The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has finally published a job advertisement for the newly created National Armaments Director (NAD) role, with its scope not excluding non-UK application from the role, including Commonwealth, European Union (EU), and Turkish nationals.
In a UK Civil Service job posting, it was stated that the NAD role will “lead the MoD” alongside the Permanent Secretray, the Chief of the Defence Staff, and the Chief of Defence Nuclear, delivering the defence industrial strategy, leading reformation, and security “standardisation in Nato and across allies to achieve interoperability”.
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The post of an MoD NAD was first unveiled by UK Defence Secretary John Healey at an Institute for Government press briefing in February 2025, where he announced the role would be responsible for more than £20bn ($25.9bn) in the defence procurement portfolio.
Speaking at the time, Healey said the NAD would be tasked with “fixing procurement and driving growth”.
However, Healey admitted that the MoD could not pay the same rate to the NAD as would be available in the private sector, instead calling to patriotic duty and pride in national defence industrial renewal.
Job specs: UK National Armaments Director
The newly published job advertisement indicates a salary of £290,000 – £400,000. A Civil Service pension is also offered, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
The NAD role also offers an annual bonus of up to 60% of the salary. At the top end, this could offer an annual salary with bonus of £640,000.
In addition, the role is also open to range of non-UK nationals from within the European Union who have either settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), or those who have made a “valid application” for the EUSS.
Recruitment would also consider applications from Republic of Ireland nationals and those from Commonwealth countries who have a right to work in the UK. The job outline added that Turkish nationals, “and certain family members of Turkish nationals”, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service could apply.
The UK recently announced that it would increase defence spending up to 2.6% as a proportion of its GDP, up from around 2.2% currently, paid for through a cut in overseas aid and the bringing into the MoD budget of the Single Intelligence Account, which pays for the operations of MI5, MI6, and GCHQ.
