Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
SCS1 Deputy Director Construction and Project Delivery
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Location
This role can be based in London, Milton Keynes or East Kilbride. Regular travel to our other offices will be required. Occasional international travel will be required.
Job Summary
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office works to make the UK safer, stronger and more prosperous by leading the Government’s diplomatic, development and consular work around the world. Our estate is central to that mission. It enables our people to operate safely and effectively across a global network, supporting UK interests in some of the most complex and challenging environments.
This is a significant leadership opportunity within the FCDO’s Estates Directorate. Our estate spans 170 countries and territories, with 282 officially designated overseas posts, including Embassies, High Commissions, Consulates and our work across the Overseas Territories. Alongside this, we manage a major UK estate in London, Milton Keynes and East Kilbride.
As Deputy Director for Construction and Project Delivery, you will play a critical role in shaping and delivering the next phase of our estate strategy. You will lead a major capital delivery portfolio, drive improvements across our global estate, reduce operational risk, and help address backlog maintenance at pace.
Job Description
This is a senior leadership role within the FCDO’s Estates Directorate, with responsibility for leading the delivery of a significant capital projects portfolio across the UK and global estate. The Deputy Director for Construction and Project Delivery reports to the Director of Estates and is a member of the Estates Senior Leadership Team.
You will play a central role in delivering the infrastructure that enables the FCDO to operate safely and effectively around the world. The portfolio includes new build facilities, major refurbishments, replacement of end-of-life assets, and significant mid-life and end-of-life upgrades to building services and systems. Delivery takes place across a complex international operating environment, often involving challenging logistical, security, environmental and stakeholder considerations.
You will lead a dynamic, fast-paced, multi-million-pound capital programme, with an annual budget of approximately £120 million. This will require strong strategic oversight, commercial judgement and delivery discipline, ensuring projects are delivered to time, cost and quality standards while demonstrating value for money and compliance with public sector financial and accounting requirements.
As Deputy Director, you will lead ten Project Directors and a wider multi disciplinary team, including five further direct reports located across London, Hanslope Park and East Kilbride. You will provide visible, inclusive and confident leadership, setting clear direction, building capability and creating the conditions for high performance across the team and wider delivery network.
The role requires close working with the other Deputy Directors within the Estates Directorate, whose responsibilities cover planning, delivery, running the global estate and complex projects. You will need to work collaboratively across organisational boundaries, ensuring alignment between estate strategy, capital delivery, asset management and operational priorities.
You will be responsible for financial planning, forecasting and accounting for the operational and programme budgets within your remit. You will approve projects within your delegated authority, chair the Asset Management Portfolio Board for projects up to £5 million, and lead the development and presentation of business cases for larger projects requiring approval by the Estates Committee and the FCDO Corporate Investment Committee.
A key part of the role will be building trusted relationships with a wide range of senior stakeholders, including colleagues across the FCDO, Ministers, Heads of Mission, other government departments, consultants, contractors and senior leaders across the supply chain. You will provide leadership across the full project lifecycle, from requirements, design and construction through to commissioning, handover and benefits realisation.
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
You will also ensure that projects are delivered with a strong focus on whole-life asset management. This includes robust handover arrangements, effective documentation, clear interfaces with maintenance teams and a continued focus on benefits, value for money and operational resilience.
You will report clearly on progress, issues, risks and mitigations to the Programme Executive and Board, maintaining an evidence-based view of delivery confidence. You will be expected to identify and manage risks, dependencies and emerging issues proactively, bringing pace, grip and sound judgement to a complex and high-profile portfolio.
Person Specification
Working at the FCDO will be the most challenging and rewarding time of your career. We want to be the best diplomatic and development ministry in the world, with jobs that are the envy of Whitehall and the rest of the world. We aim to recruit and retain the best people; those who are delivery focused and have a strong track record in high impact outcomes.
The Civil Service is open to talented people from any career background; we will always seek to identify transferable skills from the individual’s experience. The Essential Criteria to succeed in this role and be selected are:
- Inspiring, people-focused leadership through change – A proven track record of leading, developing and empowering high-performing, multi disciplinary teams in complex delivery environments. You will be able to demonstrate visible, inclusive and confident leadership, setting clear direction, building capability, managing performance and creating the conditions for people and suppliers to deliver successfully across diverse stakeholder and customer groups.
- Delivery of major, complex construction programmes – Demonstrable experience of leading major, technically complex construction or infrastructure programmes, ideally across multi-site or international portfolios. You will bring the credibility and professional judgement to work effectively with senior delivery partners, contractors, consultants, surveyors, engineers and construction professionals to deliver high-quality outcomes in challenging operating environments.
- Governance and assurance of major projects and programmes – Strong experience of governance, assurance and senior oversight for complex projects and programmes, including managing risk, dependencies, benefits, value for money and delivery confidence. This may include experience of the Government Major Projects Portfolio, or comparable major project governance and assurance frameworks.
- Regulatory, legal and financial understanding of complex programmes – A sound understanding of the regulatory, legal, commercial and financial considerations involved in delivering complex, technical and design-led programmes. You will be confident engaging with regulatory authorities, statutory bodies, commercial partners and senior decision makers to ensure compliant, affordable and deliverable outcomes.
- Professional credibility and sector expertise – Professional membership of a recognised accrediting body, such as RICS, ICE, CIOB, CIBSE, RIBA or equivalent, or a willingness to work towards this. You will bring the professional credibility, technical awareness and sector insight needed to lead confidently across a complex construction and estates portfolio.
It is important that your application provides evidence and examples that meet these criteria.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £100,000, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office contributes £28,970 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%
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
How To Apply
You must be a British Citizen at the point of application.
The recruitment process is being undertaken by Government Recruitment Service on behalf of the FCDO. To apply for this position, please follow the instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website by 9:00am on Monday 17th August 2026. All applications will be acknowledged and considered by the selection panel.
Your Submission Should Include
- A CV setting out your educational and professional qualifications and full employment history, including an explanation of any gaps in your employment history.
- A Statement of Suitability of no more than 1,250 words explaining your personal skills, qualities, abilities and experience relevant to the requirements of the job in support of your application with particular reference to the Essential Criteria in the Person Specification. It should also describe your vision for the job and how you would propose to approach this if appointed.
As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a Diversity questionnaire. The FCDO is committed to equal opportunities. Our officers are recruited on merit, through fair and open competition. We seek our strength through diversity and appoint suitably qualified individuals regardless of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, social backgrounds, age or disability. To help us ensure that our recruitment activity reflects the diversity of British society, we would be grateful if you could complete the diversity monitoring form. As part of the application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'. All monitoring data will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not be provided to the selection panel. The information you provide when submitting your application will help us monitor our progress towards the Civil Service becoming the most inclusive employer. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for more information. All data is reported in an anonymous and aggregate format and will not be seen by anyone assessing your application.
Candidate Engagement Call
We will be running a Candidate Engagement Call on Wednesday 5th August at 11am. During the call, you will have the opportunity to ask any questions that you have about this role. You can join the call here.
Timeline
The closing date for applications will be 9:00am on Monday 17th August.
CVs and Statements of Suitability will be ranked by Government Recruitment Service and then assessed by the Panel.
A
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills
Location