ARAC Independent Member

Job summary

MI5 helps safeguard the UK from threats to national security, operating together with partners to protect the UK and its people. Our role is to counter terrorism, assassinations, espionage and malign interference; protecting our interests overseas, and making the UK the safest place to live and do business. It is challenging, varied and meaningful work.

Job description

We are seeking a highly capable, experienced and committed individual to join our Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) as an Independent Member. Working with the Chair and other members you will play a key role in assuring MI5’s governance, risk management and financial integrity. Drawing on your professional expertise and experience, you will provide independent insight, challenge assumptions and help ensure MI5 meets the highest standards of accountability and performance.

Person specification

Key Responsibilities

As an Independent Member of ARAC, you will:

• Provide an internal and independent view on the running of the business, including executive performance, ensuring high levels of appropriate accountability and governance best practice.
• Provide independent objective scrutiny of MI5’s governance, risk, and assurance frameworks and the effectiveness of our assurance mechanisms.
• Advise senior officials on the effectiveness of internal controls and audit processes.
• Review internal controls and financial reporting to ensure public funds are used efficiently, transparently, and in alignment with departmental priorities.
• Bring an external perspective to complex challenges, supporting continuous improvement and accountability.

Essential Criteria

We are seeking direct and recent experience of:

• Operating at a senior level in a business, government department or organisation subject to financial and economic regulation.
• Sound understanding of governance, risk management and internal control, underpinned by financial acumen and familiarity with good financial management disciplines including significant experience of assessing and managing risks.
• Experience of engaging with audit processes - both internal and external - and contributing to the development of governance statements and financial reporting will be essential.
• Strong communications skills, including an ability to offer challenge in a constructive, straightforward and open manner.
• An understanding of the wider environment in which MI5 operates, including its current strategic and organisational challenges, as well as the wider challenges faced by the public sector.
• An engaging and collaborative working style which is challenging and constructive, including the ability to contribute and inspire confidence with a wide range of stakeholders.

Desirable:

• Operating as an ARAC Independent Member.

Skills and Qualities

• A professional qualification in financial and risk management, or demonstrable relevant experience.
• Have the breadth of vision, and communications skills to both absorb complex issues quickly and offer clear and insightful contributions to strategic discussions.
• Bring a truly independent perspective and original input to ARAC meetings, with demonstrable experience of holding senior leaders to account and offering constructive challenge to strategy, process and practice at a high level.
• Motivated to act in the public interest to make a meaningful contribution to the governance of an organisation of critical national importance.
• Be a calm and considered listener, with an open approach, good emotional intelligence, and the ability to develop effective relationships.
• Enthusiastic, inquisitive and robust, committed to pursuing and exploring all issues relevant to the business and governance of the organisation.

You will be expected to:

• Attend, in person, five ARAC meetings a year and undertake associated preparation, which includes reading time, and on occasion, pre-briefs, to ensure the necessary background and knowledge for full participation in Committee activities. Given the classified nature of the relevant material, any pre-reading or pre-briefs will ordinarily take place in person at our headquarters.
• Allocate sufficient time to discharge the key responsibilities of the role.
• Complete all mandatory training.
• As necessary, update and refresh your skills, knowledge, and familiarity with MI5’s business, the risks it runs, and the legal framework and ethics with which it must comply. You will be supported with a structured induction on starting in role.
• Avoid or flag potential conflicts of interest and be able to hold Developed Vetting.
• Adhere to, and promote MI5 values and behaviours.
• Undertake duties in accordance with the Cabinet Office Code of Conduct for Board Members and Governance Code on Public Appointments.

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

Equal opportunities

At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website.

We’re Disability Confident

MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pension’s Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident Leader, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. This is known as the Offer of an Interview. To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

1. You'll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses criteria important for all roles in our organisation
2. Demonstrate senior leadership skills with expertise in audit processes, governance, risk management, internal controls and financial management – to be assessed at application sift
3. Demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively, provide constructive challenge and build confidence with a wide range of stakehold