Permanent position
Remuneration: £180,000 to £200,062.00 (depending upon experience)
Applicants should note that the Authority will be undertaking a Gold Book salary benchmarking exercise commencing in Q3 2024.
Location: Based at our Service Headquarters in Birmingham

This is an exciting and rewarding opportunity for a highly motivated and experienced strategic leader to lead one of the country's biggest and most progressive Fire and Rescue Services.

West Midlands Fire Service is seeking to appoint a permanent Chief Fire Officer or Chief Executive Officer to provide strategic vision and leadership for the service, developing and embedding a culture of excellence and continuous improvement. A strategic thinker and team-builder, with a focus on people, you will have the ability to apply innovative approaches to meet the challenges of a transformational Fire and Rescue Service.

Through your proven ability to lead at Chief Executive level, you will provide strategic choices for the Fire Authority, to ensure we maintain and build upon our excellent track record, and continue to improve the safety and protection of the 2.9 million residents of the West Midlands. You will demonstrate significant commitment to our people promises and have deep understanding of good governance principles.

You will also be cognisant of the specific challenges facing the service, and the sector, and use your collaborative leadership style, emotional intelligence and well-honed communication skills to support and inspire our people to be the best they can be. Engaging effectively will come naturally to you, be it with peers, employees, Fire Authority Members, trade unions and representative bodies, external agencies or partners.

There are also tough financial, cultural and operational challenges facing the fire sector as a whole, and West Midlands Fire Service will need to continue to adapt to the demands that this brings. With the need for ongoing change to drive efficiency and productivity, you will demonstrate a track record of positively driving transformation in a large, diverse organisation.

This role is open to those with experience at CFO/CEO, DCFO/CCO level both within the Fire Service and further afield. In either case, you will have proven ability to work successfully with multi-agency groups. With an inclusive, proactive style you will be able to take responsibility for decisions about major and risk critical issues. Those applying as Chief Fire Officers will be required to provide evidence of performance at Incident Command Level 4. Those applying as Chief Executive Officers will be expected to complete relevant incident command and other sector-specific training (MAGIC and Level 7 Skills for Justice) within six months of appointment.

For further information about West Midlands Fire Service please visit www.wmfs.net.

The closing date for applications is 23:59 on Sunday 29 September 2024. 

In order to apply, please visit our recruitment partner’s website by clicking Apply If you have any questions about the role itself or would like to discuss the post and your fit within the organisation, please contact Duncan Collins at GatenbySanderson on 07586 705475.

To apply please click the Apply Now link below.