Deputy Director, Operational Strategy and Secretariat
| Posting date: | 11 May 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £81,000 to £117,800 per year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 24 May 2026 |
| Location: | London |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 461111/6 |
Summary
The Office for Investment (OfI) was spun out of Downing Street in January 2021 and is now a joint unit between No.10, HMT and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). The OfI is an exciting, creative and dynamic place to work among a motivated and driven team with both commercial and public sector backgrounds. The Office works closely with Secretaries of State, Junior Ministers, and No.10 to deliver the highest-value, highest profile investment propositions.
The team operates a flexible and flat structure which means that staff across all grades have the opportunity to work directly alongside the senior leadership and have direct exposure to ministers and senior business executives.
OfI's vision and mission is to secure investment to drive growth, job creation and increased productivity across the UK. We are proactive and entrepreneurial, delivering ambitious outcomes aligned to the Industrial Strategy and HMG Missions. To become a centre of excellence for attracting and growing investment we want to attract talented people from the private sector and across government who are curious, creative and agile in pursuing emerging opportunities for the UK.
This is a pivotal role at the heart of the new organization. The successful candidate will bring together our strategy and operations in clear and effective support of our frontline delivery of investment into the UK economy. It will oversee the teams working on everything from our in-house L&D offer to some of the most sensitive geopolitical issues. It will be a fast-moving, high-pressure job running multiple projects to challenging timelines. This role will have high visibility with Ministers and the Permanent Secretary. It will need an individual who is comfortable with navigating and influencing the breadth of HMG, credible with commercial stakeholders and plugged into the OfI’s UK and overseas front-line delivery units.
Candidate Information Call
The hiring manager for this position; Lucy Buzzoni, will be hosting a virtual call for any interested applicants to discuss the role and answer any questions.
This will be held via Microsoft Teams on Monday 18th May 2026 at 10:30am-11:00am (UK time).
Please click here for the meeting link.
Senior Responsible Owner for five teams:
- A secretariat that must ensure senior officials and ministers use their time in the most strategic and effective way to deliver investment including through commercial meetings, visits, and intervention on specific projects. The secretariat will oversee a single HMG pipeline of projects and will have oversight of Parliamentary business and correspondence.
- A large, high-performing flexible resource that will lead and deliver strategic investment projects on behalf of ministers and senior officials. This ranges from national security to regional growth. You will also lead and own the overall strategy and vision for the OFI
- An operational team that will be responsible for delivering value for money throughout the organization and the ongoing optimization of our operating model.
- An L&D team that delivers our class-leading investment-specific investment offer for UK and overseas teams and, increasingly, for cross-Whitehall investment teams.
- A Private Office team that provides dedicated support to the CEO and the Office for Investment’s Directors.
There is significant line-management responsibility for this role. You will directly line-manage seven high-performing G6s. The resource under you will be subject to competing demands from across Whitehall so you will need to be comfortable in a matrix between line-management and task-management and in allocating (and defending) your resource. There is an opportunity to take responsibility for programme delivery of the International Investment Summit 2026, working closely with DBT’s event delivery team.
This role is also a part of the wider OfI senior leadership team. You will be expected to play a key role in the wider culture of the organization. You should be comfortable in representing the organization across Whitehall in complex geopolitical and organisational fora. You should build up direct knowledge of how the Office for Investment operates on the front line to ensure that strategy and operations are properly reflective of that experience and change is effectively embedded.
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