Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Senior Space Crisis Exercising and Training Advisor
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Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Salford
Job Summary
At DSIT we’re all about improving people’s lives by maximising the potential of science & technology.
We accelerate innovation, investment and productivity through world-class science, research and development.
We use technology for good by ensuring new and existing technologies are safely developed and deployed across the UK, with the benefits more widely shared.
We are driving forward a modern digital government which gives citizens a more satisfying experience and their time back.
We do all this to enable the Government’s 5 national missions: kickstarting economic growth, making Britain a clean energy superpower, taking back our streets, breaking down barriers to opportunity and building an NHS fit for the future.
Above all, we focus on improving people’s lives. Whether it’s researching new treatments for disease, developing better batteries, reducing burdens through better public services, keeping children safe online, and much more, outcomes for citizens are at the heart of what we do.
Our Inclusive Environment
We offer flexible working benefits, employee well-being support and a great pension. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.
Find Out More
We regularly run events where you can find out more about the department and tips for the application and interview process. You can sign up for upcoming events here: https://forms.office.com/e/Jae3B4w7xm
You can also follow our LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/dsitcareers/
Job Description
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) is a Directorate within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. At the heart of UK efforts to explore and benefit from space, UKSA leads work to grow the UK’s world-class space sector, foster ground-breaking science and innovation and strengthen the UK’s national security.
Space is an extraordinary and exciting sector that impacts virtually all aspects of our lives. It is a high growth and high productivity area, where targeted Government investment stimulates innovation and creates highly skilled jobs. It is also experiencing disruptive change, with new technologies, business models and market entrants challenging the status quo. UKSA must be flexible and dynamic to ensure UK leadership in the new space age.
The purpose of this role is to ensure the UK Space Agency, and by extension the UK Government, has the capability, coordination, and preparedness required to manage major space related risks, through strong exercising, training, horizon scanning, and capability development.
Person specification
As Exercising and Training lead in our Space Security and Resilience team, you will:
- Design and assure UKSA Crisis Response exercising programmes
- Develop and maintain lessons management framework, ensuring lessons identified are analysed, prioritised, assigned and tracked through to implementation.
- Develop and deliver bespoke training and improvement packages to support crisis preparedness and response capability.
- Support horizon scanning and awareness development, coordination of Cross-Government engagement and Space crisis response,
As Exercising and Training lead you will specifically be responsible for:
- Supporting comprehensive horizon scanning and evidence gathering processes, producing high quality insight and awareness products that inform senior decision making.
- Undertaking Training needs analysis and - where appropriate - development of competency frameworks and training packages to support credible delivery of crisis response.
- Build and sustain strong, influential partnerships across Government and industry, ensuring aligned preparedness, operational cohesion, and shared strategic objectives.
- Design, commission, and lead cross government exercises and assurance activity, validating capabilities, identifying systemic gaps, and driving continuous improvement.
- Capture, analyse, and translate lessons into actionable remediation, embedding improvements into national strategies and NSRA processes.
- Provide confident, values driven line management leadership, coaching and supporting staff, deputising for the G7 Lead, and cultivating a high performance, ethical team culture.
- Line manage and support a HEO, setting clear objectives and providing coaching to support professional development.
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As a line manager, you will be responsible for working with your members of staff to define their objectives, as well as managing their development and performance.
Essential Criteria
- Experience in delivering exercise or wargaming programmes through various modalities including Tabletop and live play.
- Experience identifying training needs and designing capability development interventions.
- Stakeholder management and effective working across the public sector.
- Collaborating across government departments by building strong and positive relationships.
- Knowledge, application, and development of governance principles.
- The ability to communicate complex information to diverse audiences, including providing advice to senior partners in and outside of UKSA.
- Promoting an inclusive culture, crafting an environment where all staff can achieve their best.
- Leading complex programmes of work, setting clear direction, steering and influencing conversations to produce successful outcomes.
- Delivering work at pace and to managing conflicting priorities, responding and being reactive when required.
Desirable Criteria
- Background in space science, remote sensing, or satellite operations.
- Experience with ICAO, UK Space Agency programmes, or Met Office space weather services.
- Emergency/Crisis Response or Business Continuity Management Experience.
- Experience evaluating organisational preparedness or operational capability.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Changing and Improving
- Communicating and Influencing
- Developing Self and Others
Salary and Benefits
Alongside your salary of £44,620, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £12,926 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).
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:
- A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
- Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
- A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
- An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
- Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
- A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.
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Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
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
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete a Civil Service Judgement Test. If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application.
Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is 23:55 on 17th August 2026. If you fail to complete the online test before the deadline your application will be withdrawn. Guidance for the test will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website.
Our online test supplier will be performing scheduled maintenance between 3 p.m. and Midnight on 2 August 2026. You will be unable to access tests during this period.
If you are in the middle of a test when the maintenance begins, your progress will be paused. You will be able to resume your test from where you left off via your application centre once the downtime has ended. Please note that you will not be able to launch any new tests while the system is offline.
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
The interview will consist of behaviour questions.
Interviewees will be asked to deliver a presentation; further details will be provided nearer the time.
Further Information
Reasonable Adjustment
We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.
Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DSIT Candidate Guidance. A DSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.
We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
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