Deputy Director Air Capability and Programmes

Job summary

The Deputy Director, Air Capability & Programmes is a strategically critical leadership role that directly supports Defence's requirement to generate and sustain operational advantage through Air and Space Power. Acting as the principal deputy to the Director Capability & Programmes and, when required, the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, the postholder provides senior leadership across capability development, acquisition, programme delivery, safety, security and portfolio governance.

The role sits at the heart of delivering Defence outcomes by ensuring capability requirements are translated into coherent, affordable and deliverable programmes that strengthen warfighting readiness, enable NATO commitments and modernise the RAF for future conflict. Through leadership of the Air Capability & Programmes enterprise, engagement across Defence, industry and international partners, and stewardship of professional delivery standards, the role ensures that Air Command remains able to deliver the capabilities required by Government and Defence, today and into the latter half of the century.

The future responsibilities of this role could be adjusted given the wider Defence Reform context within the Department. This role will therefore require an individual to be flexible as well as someone who can lead through this change.

Job description

The current responsibilities of the role include:

• Delivering the Air Equipment Programme
  Provides senior leadership across the portfolio of Air and Space programmes, ensuring capability requirements are translated into affordable and deliverable programmes that meet operational need.
• Lead Fiscal Activity
  Manage and lead the budget and fiscal activity on behalf of Director Air Capability & Programmes, ensuring the programme is affordable, and providing strategic advice to influence defence investment decisions.
• Maintaining Strategic Capability Coherence
  Acts as the senior integrator across diverse capability portfolios, ensuring programmes remain aligned to Defence policy, operational priorities, affordability and strategic intent.
• Governance and Assurance
  Provides governance across investment approvals, programme performance, safety, security and risk management to ensure senior leaders have confidence in capability delivery decisions.
• Driving Programme Delivery Excellence
  Provides senior leadership to a large professional workforce and as Deputy Head of Profession for Project Delivery, promote professional standards, portfolio management discipline and continuous improvement across Air programmes.
• Managing Strategic Relationships
  Leads engagement with National Armaments Director (NAD) Group, Defence Digital, UK Space Command, industry, allies and wider Government, ensuring Air priorities are represented and delivered through effective partnerships. The postholder with also routinely engage with NATO Partners, ensuring capability decisions support interoperability, alliance commitments and NATO force generation requirements.

Person specification

• Proven ability to manage significant budgets in-year and across the strategic planning cycle, you must demonstrate when and how you have done this successfully.
• Extensive project delivery experience within a large and complex organisation, providing sound governance and assurance across investment approvals, programme performance, safety, security and risk management.
• Demonstrable experience of shaping and leading high-performing project delivery teams and Senior Responsible Owners (SROs), with evidence of how you have driven continuous improvement, built capability and created a safe and inclusive work environment.
• Experience of building and maintaining credible relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders across organisational boundaries, with evidence of how you have coordinated diverse interests and resolved competing viewpoints to achieve objectives.
• A credible and persuasive project delivery professional who will command the confidence of a range of senior stakeholders to influence Board-level investment decisions. You must demonstrate when and how you have been able to articulate, challenge and justify decisions to stakeholders whilst remaining resilient in the face of extraordinary pressure.
• Excellent strategic, analytical and conceptual thinking skills, with the ability to navigate complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty. Demonstrable experience of making risk-informed decisions, balancing short-term delivery pressures with long-term organisational objectives, and adapting as circumstances evolve.

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a strong field of candidates when there is a need to distinguish between candidates. This will be as a second sift, after the essential criteria has been considered:

• Understanding of the Defence operating environment.
• Will have a good understanding of project delivery methodologies and techniques, have relevant project qualifications (MSP/APMP/Prince 2/Agile), and may have, or be working towards, external accreditation and professional membership. ​
• Graduate of the Major Projects Leadership Academy (or willing to undertake the course). ​

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 accessed via the Civil Service Jobs portal. This should be completed no later than 23:55 on Sunday 15 November 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 attach