Deputy Director, Government Incident Reporting Ops

Role Purpose The Deputy Director (DD), Government Incident Reporting Ops, leads a high-performing operational team responsible for centralizing, assessing, and managing the full spectrum of Whole-of-Government (WOG) incident reports across all Singapore Government agencies. The scope of coverage is multi-disciplinary, encompassing cybersecurity/data incidents, physical security breaches, public-facing service disruptions, and general operational failures. The DD ensures swift severity assessment, accurate fact-gathering, and seamless leadership escalation, while driving a WOG continuous learning culture to prevent systemic recurrence. Key Responsibilities Multi-Domain Operational Leadership • Lead daily operations for the WOG Incident Reporting framework, ensuring all submissions across cyber, physical, and operational domains are triaged and validated accurately. • Demonstrate sharp acumen to make critical judgment calls on complex, multi-domain incidents, ensuring appropriate escalation and containment strategies are triggered according to SOPs. • Review and refine high-quality, high-stakes incident summaries and assessments for senior leadership presentation under tight timelines. Process Optimization & Culture Building • Drive continuous improvement initiatives to streamline the reporting workflow, leveraging technology to make reporting frictionless and encourage timely submissions from all agencies. • Foster a "Just Culture" across the public service, prioritizing psychological safety so agencies report incidents transparently without fear of blame. WOG Knowledge Management & Continuous Learning • Transform diverse incident data into actionable insights, identifying trends and cross-domain vulnerabilities. • Develop effective mechanisms (e.g., cross-agency sharing sessions, post-incident reviews, systemic playbooks) to ensure lessons are institutionalized WOG. Talent Development • Mentor and develop team officers, uplifting their technical literacy across different incident domains and honing their analytical capabilities. Requirements & Qualifications Technical & Domain Knowledge (Critical) • Cross-Domain Literacy: Strong foundational knowledge across IT infrastructure, Cybersecurity operations, and Physical Security frameworks. Must be able to speak the language of both tech engineers and physical security teams. • Incident Triage Expertise: Familiarity with incident classification models, threat landscapes, and standard risk matrix frameworks across both digital and physical environments. Professional Experience • Experience in Large-Scale Operations: At least 8 years of professional experience managing complex operations, incident response, crisis management, or operational risk. • Organizational Scale: Proven track record of navigating and operating effectively within large, complex organizations (e.g., Multi-National Corporations (MNCs), major financial institutions, critical infrastructure operators, or public sector agencies). • Stakeholder Management: Demonstrated ability to manage diverse, high-level stakeholders and navigate matrixed organizational structures or multi-party ecosystems. • Public Sector Familiarity (Preferred but not mandatory): Prior experience within the Singapore Public Service, or a strong conceptual understanding of Whole-of-Government (WOG) governance structures and inter-agency dynamics, is highly advantageous. Private sector candidates with a strong adaptability to public sector governance are welcome to apply. • Process Improvement: Experience in operations design or process optimization (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma, Agile) to simplify reporting workflows and drive efficiency. Critical Skills & Competencies • Executive Communication: Exceptional command of written and spoken English. Ability to translate highly technical, ambiguous, or complex incidents (like a zero-day exploit or a complex supply-chain failure) into concise, plain-language briefs for senior management. • High-Stakes Diplomacy: Ability to manage sensitive conversations with senior agency leaders, challenging an agency’s self-assessment firmly but tactfully to ensure proper treatment. • Data Analytics & Pattern Recognition: Ability to look beyond individual incidents to identify systemic clusters or root causes across the government ecosystem. Key Personal Attributes • Mental Agility & Resilience: Thrives in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment where variables change rapidly during concurrent crises. • Emotional Intelligence (EQ): Essential for building trust with stressed reportees during an ongoing incident. • Uncompromising Integrity: Absolute discretion in handling highly sensitive, restricted, or politically charged information.