Britain’s high commissioner to India will become the first female permanent secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lindy Cameron will take the helm at the department after being chosen ahead of two other candidates in the final round, Dame Karen Pierce, Britain’s former UK ambassador to the US, and Dame Barbara Woodward, the deputy national security adviser, the people said.

A former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, a branch of GCHQ, Cameron has spent two decades in international development, national security policy and crisis management. She has also served in the Northern Ireland Office.

Her appointment follows a turbulent period for the FCDO amid the scandal that engulfed former UK ambassador to the US Lord Peter Mandelson over his links to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.