Scottish Government
Senior Security and Business Continuity Advisor
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Are you an experienced Security and Business Continuity professional who will own and drive forward improvements in Security & Business Continuity culture and practice?
The Scottish Government’s Security and Business Continuity (SBC) Unit is part of Workplace Division within the Scottish Property and Procurement Directorate in DG Corporate, a family of core corporate services. SBC is responsible for assessing the security and business continuity risks to the Scottish Government workforce, assets and operations, developing policies and procedures to mitigate them, contingency planning for major incidents, managing incidents which arise and exercising incident responders. It also provides advice and assurance to Ministers, Scottish Government business areas and the executive leadership of the organisation as well as delivering security services to individual employees and managers and to other public sector organisations in Scotland.
As the Head of SBC, you will be the Scottish Government's Senior Responsible Owner for Security and Business Continuity and act as Head of Profession for Security. You will need the professional credentials to be credible with Ministers and senior staff, external stakeholders and the security and business continuity professionals of the Unit and across government. At the same time, you will bring drive and energy to organisational development, people, and capability development, building partnerships with other functional leads and business areas around the Scottish Government as well as project delivery and service improvement. The role is to lead, inspire and drive improvement through people and collaboratively with other corporate change programmes, whilst taking personal responsibility for resolving security and business continuity incidents and challenges when required, often under pressure.
SBC comprises of 35 people, currently organised as business continuity, personnel security, physical security, and security improvement teams, with some colleagues performing cross cutting and specialist roles such as communication and engagement, risk assessment and horizon scanning. A pool of staff participates in security and corporate incident on call systems which are run by the Unit. It has an operating budget of £2.3m p.a. and works alongside Workplace Division’s Estates Projects to prioritise and deliver physical change projects to the estate amounting to several million pounds. Cyber and information security are operationally separate but work closely with the unit as part of a single strategic approach to security and business continuity under a director-led Governance Board.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Lead the SBC Unit so that it delivers the security and business continuity outcomes the organisation requires today and is able to change focus to deal with new risks as they emerge.
- Work with the senior leaders across the Scottish Government to improve understanding of security and business continuity risk to the business and its workforce and leaders’ role in mitigating it. At the same time provide assurance to Ministers and the executive leadership that security and BC risks are well understood and managed, but also know when and how to seek top leadership intervention to ensure the right security and BC outcomes happen.
- Support and challenge team leaders so that the Scottish Government is able to achieve government and industry standards across the security and business continuity function.
- Act as senior responsible owner for the SBC improvement programme, ensuring that workstreams are set up for success, focus on delivering defined outcomes, manage financial, time and performance risk whilst ensuring that the organisation is ready and able to adopt the improvements being delivered and that they remain fit for a changing strategic risk picture.
- Drive the improvement of security and BC services in line with wider corporate transformation objectives.
- Develop, nurture and lead the security profession across Scottish Government and other relevant parts of the public sector in Scotland to build capability for today and tomorrow.
- Improve the integration of security and business continuity processes with other corporate services, so that all relevant corporate services help keep the Scottish Government safe, secure and resilient by design.
- Contribute to the collective leadership of Workplace Division and the development of a high performing team, with a strong, inclusive, positive working culture that cuts through silos and organisational boundaries.
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QUALIFICATION
- The post holder must hold a Chartered Security Professional (CSyP) qualification through The Security Institute, and hold a minimum business continuity qualification (at least a Certificate of Business Continuity Institute (CBCI)).
- The post holder must hold Membership of the Security and/or Business Continuity professional institutes.
- The role requires the post holder to currently hold Developed Vetting (DV) level of Security clearance, and to have held it for at least 5 years.
Success Profile
Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on.
Experience:
- A strong track record of delivering security and business continuity risk assessment, planning, exercising and incident management at a strategic level, ideally within the public sector, is essential.
- Experience of operating at Ministerial and Board level and building engagement across a range of stakeholders and across teams is required.
- Evidence of Chief Security Officer level skills on the Government Security Profession career framework https://www.security.gov.uk/government-security-profession-career-framework/ or demonstrated equivalent knowledge and experience
Behaviours:
- Leadership - Level 4
- Making Effective Decisions - Level 4
- Communicating and Influencing - Level 4
- Delivering at Pace - Level 4
You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours here https://www.gov.scot/publications/success-profiles-candidate-guide/pages/introduction/
How to apply
Apply online, providing a CV (No more than 2 pages) and Supporting Statement (of no more than 1000 words) which provides evidence of how you meet the skills, experience and behaviours listed in the Success Profile above. If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and secondary assessment/exercise.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application, but all statements and examples 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, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.
Please see our candidate guidance https://www.gov.scot/publications/recruitment-candidate-guide/pages/use-of-ai-tools/ for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment.
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Assessments are scheduled for late October 2026 however this may be subject to change.
ABOUT US
The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland. We have responsibility for a wide range of key policy areas including: education, health, the economy, justice, housing and transport. We offer rewarding careers and employ people across Scotland in a wide range of professions and roles.
Our staff are part of the UK Civil Service https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/about-us/, working for Ministers and senior stakeholders to deliver vital public services which improve the lives of the people of Scotland.
We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment along with a wide range of employee benefits. Find out more about what we offer https://www.jobs.gov.scot/what-we-offer.
As part of the UK Civil Service, we uphold the Civil Service Nationality Rules https://www.gov.scot/publications/recruitment-candidate-guide/pages/nationality-requirements/.
RECRUITMENT PRINCIPLES
As a government organisation, we adhere to the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/document/02a-recruitment-principles-april-2018-final/?d102_cookies_enabled=all and we investigate any complaints received in relation to recruitment cases.
WORKING PATTERN/LOCATION
Our standard hours are 35 hours per week and we offer a range of flexible working options depending on the needs of the role, including Flexi-leave. Scottish Government staff in hybrid-compatible roles should aim to work in-person 40% of the time, either in an office or other agreed work location. If you have specific questions about the role you are applying for, please contact us.
SECURITY CHECKS
Successful candidates must complete the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), before they can be appointed. BPSS is comprised of four main pre-employment checks – Identity, Right to work, Employment History and a Criminal Record check (unspent convictions).
You can find out more about BPSS on the UK Government website https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-baseline-personnel-security-standard, or read about the different levels of security checks in our Candidate Guide https://www.gov.scot/publications/recruitment-candidate-guide/pages/introduction/.
SKILLED WORKER SPONSORSHIP
Skilled Worker sponsorship is not available for this role. As a result, we are unable to appoint candidates who require Skilled Worker sponsorship now or in the future. Applicants must have an existing and ongoing right to work in the UK.
EQUALITY STATEMENT
We are committed to equality and inclusion and we aim to recruit a diverse workforce that reflects the population of our nation.
Find out more about our commitment to diversity https://www.jobs.gov.scot/an-inclusive-organisation and how we offer and support recruitment adjustments https://www.jobs.gov.scot/requesting-adjustments-2 for anyone who needs them.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Find out more about our organisation, what we offer staff members and how to apply on our Careers Website https://www.jobs.gov.scot/.
Read our Candidate Guide https://www.gov.scot/publications/recruitment-candidate-guide/pages/introduction/ for further information on our recruitment and application processes.
This post is open to Internal Scottish Government candidates
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