Senior Policy Lead (Strategic Energy Planning)

Energy policy is something that touches on every aspect of our lives – at home, at work and at play. Energy fuels our society and our economy. That’s why our policy work is so important, and so rewarding. It protects consumers. It enables businesses. It influences the entire energy industry. And it helps to bring about the seismic societal and infrastructure changes that will be the foundations for a Net Zero future.

Rising prices and security of supply are challenging all parts of the energy sector to consider how we can collectively ensure that this crucial foundation for our society remains accessible to all. And as well as the complexity of the here and now, we continue to look to the future – ensuring that energy policies support a shift away from fossil fuels and that new, renewable energy sources are identified and developed into viable alternatives. And we are challenging the wholesale energy market to do more to ensure more efficient pricing and a better deal for consumers.

Such challenging times require bold action. We are looking for people to meet the challenges we face head-on, and help us deliver a greener, fairer energy system.

Our policy practice is founded on three pillars: Strategy - ensuring that sound evidence and analysis informs our approach; Democracy - giving confidence that robust governance and accountability supports effective decision-making; and Delivery – effective implementation and delivery systems that see policy impact on practice.

You will be someone who:

• Thrives in an agile fast-paced environment with a proven background of delivering benefits for consumers, communities, or society. We value diversity of experience and you may bring this from a range of places including (but not limited to): strategy development, policy development and regulation analysis, commercial analysis, compliance, financial management, operational delivery and/or risk management
• Is interested in the energy sector, including Ofgem’s role in protecting consumers, controlling prices and stabilizing the energy market
• Champions our culture of inclusion and encourages, supports, and celebrates the diverse voices and experiences of our colleagues, fuelling our innovation and ensuring we best represent the consumers and the communities we serve

Key Responsibilities (Generic)

Policy Development & Delivery

• Proactively leads a policy area and provides the end-to-end knowledge and strategic oversight to support effective decision making and continuous improvement
• Proactively leads continuous development of their domain knowledge, policy proposals, research, technology, consumer needs and stakeholder perspectives in their policy/strategy area
• Works flexibly across Ofgem to ensure delivery of organisation priorities in line with business planning, guiding, supporting, and collaborating with colleagues to respond effectively to change
• Leads on the delivery of high quality, timely, and robust analysis of core issue/s and policy options resulting in evidence-based and deliverable recommendations.
• Leads key projects, including responsibility for internal and external stakeholder engagement, prioritising, planning and delivering work.
• Ensures decision makers consider relevant legislation and regulation and any specific case issues and escalates critical issues as needed to ensue delivery for consumers.

Stakeholder Management

• Effectively communicating the benefits, challenges, and trade-offs from policy proposals to Ofgem colleagues and sectoral stakeholders, effectively using evidence to build understanding and commitment to action.
• Ensures effective delivery by working collaboratively across team boundaries and engaging with key Ofgem functions and relevant government departments - developing close links to manage and mitigate risks
• Representing Ofgem externally and building constructive stakeholder relationships to ensure challenges and issues are identified and resolved in consumers’ interests
• Is demonstrably accessible and identifiable to all who operate in their policy/strategy area as and Ofgem lead/expert and in turn knows who to engage to improve policy design and delivery

Key Responsibilities (Role Specific)

• Lead engagement with NESO on the technical preparation of the SSEP, including development of the analytical methodology, working closely with Ofgem analysts and other experts as required
• Offer advice internally to the team and internal stakeholders on the approach being taken to develop the SSEP, and feedback to NESO where needed to ensure Ofgem’s broad interests are served
• Support linkages between the SSEP and related developments in the UK energy sector, notably the preparation of the Centralised Strategic Network Plan (CSNP) for transmission infrastructure, the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA), and the formation of Regional Energy Strategic Planners (RESP)
• Plan, oversee, and deliver work on time and to a high standard through effective organisation and prioritisation of requests
• Promote knowledge sharing across Ofgem in relation to strategic energy planning
• Take a flexible approach to supporting the broader interests of the strategic planning team

Essential Criteria

• (LEAD) Experience of energy system planning either at the national or subnational level, or experience / understanding of modelling and analysis of energy pathways for decarbonisation to include supply and demand assessments and choices around generation and storage technologies
• Policy Skills: identifying, analysing, and articulating complex problems; working with other professionals (for example analytical, technical, and legal) to develop solutions and options, and presenting policy recommendations that consider the trade-offs, risks, and dependencies to aid effective decision making
• Managing delivery: set clear goals and priorities, supports others to solve problems, overcome challenges, seeking feedback and means of continuous improvement.
• Clearly identifies and communicates the relevance, interdependencies and strategic fit of their work to organisational priorities both internally and externally
• Demonstrably identifies and understands the value/contribution of internal and external partners and effectively creates open, creative, constructive, timely and inclusive engagement

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Please refer to the Candidate Pack and Role Profile attached for full details.