Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, London, Salford

This is a great role for a candidate who wants to make an impact on issues that matter for millions of households and businesses across the country. You will be responsible for DESNZ's work to ensure that people get a fair deal from energy companies and that electricity and gas markets promote innovation, supporting transformation across the energy system. It provides an opportunity to work at the heart of one of the Government's five missions: to make the UK a clean energy superpower. As part of the DESNZ's senior leadership, you will join a department that is committed to driving forward that mission. You will work closely with the independent regulator, Ofgem, as well as the sector and with consumer bodies - providing an opportunity to lead across a dynamic and varied system.

We are a friendly and collegiate Directorate with an inclusive and supportive environment where everyone is able to develop and contribute to their full potential. We actively encourage applications from candidates from all professional and personal backgrounds. We welcome candidates who want to work flexibly; we already have senior job sharers in the directorate.

The Deputy Director Retail Energy Market & Consumers sits within the Energy Affordability & Consumers Directorate, a friendly and collegiate Directorate. That has a focus on ensuring energy bills are affordable, consumers have sufficient protections when things go wrong, are able to benefit from innovation in an energy market they can trust and, in turn, support the decarbonisation objectives of the department.

As the Deputy Director Retail Energy Market & Consumers, you will lead a high performing team of around 30. 

You will be responsible for developing energy retail market and consumer protection policy so that consumers can benefit from the energy transition. 

You will also lead a review of the independent energy regulator, Ofgem to ensure it has the right mandate, powers and remit to deliver the best outcomes for consumers and that it also uses its existing powers to set the right standards and ensure consumers are compensated when things go wrong. 

You will work closely with Ministers and external stakeholders to deliver on this high profile area.

Key Responsibilities

As Deputy Director Retail Energy Market & Consumers , you will be expected to:

• You will lead a team of around 30. 
• You will be an outstanding leader and manager with a track record of developing high performing teams, supporting individuals to develop to their full potential and who can sustain inspiring, confident leadership in a fascinating and important area. 
• Across your portfolio you will collaborate closely with the Deputy Director, Energy Affordability, Strategy and Policy sometimes delivering joint pieces of work.
• You will lead the Department's work on retail energy market policy, the key place where consumers experience the energy system. 
• You will ensure that consumers are at the heart of policy making, working closely with the Minister for Energy Consumers on her priorities. This includes working with Ofgem on live issues and developing and delivering policy on market reform to ensure that consumers can benefit from the net zero transition and be properly protected. 
• You will also act as the policy sponsor for Ofgem ensuring that adequate and effective sponsorship arrangements are in place. 

You will lead a review of Ofgem and deliver changes to it's mandate, powers and remit in support of a regulatory regime that puts consumers first. The government has also set out how it wants a much tougher system of regulation that puts consumers first and attracts the investment needed to cut bills.

We will be looking for you to show through your CV and Personal Statement evidence of the following essential criteria:

• Leadership and Team Development: Demonstrated experience in fostering diverse and inclusive high-performing teams. You should illustrate your approach to supporting individuals in reaching their full potential while maintaining a culture of inspiring and confident leadership. A commitment to personal development, team resilience, and inclusive practices is essential.
• Effective Communication Skills: Proven ability to convey complex issues clearly and persuasively to senior stakeholders. Your communication skills should enable you to translate intricate concepts into accessible language, ensuring understanding across varied audiences.
• Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration: Proficient in engaging with senior stakeholders across government, regulatory bodies, industry, and the charity sector. You should show an ability to collaboratively set strategic direction, influence change, and deliver meaningful outcomes for end users, while demonstrating respect for diverse perspectives.
• Analytical and Strategic Thinking: Strong capability in understanding and interpreting complex policy issues and problems. Comfort in analysing data to inform decision-making is vital, as is the ability to propose credible, evidence-based options and recommendations for Ministers that are realistic and achievable.

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace

Alongside your salary of £76,000, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £22,017 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero 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.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

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Job contact :

• Name : SCS Recruitment Team
• Email : [email protected]

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]