Non-Executive Director - Technology and Digital Lead

Job description

Fee payable: c.£1000 per day, dependent upon attendance

Location:

Required to attend meetings at sites across the UK.

Time commitment:
Up to 20 days a year - 9 board meetings plus a strategic away day, plus any board committee commitments and sub-committees.

Allowances:

Reasonable travel & subsistence (we are a public sector body and bound by public finances, ethics, and integrity in how public money is spent)

Term:
Three-year period with a formal review point after two years.

Notice: 3 months

Clearance: DV clearance required.

GCHQ is an intelligence, cyber and security agency with a mission to keep the UK safe. We use cutting edge technology, ingenuity and partnerships to identify, analyse and disrupt threats. Working with our intelligence partners MI5 and MI6, we protect the UK from terrorism, cyber attacks and espionage. At GCHQ you’ll do varied and fascinating work in a supportive and inclusive environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.

Our GCHQ strategy focuses on:

• delivering impact where it is needed most;
• harnessing technology to operate at the edge of impossible;
• investing in our people to build an inclusive, diverse workforce; and
• being a well run organisation.

Further information can be found here.

We are seeking a Non-Executive Director to join our Board of Directors with recent and extensive experience of large scale digital and technological delivery and innovation.

This position complements the balance of skills, experience, and perspectives of our existing Board. Working with our executive and non-executive directors in a dynamic and demanding environment, you will help to shape, scale, and promote the long-term sustainable success of GCHQ.

As a Board member you will contribute your knowledge and expertise to the Board’s collective decision making, formulating strategy, providing direction and assessing performance. You will help us achieve cultural change and our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) ambition.

You will act as a critical friend to the Director, and coach executives as required. You will bring independent and constructive challenge, along with advice, to help set our future direction navigating complex digital modernisation and responding to the opportunities and risks of AI at the pace of the frontier.

• Provide strategic advice to help set our future direction as we move into a fast-paced changing world, navigating complex digital modernisation;
• Provide external and independent views on large digital transformations and AI adoption, readying us to consume advanced services, future-proofing our processes, and enabling this at scale;
• Be able to offer informed challenge on GCHQ’s major strategic technology challenges;
• Shape and embed our purpose, values, and strategy, ensuring cultural alignment;
• Provide an internal and independent view on the running of the business, ensuring high levels of appropriate accountability and governance best practice are upheld;
• Provide independent counsel to the Director, acting as a trusted sounding board in specialism or more generally;
• Provide independent oversight and challenge of executive and business performance, ensuring it is strategically aligned and prioritised;
• Ensure the Board is operating within the risk appetite and risk management framework agreed by the Board;
• Ensure that workforce policies and practices are consistent with GCHQ’s values and support long-term sustainable success;
• Provide valued input and contribution to Board meetings and, where appropriate, constructive independent challenge to the thinking and decision-making of the Executive Board;
• Ensure the effective implementation of Board and Committee decisions by the Director…