Head of Governance and Compliance

Job summary

Do you take pride in effective governance and have a strong attention to detail?

Can you lead the development of effective governance and compliance frameworks that support accountability, transparency and strategic decision-making?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is seeking a Head of Governance and Compliance to lead and strengthen the Agency’s governance and compliance framework. This is a senior leadership role within Corporate Services, providing assurance to the Chief Corporate Officer that statutory, regulatory and central government requirements are met. You will oversee the running of executive and board governance, assurance activity, compliance monitoring, legal reporting and key annual governance products, while helping to embed a culture of good governance, ethical leadership and continuous improvement across the Agency.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at: MCA Homepage , Civil Service Careers

Job description

As Head of Governance and Compliance, you will lead the MCA’s governance and compliance activity, ensuring effective frameworks, systems and reporting are in place to support accountability and informed decision-making. You will oversee key governance meetings and statutory products, and work across the Agency to monitor compliance and drive continuous improvement.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Leading and developing the Governance and Compliance team, building a high-performing and supportive culture.
• Maintaining MCA’s corporate governance framework in line with government standards and organisational requirements.
• Overseeing compliance with legal, regulatory and central government requirements, including monitoring and reporting arrangements.
• Designing and maintaining governance structures that support accountability, transparency and effective decision-making.
• Managing MCA governance meeting cycles, including Executive Committee, MCA Board, Audit and Risk Committee and Sponsorship Board activity.
• Leading delivery of key governance products, including the Annual Report and Accounts, Management Assurance exercise and Governance Statement.
• Providing expert advice to senior leaders on governance, compliance, statutory obligations and reporting requirements.
• Working across the Agency to promote strong governance, ethical leadership, transparency and continuous improvement.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Person specification

Required experience:

To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:

1. Be a credible and authentic leader, with the ability to articulate a vision, and engage people to deliver results.
2. Experience of providing effective advice on compliance issues, including legal and regulatory where applicable, and applying public sector guidelines and rules.
3. Extensive experience in corporate governance, compliance, assurance or public sector controls frameworks and producing statutory governance products (e.g., Governance Statements, assurance returns).
4. Experience providing authoritative governance advice to senior leaders and Boards.
5. Understanding of Government Functional Standards and central government compliance frameworks.
6. Experience government legal practices.
7. Highly developed interpersonal, communication and influencing skills with a demonstrable ability to develop and maintain effective relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders up to a senior level.
8. Excellent organisational and management skills with the ability to work proactively and at pace to deliver against multiple priorities.
9. Experience of handling sensitive information with tact and maintaining confidentiality.

Additional Information

This post is offered on a Fixed Term Appointment (FTA) basis to complete a finite piece of work, however this may be extended or made permanent.

Permanent Civil Servants will be appointed on an inward loan and subject to the terms of the agreed inward loan. You must have your home departments approval to return to them at the end of the loan before you apply. Internal candidates will return to their previous post at the end of the loan period, which will need to be agreed with your line manager in advance. If your home department cannot agree to release you on loan, there is the opportunity for you to move across to the department on a fixed term appointment. In this instance the Department for Transport would become your home department and if there is no role available for you at the end of this appointment, you would be subject to the redeployment and redundancy process.

If you're employed by a non-departmental public body (NDPB) by moving jobs this will involve a change of employer and you may break the statutory rules on continuity of employment.

Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) is the largest and most diverse professional community across the Civil Service. Many of us will have an association with several professional communities or specialisms, ODP applies to all public facing roles / or a role that is primarily aligned to supporting the work of those with public facing roles. All critical to the delivery of UK public services.

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Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week.

Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 30 hours per week.

This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.

The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

Occasional travel to MCA sites a