ARAC Independent Member and Chair of the Pension Board & Scheme Advisory Board Ref. 3818

MI5 helps safeguard the UK from threats to national security, operating together with partners to protect the UK and its people. Our role is to counter terrorism, assassinations, espionage and malign interference; protecting our interests overseas, and making the UK the safest place to live and do business. It is challenging, varied and meaningful work.

We are seeking a highly capable, experienced and committed individual to join our Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) as an Independent Member. Working with the Chair and other members you will play a key role in assuring MI5’s governance, risk management and financial integrity. Drawing on your professional expertise and experience, you will provide independent insight, challenge assumptions and help ensure MI5 meets the highest standards of accountability and performance.

In addition to the ARAC committee, the successful appointee will also chair both the Pensions Board and Scheme Advisory board. All public service pension schemes are mandated by law to provide for a Pension Board and a Scheme Advisory Board. This role also extends to assuming the role of Chair for these two important boards.

Key Responsibilities

As an Independent Member of ARAC, you will:

• Provide an internal and independent view on the running of the business, including executive performance, ensuring high levels of appropriate accountability and governance best practice.
• Provide independent objective scrutiny of MI5’s governance, risk, and assurance frameworks and the effectiveness of our assurance mechanisms.
• Advise senior officials on the effectiveness of internal controls and audit processes.
• Review internal controls and financial reporting to ensure public funds are used efficiently, transparently, and in alignment with departmental priorities.
• Bring an external perspective to complex challenges, supporting continuous improvement and accountability.

As Chair of the Pension Board, you will be directly responsible for the standards and performance of this board. You will ensure that it fulfils it governance and regulatory role, and you will challenge and support both pension scheme management and scheme administrators in order to provide assurance that scheme members are being efficiently and effectively served.

As Chair of the Scheme Advisory Board, you will work closely with scheme management and the scheme’s technical partners, e.g., scheme actuary, in order to provide advice as to the desirability of making changes to the scheme and on strategic direction in response to the wider pension landscape.

Essential Criteria

We are seeking direct and recent experience of:

• Operating at a senior level in a business, government department or organisation subject to financial and economic regulation.
• Sound understanding of governance, risk management and internal control, underpinned by financial acumen and familiarity with good financial management disciplines including significant experience of assessing and managing risks.
• Experience of engaging with audit processes - both internal and external - and contributing to the development of governance statements and financial reporting will be essential.
• Strong communications skills, including an ability to offer challenge in a constructive, straightforward and open manner.
• An understanding of the wider environment in which MI5 operates, including its current strategic and organisational challenges, as well as the wider challenges faced by the public sector.
• An engaging and collaborative working style which is challenging and constructive, including the ability to contribute and inspire confidence with a wide range of stakeholders.

Desirable:

• Operating as an ARAC Independent Member.
• Experience of the challenges facing public service pension schemes.

Skills and Qualities

• A professional qualification in financial and risk management, or demonstrable relevant experience.
• Have the breadth of vision, and communications skills to both absorb complex issues quickly and offer clear and insightful contributions to strategic discussions.
• Bring a truly independent perspective and original input to ARAC meetings, with demonstrable experience of holding senior leaders to account and offering constructive challenge to strategy, process and practice at a high level.
• Motivated to act in the public interest to make a meaningful contribution to the governance of an organisation of critical national importance.
• Be a calm and considered listener, with an open approach, good emotional intelligence, and the ability to develop effective relationships.
• Enthusiastic, inquisitive and robust, committed to pursuing and exploring all issues relevant to the business and governance of the organisation.

You will be expected to:

• Attend, in person, five ARAC meetings a year and undertake associated preparation, which includes reading time, and on occasion, pre-briefs, to ensure the necessary background and knowledge for full participation in Committee activities. Given the classified nature of the relevant material, any pre-reading or pre-briefs will ordinarily take place in person at our headquarters.
• Attend and chair, in person, at least four Pension Boards a year and undertake associated preparation, which includes reading time, and pre-briefs to ensure the necessary background and knowledge for full participation in Board activities. Given the classified nature of the relevant material, any pre-reading or pre-briefs will ordinarily take place in person at our headquarters.
• Chair the Scheme Advisory Board, which meets on an ad hoc basis, on average once a year.
• Articulate and escalate to the organisation’s senior management the pension boards’ assessment of the major risks facing the pension scheme e.g. attendance of the bi-annual Pension Steering Group.
• Allocate sufficient time to discharge the key responsibilities of the role.
• Complete all mandatory training, including that as prescribed by The Pensions Regulator.
• As necessary, update and refresh your skills, knowledge, and familiarity with MI5’s business, the risks it runs, and the legal framework and ethics with which it must comply. You will be supported with a structured induction on starting in role.
• Avoid or flag potential conflicts of interest and be able to hold Developed Vetting.
• Adhere to, and promote, MI5 values and behaviours.
• Undertake duties in accordance with the Cabinet Office Code of Conduct for Board Members and Governance Code on Public Appointments.

Equal opportunities

At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website.

We’re Disability Confident

MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pension’s Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident Leader, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. This is known as the Offer of an Interview. To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

1. You'll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses criteria important for all roles in our organisation
2. Demonstrate senior leadership skills with expertise in audit processes, governance, risk management, internal controls and financial management – to be assessed at application sift
3. Demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively, provide constructive challenge and build confidence with a wide range of stakeholders – to be assessed at application sift

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, see our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

1. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) in which you rate the appropriateness of responses to a series of short scenarios
2. application sift, looking at your evidence against the essential criteria above and motivation for the role and the organisation
3. if successful, you will receive an invitation to attend an in-person interview
4. if successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, subject to vetting
5. successful completion of vetting
6. final job offer

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 to 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before you apply

To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. You can read our full eligibility criteria here.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. You can find out more about the vetting process here.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more securely.

The role is based in Central London, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application. A loan is available to support people relocating to London.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.

Right to Withdraw Statement:

Please be aware that we reserve the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.