Contents Location About the job Benefits Things you need to know Apply and further information Location Taunton, Somerset About the job Job summary As Chief Executive Officer (CEO), you will be responsible for leading the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO), including delivery of a major transformation to digitise its operations and services. UKHO is an executive agency trading fund of the Ministry of Defence (MOD). It is a global entity supplying maritime navigational services and products to Defence, the UK Government and commercial trade. UKHO has a commercial turnover of c.£200m and has rendered a £300m dividend to the MOD over the last 10 years. It is based in Taunton, Somerset, and employs around 1000 civil service, contractor and uniformed colleagues. UKHO is the worlds pre-eminent hydrographic office and has international data sharing relationships with 140 countries, over 600 ports worldwide, and multi-national bodies, including the International Maritime Organisation, the International Hydrographic Organisation, and the Asian and World banks. UKHOs work is fundamental to all Allied and UK Defence joint operations, merchant marine trading, and the safety of life at sea. Its assured ADMIRALTY products are used by 93% of the worlds shipping that trades internationally. The CEO is responsible for leading a transformational digital overhaulmodernising UKHOs value chain, from supplier support and data management to service deliveryto ensure operational agility and customer relevance. This transformation is critical to maintaining UKHOs position as a commercially viable trading fund and a trusted global authority. Job description The CEO will be leading UKHO as it is goes through a period of significant change, balancing the needs of providing operational support to a broad range of customers such as Defence, UK Government, helping to ensure the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) as well as being commercially focussed providing charts, publications and digital services to the global shipping fleet. The UKHO CEO is directly accountable for ensuring the effective management of the UKHOs financial resources by overseeing annual business plans and budgets, as well as ensuring compliance with regulations to establish robust arrangements for governance, risk management, and internal control. The CEO holds the autonomy and responsibility to make decisions and adapt policies as necessary to align UKHO operations with business needs, operating effectively within the wider civil service and delegation frameworks. In addition, the CEO is tasked with making decisions that have a substantial impact on the long-term commercial success of the UKHO. This includes ensuring the effective delivery of services not only to commercial shipping, which contributes to the prosperity of the UK, but also to Defence, where enhancing service delivery is critical. Strategic decisions must reflect the importance of both the commercial and defence-oriented tasks to ensure the UKHO meets its diverse objectives effectively. The CEO will need to ensure that UKHO transforms how it delivers its services to customers within new and challenging market conditions, whilst taking the UKHOs dedicated people and disparate stakeholder community with them. They have to navigate a complex set of stakeholder relationships ranging from Defence as Owner and Customer, global maritime community, internal hydrographic community, the civil service and the local community as one of the largest employers in the area. They will need to be visionary, resilient and able to drive significant change where there is complexity and uncertainty. Given this, existing experience at Board / CEO level and delivering transformational digital change in a complex organisation and challenging environment would be expected. The CEO leads an executive team consisting of: the National Hydrographer, Chief Customer Officer, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Chief Data Officer, Chief Finance and Corporate Services Officer, and Chief People Officer. In total, the organisation comprises of approximately 1,000 professionals, including experts, technical specialists, and support teams from diverse backgrounds. Person specification Essential Criteria Proven experience of leading delivery of time-critical digital, operational, and cultural transformation in a fast-paced environment. Operational delivery and accountability: Proven experience of providing strategic leadership to large complex organisations. The CEO must have commercial/customer focused expertise and experience of successfully delivering sustainable financial performance against a strategy and objectives in a complex customer focused digital environment. Extensive experience of delivering effective and efficient resource management, business performance, value for money, corporate plans and business cases. Experience of owning and managing significant budgets with a focus on transparency, accountability and value-creation. Leadership and people management: A proven track record of taking responsibility at the executive level for building and leading a diverse and inclusive culture, with experience of creating a culture of empowerment and trust throughout an organisation. The ability to inspire and guide teams towards achieving strategic goals through effective performance management, accountable decision-making and consistent delivery of results. Stakeholder Management: Must have highly developed interpersonal and influencing skills; able to influence, and build trust with, a wide range of internal and external stakeholders across the public and private sector in the UK and internationally. Benefits Alongside your salary of £140,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £40,558 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. 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 Selection process details To apply for this role, please provide the following documents: An up-to-date CV. Please submit a PDF document labelled CV with your name and the role title. A supporting statement. Please submit a PDF document (around two pages) that outlines your interest in this particular organisation and role, and your fit against the essential experience criteria set out in the person specification and role description. Please label this document Supporting Statement with your name and the role title. A completed Diversity monitoring form HERE. All information is anonymous and is not used as a part of your application. If you would like to apply under the disability confident scheme, the Veterans scheme, or the Redeployment Interview Scheme, please fill out the form HERE. If you want to know more about the role or selection process, please contact Richard Grayling, from our Executive Search partners, Green Park by emailing richard.graylinggreen-park.co.uk. Please see the following video from the Chair of the UK Hydrographic Office Marion Leslie. Welcome from Marion Leslie UKHO CEO or visit https://micro.green-park.co.uk/ukho-ceo/ to watch it on our online candidate pack. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. 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. Security Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (opens in a new window). See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks. Nationality requirements Open to UK nationals only. Working for the Civil Service The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy. Diversity and Inclusion 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). Apply and further information This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. Contact point for applicants Job contact : Name : Green Park Email : richard.graylinggreen-park.co.uk Recruitment team Email : richard.graylinggreen-park.co.uk Attachments Candidate Pack - UKHO CEO Opens in new window (pdf, 401kB) Apply at advertiser's site Share this page Print Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn GMail