Chief Officer Sovereign Base Areas & Command Secretary British Forces Cyprus

The Chief Officer plays a crucial role in overseeing the civil administration of the Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) and is responsible to the Administrator for the delivery of high-quality civil administration of the SBAs. The SBAs are the only overseas territory administered and funded by the MOD. The Chief Officer is responsible for ensuring their good governance and for the continued effective use of the military bases located there; for the development and maintenance of on-island relationships, including with the Republic of Cyprus, local communities, and with the British High Commission in Nicosia; for protecting the interests of those resident or working in the SBAs through the provision of sound administrative, legislative and policing and other frameworks; and for the administration of the SBA Courts (including support to a Resident Judge seconded from the UK).

The Chief Officer leads a team of 16 UK Based Civilians (UKBCs) and some 360 locally engaged civilians (LECs) including police, customs & immigration and a wide range of other specialist areas. The Chief Officer is ‘double hatted’ as the Command Secretary British Forces Cyprus (BFC) responsible to the Commander British Forces (who is also the Administrator). As Command Secretary, the post-holder provides strategic direction and leadership to a team of 13 UKBCs and some 30 LECs and is responsible for:

• Providing policy and secretariat advice to the Commander British Forces Cyprus;
• Business support and budget management of a BFC/SBAA annual budget of some £210M;
• The delivery of local civilian HR (strategic, policy, processes, transactional, and industrial relations) for some 1400 LEC workforce;
• Internal and external communications.

The Current Responsibilities Of The Role Include:

• Leading the SBAA Administration to deliver the full range of statutory and other civil functions that underpin the sovereignty of the Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) as a British Overseas Territory, including prioritising and commissioning legislation, policing and security, customs and immigration, management and function of the courts, the prison, fiscal processes, environmental protection, regulatory responsibilities, civil resilience and local administration including close oversight of the new ‘local plan’ and business licencing.
• As the Command Secretary British Forces Cyprus (BFC) lead the team and ensure the provision of policy and secretariat advice to the Commander British Forces Cyprus; for business support and budget management of a BFC/SBAA annual budget of some £210M; the delivery of local civilian HR processes.
• Building on an existing programme of modernisation across the breadth of the SBAA including infrastructure, digital, processes and skills, maintaining and building on support from relevant agencies in the UK. This includes prison reform, a new police IT system, the introduction of probation and modernised ‘place-making’ services.
• Ensuring the SBAs offer UK Defence maximum freedom of manoeuvre now and in the future, partnering with the British High Commission and liaising with the UK MOD to ensure military operations comply with SBAA requirements and SBAA equities are protected in bilateral and international fora.
• Establishing and maintaining strong and effective working relationships with the RoC government, Cypriot community leaders and other key senior stakeholders on island.
• Deliver positive outcomes for the communities and promote a positive reputation for the SBAA/BFC and the MOD to enable the effective and uninterrupted operation of the UK’s military bases and strategic assets.
• Lead a comprehensive risk management process to identify, mitigate and monitor the risk inherent in the complex relationships across BFC/SBAA, as well as wider continuous improvement of BFC/SBAA processes in line with best practice.

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their experience and skills against the following essential criteria:

• Extensive stakeholder management experience with the ability to engage with a diverse set of stakeholders to reach consensus.
• Strong and inspiring leadership skill with experience managing large geographically dispersed teams.
• Confident communicating and influencing at a strategic political and international level.
• Experience of implementing policies and strategies, using an evidence-based approach to evaluate a full range of options comprehending their impacts and delivering the right solution.
• Experienced at working in ambiguity with the ability to make effective decisions under pressure.
• Ability to lead a dynamic reform agenda in line with strategic direction from government.
• Candidates will require a full driving licence.

Desirable Criteria May Be Used In The Event Of a Strong Field Of Candidates When There Is a Need To Distinguish Between Candidates. This Will Be As a Second Sift, After The Essential Criteria Has Been Considered:

• An understanding of military relationships, or a prior working relationship with the military.
• An understanding of MOD-FCDO relationships, or a prior working relationship with the FCDO.
• Programme management experience or understanding of HR processes would be of benefit.
• An understanding/prior experience of Home Office policy and the UK criminal justice system.
• Good financial management of sizeable budgets and financial programming; provision of sound financial advice and assurance to senior leaders.

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Learning and development tailored to your role. An environment with flexible working options. A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity. A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process accessed via the advertisement listed for this role. This should be completed no later than 23:55 Sunday 29 June 2025 and will involve providing the two documents outlined below via the Civil Service Jobs portal:

• A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
• A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role.

Both documents are weighted equally in their scoring, so it's important to consider this when uploading your application. Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

We understand that you might use AI and other resources for your application; however, please ensure all information you provide is factually accurate, truthful, and original and doesn’t include ideas or work that isn’t your own. This is so that your application is authentically and credibly your own.

External candidates who join the MOD and are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks.

Open to UK nationals only.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.