Company Description

Fusion energy offers the potential for significant quantities of low-carbon, inherently safe, abundantly fuelled, baseload energy, supporting sustainable climate action and energy independence.  While the technical challenge remains high, confidence is increasing, and the rewards of realising fusion are almost incalculable.  Anticipated to come online for commercial purposes in the middle of this century, fusion offers a viable means to sustainable net zero in the UK and globally, as well as to increased energy security.  The UK is currently a world leader in fusion research and development and in the drive to realise commercially viable energy from fusion, a sector with an estimated value of £7tn per year.

STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) is the UK’s flagship national programme to deliver a prototype fusion energy plant, targeting 2040, and a path to commercial viability of fusion.  STEP is deliberately bold and ambitious and seeks people who want to be part of a world-changing endeavour and who have credible and relevant experiencing in delivery.

STEP is currently led by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, which has breadth and depth of expertise in fusion science, engineering and operations built over decades.  Over the next year, leadership will transition to a new Company, UK Industrial Fusion Solutions Ltd. (UKIFS) to focus on the delivery of the prototype and, in so doing, the development of a fusion supply chain.  From the next government investment gate, UKIFS will lead a collaborative team of industrial Whole Plant Partners who bring expertise in engineering and construction, plus UKAEA who will remain as strategic Partner providing fusion expertise.

Job Description

As an employee of UKAEA you will benefit from:

• Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme, details of which can be found at the end of this advert.
• Corporate bonus scheme up to 7% and a Relocation allowance (if eligible).
• Flexible working options including family friendly policies.
• Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders, 
• Generous annual leave allowance starting with 25 days, plus 3 days Christmas closure and 2.5 privilege days, in addition to UK bank holidays
• Wide range of career development opportunities
• A vibrant culture committed to equality and being fully inclusive

This role requires employees to be eligible for SC Clearance (must have resided in the UK for the last 5 years), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions.

The Role

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to make a difference? Join our team and contribute to the future of fusion energy. As Head of Programme Integration, Analysis and Insights, you will play a pivotal role to support the Programme Director, CEO and Chair of the Board in setting up this major new programme. Delivery of STEP is a generational challenge, and opportunity. By its very nature, intent and environment, STEP is a high-risk, high reward programme, requiring a range of delivery models and approaches commensurate with its technical, business and operational maturity.The candidate will develop and lead a team of UKIFS and contractors to provide programme integration and analysis that enables programme-wide option generation, analysis and ultimately informed decision making.The candidate will be someone that can form effective relationships with a wide range of people, is effective at understanding and using data and information to gai insights and can communicate effectively with senior leadership and detailed delivery teams. 

Additional Responsibilities:

Leadership and Engagement

• Provide leadership and guidance to all staff members and stakeholders, reflecting the CEO and Chair’s intent and the organisation’s values and behaviours.
• Help drive leadership intent and priorities throughout the organisation, ensuring understanding and helping continuously improve organisational effectiveness.
• Establish effective relationships with the widest range of stakeholders, gaining trust and being known by those stakeholders to play a critical part in ensuring effective programme decision making.
• Represent the company to key stakeholders to secure support and improve effective delivery of the STEP Programmes mission and objectives. These engagements should encompass various parties, including our sponsoring department, the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Government Ministers, and future potential investors.

Strategic advice and Board support

• Offer strategic advice to the Director Programme Development, CEO and Chair on matters pertaining to programme options.
• Provide the UKIFS and STEP Programme Boards with analysis of current delivery performance based on assured and timely information from constituent parts of STEP.
• Ensure implications of options and decisions on baseline estimates (and in time Performance Measurement Baselines), strategic objectives, benefits and risks are understood and communicated.
• Support the Programme Board directly on programme options and decisions, and in particular how to maximise delivery of Whole Programme Objectives (WPO) and benefits through changes in programme strategy and direction, bringing your experience and insight to bear.
• Develop credible “what if” scenarios against WPOs. Provide the UKIFS and STEP Programme Boards with options for improvement to baseline (and in time PMB) estimates, strategic objectives, benefits and risks.

Organisation Effectiveness

• Work with the STEP Programme Executive and others to shape the overall Programme as insights are gained.  This includes shaping the overall programme deliverables and broader strategies.
• Working across STEP, and in collaboration specifically with other Heads of Programme functions, design and develop the capability necessary for STEP programme-wide insights and analysis, with a focus on improved integration and delivery across partners, Projects and workstreams.
• Coordinate and integrate across the functional and delivery arms of the company, and wider programme including engineering, technology, finance, commercial, business operations and human resources.

Project Delivery

• Play an active role as a member of The STEP Programme Development leadership team, working with Director Programme Development and others to establish STEP as a well-founded major programme.
• As a member of the Senior Leadership Team provide leadership; engagement; morale; and direction across the team and programme.
• Ensure that project level proposals and options for delivery improvements are consistent and coherent with wider programme level strategies and plans.
• Manage special projects as assigned by Director Programme Delivery, the CEO or Chair.

The role is based at Culham but with travel required to other UK Locations including West Burton. Hybrid work is available with expectation of  2-3 days on site on average. Compressed hours would be considered if needed.

NOTE: The role offers flexible working arrangements, including options for part-time hours, job sharing, and compressed hours schedules.

Qualifications

Essential Requirements:

• Effective leadership skills with the ability to motivate teams and engender confidence in stakeholders.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision as well as part of a large team.
• Experience of programme delivery analysis and assessment within a complex technical and collaborative environment.
• Demonstrate appropriate programme management or business analysis professional qualifications and membership of associated professional bodies.
• Experience of strategy and risk-led decision making in government and/or private bodies.
• Ability to rapidly absorb and analyse complex situations, information, and navigate a path through.
• Able to manage a large, diverse and fast-changing workload, prioritising effectively.
• Experience in operating with senior staff and stakeholders, rapidly understand their perspectives and adapt style to situation.
• A commitment to ethical business practices and a high level of integrity.

Additional Information

A full list of our benefits can be found here https://careers.ukaea.uk/life-at-ukaea/employee-benefits/

We welcome applications from under-represented groups, particularly individuals from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and women. Our Executive team, supported by our 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) Partner and Inclusion Ambassadors, actively promotes EDI and takes steps to increase diversity within our organization. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.

For applicants applying from outside the United Kingdom or those who have spent time outside the UK in the last five years, please visit the following link for information on criminal records checks: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants If your country of residence or previous residence is not listed on the website or if the UK Government does not have information on obtaining a criminal records check from that state, we regret to inform you that we cannot process your application.