Chief Operating Officer, Defence People and Standards

Job summary

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Defence People & Standards reports to the Director General People and leads the operational management of the DG People portfolio. The role ensures effective delivery across governance, performance, risk, and resources, supporting Defence priorities. The COO provides operational grip during ongoing reform, driving organisational design, embedding new ways of working, and coordinating senior stakeholders. They oversee budget and workforce matters, enabling the Strategic Centre to deliver coherent, high-quality people services across Defence.

Job description

Prioritisation & Performance

• Define and maintain Defence People & Standards (DPS) priorities, ensure clear understanding of performance, and support decision-making through insight and effective trade-offs.

Risk, Compliance & Assurance

• Ensure DPS operates within financial, legal, and policy frameworks. Oversee the DPS budget and maintain an integrated view of risk, ensuring effective mitigation and compliance activities.

Operational Leadership & Delivery

• Provide strong operational grip on day-to-day activities, resolve cross-cutting issues, and ensure DPS functions efficiently, even under pressure.

Stakeholder Engagement & System Leadership

• Engage senior Defence leaders and wider stakeholders on People matters. Align activity across Defence’s four areas, influence decision-making, and support internal governance.

Transformation & Organisational Design

• Lead organisational design initiatives and embed new operating models to deliver sustainable change aligned with strategic objectives.

Crisis, Ministerial & Ad Hoc Activity

• Coordinate responses to ministerial commissions, crisis situations, and high-priority issues, ensuring timely and effective action.

Person specification

• Proven experience of leading multidisciplinary teams through significant change, demonstrating your personal contribution to building capability, improving performance and delivering measurable results.
• Strong strategic thinking skills with experience in developing and implementing plans aligned to organisational goals.
• Proven track record of driving complex change in challenging and dynamic environments.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with a proven ability to use evidence and data to support informed decision-making.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to make sound decisions under uncertainty.
• Experience managing governance frameworks to ensure organisational control, compliance, and assurance.
• Demonstrable experience in financial management, including budget oversight and resource allocation.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £86,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £24,914 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%

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

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process no later than 23:55 Sunday 23 August 2026 and will involve providing the two documents which are weighted equally:

- A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.​

- A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) providing tangible examples that clearly evidence how you meet the essential criteria for the role.​

External candidates who join the MOD and are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

For further information about the role and full application process, please refer to the candidate pack attached below. If you wish to receive any material in a different format for accessibility, then please contact [email removed].

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

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.

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