Senior Cyber Policy Advisor - Strategic Supplier Engagement

Posting date:	16 October 2025
Salary:	£43,760 to £51,690 per year
Additional salary information:	National Pay Bands £43,760 - £47,413 London Pay Bands £47,670 - £51,690 This post attracts a non-pensionable DDaT (Digital, Data and Technology) specialist allowance, subject to an assessment of your cyber skills and experience.
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	04 November 2025
Location:	Manchester
Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	432926/4

Summary

As the Cyber Directorate, our mission is to protect public services and the wider government from cyber threats, and set strategic direction for government and the public sector on cyber security. This is an exciting opportunity to play a pivotal role in UK national security by ensuring that core-government functions are resilient to cyber-attack, thereby strengthening the UK as a sovereign nation and delivering the government’s vision for modern digital government.

In this high-profile role, you will be working in the Policy & Supply Chain Team where you will help to deliver the Government Cyber Security Strategy, through fostering closer security relationships and ambitious programmes of change with Government’s 39 Strategic Suppliers and other critical suppliers who have a disproportionate impact on how we manage the cyber risk to the sector. You will work with a G7 Head of Cyber Strategic Supplier Engagement to own and progress these relationships, and hold responsibility for the security outcomes under the Microsoft and Google Strategic Partnering Agreements (SPA) in addition to shaping future security requirements for pipeline agreements with other Strategic Suppliers.

You will be expected to build and maintain strong working relationships with representatives from these companies to hold them accountable for delivery. You’ll also help to advise Ministers and Senior Officials on these most complex and high value commercial engagements.

Knowledge of technology and cyber security is desirable but not essential. It is more important that you have a curious mind and the ability to understand complex commercial landscapes to facilitate ambitious change programmes.

In June 2025, it was announced that the Government Cyber Directorate will move from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) as a part of a machinery of government change. This change aims to bring together the digital transformation of public services into one central department, presenting exciting opportunities and positioning DSIT to lead the government’s digital agenda.

This role is in scope to formally transfer to DSIT when the machinery of government change takes place. If your start date is on the transfer date, when this is confirmed, you will be appointed directly to DSIT and your appointment will be unaffected by the machinery of government change.

The successful candidate will be a self-starter, someone who takes initiative and works autonomously, driving tasks forward with strong judgement, maintaining links across the wider GDS team and commercial functions

As a Senior Cyber Policy Advisor, you will:

• Help to drive comprehensive engagement initiatives with government strategic suppliers to deliver better security outcomes as part of the Government Cyber Security Strategy Implementation Plan.
• Partner with government commercial teams and the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence to shape strategic direction for maximising government's supplier relationships, ensuring security considerations are prioritised throughout procurement processes to achieve superior protection of critical infrastructure and sensitive information
• Facilitate communication between internal government stakeholders and external strategic suppliers, conduct thorough requirements analysis to identify security gaps and translate these into precise specifications that strengthen overall security posture and resilience.
• Help drive multiple concurrent supplier cyber security deliver programmes
• Build and maintain strategic partnerships with senior supplier representatives, and help to conduct regular governance reviews and strategic planning sessions specifically designed to advance security capabilities, threat detection, and incident response effectiveness
• Work on evaluating supplier performance against security-focused key performance indicators, delivering comprehensive assessments and actionable recommendations that drive measurable improvements in government's security infrastructure and defensive capabilities
• Align cross-departmental security requirements and priorities, ensuring a unified approach to supplier communication while resolving competing demands to maximise collective security benefits and eliminate vulnerabilities across government operations.

You may also be required to provide additional capacity for wider teams within the Cyber Directorate on an ad-hoc basis.

The Policy & Supply Chain Team is a hybrid team based across multiple locations. We are committed to creating a collaborative, inclusive team, so this post will require occasional travel to other GDS locations so that we can work together face-to-face.

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