JOB SUMMARY

It is a particularly exciting time to join the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The CMA’s mission is to make markets work well for consumers, businesses, and the UK economy.
A strong understanding of firms’ and investors’ strategies and business models is vital to our work and we are taking steps to deepen our capability in this area. This is an important element of our wider build out of a world-leading strategic insight and analytics capability within a regulatory body, which has already involved establishing a new Executive Directorate for Data, Technology and Insight (DTI), bringing together an exciting mix of complementary skills and expertise in areas such as strategic analysis, data analytics, and artificial intelligence.
We have begun to build out a new ‘strategic business analysis’ capability to deepen our understanding of firms’ strategies and business models, including in relation to AI and ‘digital ecosystems’. Bringing the voice and perspective of businesses and investors directly into our work is vital to helping create the conditions for innovation, investment and growth in the UK.
As a key part of this, we are looking to hire one or more Assistant Directors with the skills and drive to develop this capability and deliver our organisational ambition in this space. This is an exciting opportunity to spearhead the establishment of an innovative new capability and shape our wider organisational thinking and approach. You will build out our capability and capacity in strategic business analysis, delivering robust insight at pace.
Your input will shape the CMA’s work and thinking upstream through proactive research as well as on a wide range of live cases and investigations, including complex digital cases. You will draw on a sophisticated, real-world understanding of how businesses and investors operate, as well as an ambition and ability to develop and exploit cutting-edge interdisciplinary approaches to deepen and expedite our insight.
You can read more about the CMA and the work that we do in our Candidate Information Pack.

JOB DESCRIPTION

You will play a key role in building out our new strategic business analysis team within our existing Strategic, Business, and Financial analysis (SBFA) unit in DTI, ensuring we bolster our expertise and capability in this vital area. Working closely with frontline colleagues and other internal experts, you will work to amplify our impact through enhanced, forward-looking insight in relation to firms’ strategies and business models, including their development and deployment of technology such as AI and ‘digital ecosystem’ strategies. Together with colleagues from other analytical areas, you will draw out the implications for consumers, competition, innovation, investment and growth.

Responsibilities will vary across projects and cases, but will typically include:

• Strategic business analysis: Understanding how firms and markets currently operate and how this could evolve in the future. You will gather relevant information, analyse and advise upon the implications of a broad range of strategic and business issues as they relate to the firms we investigate – e.g. digital platforms, and fast-evolving markets like Artificial Intelligence. This could include:
• Ecosystem: trends/ disruptive forces, competitive analysis, systems thinking, profit pools
• Business and investors: business model, strategy, sources of competitive advantage, incentives, “playbook”, funding model
• Future: strategic options, industry scenarios and drivers
• Helping build a new function entrepreneurially: supporting the creation of a world-leading function specialising in strategic analysis, engaging colleagues and stakeholders effectively, identifying scope to generate value through impactful strategic insights and analysis across the waterfront of CMA work, from horizon scanning through to live cases and investigations, including complex digital cases.
• Developing and refining our approach: Working closely with the SBFA leadership team, you will identify and explore effective improvements in approach to maximise the value of the new function. This might include identifying different assessment frameworks, prioritisation strategies, supporting technologies, or delivery routes.
• Leading and managing: To lead, motivate and manage multi-disciplinary professional teams, including setting stretching but achievable deadlines and priorities and fostering effective and collaborative team working.
• Problem-solving, using a hypothesis-driven approach, sound analytical skills and good judgement to identify the scope for impactful strategic insight and analysis, and deliver this effectively.
• Communicating effectively: Through presentations and written reports, communicating findings from your analysis, and articulating clearly the implications for a project or case. Audiences will include senior decision makers, other colleagues and a wide range of external stakeholders and experts.
• Team working: You will be a committed and highly respected member of multi-disciplinary project teams, working collaboratively and contributing to wider work and discussions in order to help inform conclusions beyond your own analysis.

You will also be involved in leading corporate contributions such as providing input to or delivering projects that seek to improve the CMA’s impact as a whole (e.g. risk monitoring, improving processes, promoting inclusion and diversity).

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

TYPE OF ROLE

Analytical
Policy
Project Delivery
Senior leadership
Strategy

Responsibilities will vary across projects and cases, but will typically include:

• Strategic business analysis: Understanding how firms and markets currently operate and how this could evolve in the future. You will gather relevant information, analyse and advise upon the implications of a broad range of strategic and business issues as they relate to the firms we investigate – e.g. digital platforms, and fast-evolving markets like Artificial Intelligence. This could include:
• Ecosystem: trends/ disruptive forces, competitive analysis, systems thinking, profit pools
• Business and investors: business model, strategy, sources of competitive advantage, incentives, “playbook”, funding model
• Future: strategic options, industry scenarios and drivers
• Helping build a new function entrepreneurially: supporting the creation of a world-leading function specialising in strategic analysis, engaging colleagues and stakeholders effectively, identifying scope to generate value through impactful strategic insights and analysis across the waterfront of CMA work, from horizon scanning through to live cases and investigations, including complex digital cases.
• Developing and refining our approach: Working closely with the SBFA leadership team, you will identify and explore effective improvements in approach to maximise the value of the new function. This might include identifying different assessment frameworks, prioritisation strategies, supporting technologies, or delivery routes.
• Leading and managing: To lead, motivate and manage multi-disciplinary professional teams, including setting stretching but achievable deadlines and priorities and fostering effective and collaborative team working.
• Problem-solving, using a hypothesis-driven approach, sound analytical skills and good judgement to identify the scope for impactful strategic insight and analysis, and deliver this effectively.
• Communicating effectively: Through presentations and written reports, communicating findings from your analysis, and articulating clearly the implications for a project or case. Audiences will include senior decision makers, other colleagues and a wide range of external stakeholders and experts.
• Team working: You will be a committed and highly respected member of multi-disciplinary project teams, working collaboratively and contributing to wider work and discussions in order to help inform conclusions beyond your own analysis