Programme Secretariat & Reporting Lead - UKIFS

Join one of the UK’s most ambitious infrastructure programmes and play a central role in shaping its governance and strategic decision-making.

As Programme Secretariat and Reporting Lead, you’ll be at the heart of the STEP Programme’s governance ecosystem, acting as the key interface between STEP and the UKIFS Executive Office. This high-profile role demands exceptional judgement, discretion, and the ability to influence senior stakeholders across government, industry, and academia.

What You’ll Be Doing:

You’ll lead the coordination of governance operations, ensuring STEP’s decision-making forums are strategically aligned and professionally executed. From Board and Executive meetings to programme-level governance, you’ll ensure these forums deliver real value, accountability, and assurance.

Working closely with the Head of Programme Governance and Reporting and the UKIFS Executive Office Lead, you’ll help define and uphold the standards that underpin effective governance across a complex, multi-partner environment.

Key Responsibilities:

Governance & Executive Interface

• Lead governance operations across STEP, aligning programme forums with UKIFS Executive and Board structures.
• Act as the primary liaison with the Executive Office, ensuring governance cycles and reporting rhythms are integrated and strategic.
• Provide expert secretariat support to the STEP Board, subcommittees, and strategic groups.

Reporting Leadership

• Own the delivery of high-quality reporting products that inform senior decision-making.
• Ensure outputs are accurate, timely, and strategically aligned to support risk management and performance oversight.
• Shape reporting standards and drive continuous improvement in how insights are communicated.

Secretariat Excellence

• Draft and assure minutes, decision records, and action logs for senior meetings.
• Maintain governance registers and decision-tracking systems to ensure accountability and audit readiness.

Governance Assurance & Optimisation

• Lead initiatives to improve governance processes, templates, and standards.
• Support internal and external assurance reviews and promote best practice across the programme.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across UKIFS, UKAEA, DESNZ, NISTA, and industry partners.
• Coordinate briefing materials for external stakeholders, including Ministers and senior officials.
• Translate complex information into clear, decision-ready outputs for diverse audiences.

Leadership & Culture

• Embody a leadership mindset and uphold the organisation’s values and mission.
• Foster a positive, inclusive team culture and promote responsible innovation.
• Demonstrate the Seven Principles of Public Life in all aspects of your work.

What You’ll Bring

• Proven experience in governance, reporting, or executive-level coordination within complex programmes.
• Strong strategic awareness and the ability to manage sensitive information flows.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence at senior levels.
• A commitment to high standards, transparency, and continuous improvement.

The above is not intended to be an exhaustive list of activities and you may be required to undertake other reasonable tasks or duties requested.

Essential:

• Degree in a relevant discipline (or equivalent experience).
• Proven experience providing high-quality secretariat or governance support in a complex programme, corporate, or public sector environment.
• Strong understanding of formal governance structures, decision-making processes, and assurance mechanisms.
• Exceptional organisational and coordination skills, with the ability to manage multiple high-stakes forums simultaneously.
• Excellent written communication skills, with a track record of producing clear, concise, and accurate minutes, reports, and decision records.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to operate with credibility and influence at senior levels.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook), with experience using SharePoint or similar collaboration platforms.

Beneficial:

• Experience in infrastructure, energy, public sector, or R&D environments.
• Familiarity with government governance and reporting frameworks, including Cabinet Office and sponsor department protocols.
• Experience supporting board-level or multi-partner decision-making forums.
• Exposure to business intelligence or programme reporting tools (e.g. Power BI).
• A relevant qualification in business administration, programme governance, or secretariat practice (e.g. ICSA, APMG P3O, APM PFQ/PMQ).

We welcome talented people from all backgrounds who want to help us achieve our mission. We encourage applications from under-represented groups, particularly from women in STEM, ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and neurotypical individuals. Our Executive team, and our EDI Networks actively promote Inclusion and takes steps to increase diversity within our organisation. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open-source data.

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.

We have a number of exceptional opportunities available at the moment, to view them all please visit Careers - STEP.