Government Chief Security Officer
Role overview
The Government Chief Security Officer (GCSO) leads the Government Security Function, which represents the largest security operation in the UK. They are accountable to the Chief Executive of the Civil Service and the wider Civil Service Board.
This is a high-pressure role that requires strategic thinking, strong judgment, critical decision-making, and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced culture of change. The GCSO must be able to demonstrate strong leadership, communication, motivational and influencing skills, combined with an ability to deliver effective outcomes. They must be able to operate strategically, commanding confidence and building strong relationships across Whitehall and the wider security community.
The GCSO is also DG of the Government Security Group and Head of the Government Security Profession, responsible for developing strong security capability in support of government and strong career development opportunities for members of the profession.
Role level
Principal
Typical role expectations
- Act as the chief professional adviser on Government security issues – building effective and trusted relationships with ministers and senior leaders;
- Lead the development of the overarching Government security strategy, the government security standards and integrated policies and procedures to continuously improve and maximise delivery;
- Work collaboratively across Government and support departments to enhance capability, systems and outcomes;
- Build an excellent Government Security Function and Profession for the civil service that seeks to build the capacity and capabilities of security professionals across UK government departments, and embed a clear approach to performance and talent and the right security cultures across the function;
- Represent and be accountable for the entire Government Security organisation – including formal civil service governance, Select Committees and other high-profile public events.
Skills
| Skill | Principal |
|---|---|
| Applied Personnel Security | Awareness |
| Applied Physical Security | Awareness |
| Applied research | Awareness |
| Applied security capability | Expert |
| Applied Technical Security | Awareness |
| Business continuity management | Awareness |
| Compliance monitoring and controls testing | Awareness |
| Cyber Security operations | Awareness |
| Incident management, incident investigation and response | Expert |
| Information risk assessment and risk management | Expert |
| Intrusion detection and analysis | Awareness |
| Investigative interviewing | Awareness |
| Legal and regulatory environment and compliance | Expert |
| Penetration testing | Awareness |
| Protective security | Expert |
| Risk understanding and mitigation | Expert |
| Secure design | Awareness |
| Secure development | Awareness |
| Secure operations management | Awareness |
| Secure supply chain management | Awareness |
| Security architecture | Expert |
| Threat intelligence and threat assessment | Expert |
| Threat understanding | Expert |