Location
City of Westminster
Hours
Minimum 30 hours per week over a 4 day period. Part-time or compressed working patterns are welcomed.
Salary
£44,305 per annum plus £12,835 employer contribution towards the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
About the Role
The Risk and Issue Manager is a key role within the Department for Education’s Central Risk Team, supporting senior leaders and governance forums with high-quality, evidence-based insight on departmental risks and issues. Operating as a second-line function, this role focuses on assurance, coordination, and continuous improvement rather than direct ownership of risk mitigations. The postholder will ensure that risk information is robust, consistent, and decision-ready, enabling effective governance and strategic decision-making.
You will work across directorates, portfolios, and Arm’s Length Bodies to embed the Departmental Risk Framework, improve risk maturity, and strengthen the use of data and insight in understanding risk exposure. The role requires collaboration, constructive challenge, and the ability to communicate complex information clearly to a range of audiences.
This is an opportunity to contribute to a strong risk-aware culture, enhance departmental capability, and support the continuous improvement of risk tools, reporting, and processes.
Key Responsibilities include:
- Producing high-quality risk reports with insightful commentary and analysis
- Analysing risk exposure, controls, and mitigation effectiveness
- Aggregating risks across portfolios to provide a holistic departmental risk profile
- Supporting application of risk appetite and tolerance in decision-making
- Contributing to assurance activities and second-line oversight
- Supporting development and enhancement of risk management tools and systems
- Using data insights and feedback to improve reporting and usability
- Identifying opportunities for automation and efficiency improvements
- Providing expert guidance on risk identification, assessment, and management
- Supporting improvements in organisational risk maturity
- Contributing to training, guidance, and learning activities
- Promoting consistent risk management practices and understanding
- Building strong relationships across directorates, projects, and Arm’s Length Bodies
- Providing expert advice to senior stakeholders and governance forums
- Supporting collaboration across the departmental risk community
- Translating risk frameworks into practical guidance for stakeholders
- Supporting embedding of the Departmental Risk Framework across the organisation
- Coordinating production of departmental risk registers and governance reporting
- Providing second-line challenge to improve the quality and consistency of risk and issue information
- Ensuring risk management is integrated with governance, planning, and performance processes
This role aligns with Level Three of the Risk Management Skills and Capabilities Framework V1.0 and Risks and Issues Manager SEO - Government Project Delivery.
Experience
- Experience of risk and issue management in a project, programme, or organisational context
- Experience of analysing and presenting complex information to support decision-making
- Experience producing high-quality reports and insights for senior stakeholders
- Experience of engaging and working with stakeholders across teams or functions
- Ability to provide constructive challenge and improve quality of information
- Good understanding of governance processes and decision-making structures
- Ability to work collaboratively across multiple teams and functions
- Commitment to continuous improvement and enhancing organisational capability
About you
Collaborative and confident in providing expert advice and constructive challenge. You communicate complex risk information clearly to diverse audiences and are committed to fostering a strong risk-aware culture. You are motivated to support continuous improvement and capability building within the organisation.
Qualifications
Desirable but not essential:
- Knowledge of government risk frameworks at Practitioner Level (e.g. Orange Book) or similar enterprise risk frameworks
- Experience working within a central or second-line assurance function
- Familiarity with digital risk tools, data systems, or reporting platforms
- Experience with PowerBI
- Experience contributing to training, capability-building, or organisational change initiatives
- Understanding of project delivery or portfolio management environments