned with cross‑government analytical standards and industry‑recognised frameworks

Cross‑organisation Leadership and Collaboration

• Strengthen cross‑government collaboration on security risk, supporting initiatives such as the Government Cyber Action Plan and shared security risk models.

What skills, knowledge and experience will you need?

• Leadership of an enterprise‑level risk function — demonstrable experience directing strategic risk activity in a complex or regulated organisation, using risk insight to inform senior‑level decision‑making.
• Strong analytical leadership — proven ability to lead analytical work, apply structured analytical techniques, and develop analytical capability within a team.
• Broad security domain knowledge — credible understanding across physical, personnel, cyber and supply chain security, with the ability to represent cross‑domain risk professionally at senior level (expert depth not required).
• Senior stakeholder influence and communication — experience engaging, advising and influencing executive‑level stakeholders (e.g., Director Generals, External/Sector-Wide Collaboration), presenting complex security risks in clear, business‑focused language.

Details. Wages. Perks.

Alongside your salary, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £21,735 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

DWP have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 26 days on entry, increasing up to 31 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.

The Head of Enterprise Security & Risk Management, under which this post sits and the current post holder will be delivering engagement sessions on Wednesday 11 March at 09:30 and Monday 16 March at 13:30 where you can find out more about this unique role and pose any questions you may have about it.

To book your place on an event please use either of the following links:

Head of Security Risk Engagement Session Tickets, Wed 11 Mar 2026 at 09:30 , Eventbrite

Head of Security Risk Engagement Session Tickets, Mon 16 Mar 2026 at 13:30 , Eventbrite

Process:

We know your time is valuable so our application and selection process is just two stages:

• Apply: complete your application on Civil Service Jobs. There’ll be full instructions when you click through.
• Interview: a single stage face – to – face interview.

CLICK APPLY for more information and to start your application.