Pay up to £92,522, plus 28.97% employer pension contributions, hybrid working, flexible hours, and great work life balance.

DWP. Digital with Purpose.

We’re looking for an exceptional Head of Secure Design to help protect some of the UK’s most important digital services, including Universal Credit.

We’re building secure, resilient digital services that millions of people rely on every day. As the UK’s largest government department, DWP supports people at key moments in their lives and delivers over £195bn in payments each year. Security is central to everything we do. From safeguarding Universal Credit to protecting critical data and systems, the scale and purpose of our work are extraordinary.

You’ll play a pivotal role in strengthening the security foundations behind some of the UK’s most widely used digital services. You’ll shape our secure-by-design approach, reduce fraud and cyber risk, and ensure our teams can deliver safe, consistent, user-centred services at scale.

The scale of what we do is extraordinary, and our purpose is unique. We’d love you to join us.

What skills, knowledge and experience will you need?

• Proven leadership skills, with the ability to influence, engage and communicate effectively with senior leaders and lead direct teams with clarity and confidence.
• Expert knowledge of protective security, with the ability to drive innovation while balancing security requirements with service delivery and transformation needs.
• Strong ability to integrate external threat intelligence, organisational context and situational awareness to build a holistic threat picture, including the effective use of threat models and clear communication to stakeholders.
• Ability to provide strategic oversight and leadership to specialist security functions (e.g., penetration testing, Security Architecture, DevSecOps, product and compliance assurance), including confidently challenging assumptions and driving change.
• Demonstrable experience managing risk across the full risk lifecycle, communicating risk in clear, actionable terms to enable informed prioritisation and decision making.
• Significant experience working in large, complex and mission-critical programme or enterprise environments.
• CISSP or similar certification or can demonstrate equivalent skills and experience across those domains.

You and your role

You’ll lead the security design function across Working Age Services, shaping secure, resilient and user-centred systems used by millions every day.

You’ll oversee our security posture, fraud-risk frameworks and tooling, ensuring strong controls, informed risk-based decisions and clear visibility of vulnerabilities.

Working with product teams, subject matter experts and senior leaders, you’ll drive consistency in secure design, support the modernisation of our technology landscape, and champion best practice across cyber, fraud and error prevention.

This is a hands-on leadership role, owning security and fraud standards and ensuring robust, scalable solutions that safeguard our services and the citizens who rely on them.

Details. Wages. Perks.

Location: You’ll join us in one of our brilliant digital hubs in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester or Newcastle, whichever is most convenient for you.

Hybrid Working: We work a hybrid model - you’ll spend some time working at home and some time collaborating face to face in a hub.

Pay: We offer competitive pay of up to £92,552.

Pension: You’ll get a brilliant civil service pension with employer contributions worth 28.97%.

Holidays: A generous leave package starting at 26 days rising to 31 days over time.

You can also take up to 3 extra days off a month on flexi-time. You’ll also get all the usual public holidays.

We have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Flexible working including flexible hours and flex-friendly policies

• Time off volunteering and charitable giving

• Bring your authentic self to work with ‘I Can Be Me in DWP’

• Discounts and savings on shopping, fun days out and more

• Interest-free loans to buy a bike or a season ticket, so it’s even easier for you to get to work and start making a difference

• Sports and social activities

• Professional development, coaching, mentoring and career progression opportunities.

And we have an award-winning environment and culture:

• DWP have been recognised as 2024 Diversity Employer of the Year at the Computing Women in Tech Excellence awards

• Diverse and Inclusive Leadership at Digital Leaders Awards 2024

• Commended as Best Place to Work in Digital category in the Computing Digital Technology Leaders awards 2025

• Recognised as one of the Best Public Sector Employers at 2025 Women In Tech Employer Awards

Process:

We know your time is valuable so our application and selection process is just two stages:

• Apply: complete your application on Civil Service Jobs. There’ll be full instructions when you click through.

• Interview: a single stage interview online.

CLICK APPLYfor more information and to start your application.