Chief of Staff

at  Department for Work and Pensions

JOB SUMMARY

This role presents an opportunity to work at the heart of government, in a large and complex department you will be advising and supporting the Permanent Secretary and wider Executive Team in their oversight of the department and delivery of the four key outcome pillars. This is a key leadership role for the department and works closely with the Permanent Secretary, as their Chief of Staff, ensuring delivery of priority cross-cutting work across the department as well as having accountability for the Departmental Governance and Legislation Division.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Accountabilities of the post holder and division include:

• Running the Permanent Secretary’s office to communicate and deliver their objectives and drive outcomes across the department, working with senior colleagues to enable the effectiveness and smooth running to the department
• Manage the Permanent Secretary’s private office and ensure effectiveness of day-to-day support for the Permanent Secretary
• Working closely with ministerial teams, you will take a lead role in driving forward key priorities across the department using sound judgement and understanding to add value to the process and substance of decision making across DWP
• Leading the governance team and working with the Strategy Director to ensure an excellent service to the Executive Team and their Committees, and the Departmental Board, providing advice and support to both the Permanent Secretary, lead non-Executive Director and ministerial teams.

STRONG PEOPLE LEADERSHIP SKILLS:

• An inspirational leader with a flair for engaging people making the complex issues simple and compelling whilst effectively influencing decisions
• Provide visible, positive, and collaborative leadership, whilst motivating and engaging a large diverse directorate across multiple locations
• Able to build capable, inclusive, and high performing teams
• Makes a full contribution to the wider leadership team

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) (opens in a new window)
• 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 (opens in a new window)

YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR:

• Recruiting and supporting Non-Executives to optimise their expertise
• Leading the department’s primary and secondary legislation agenda, overseeing the Department’s better regulation agenda
• Supporting the DG Parliamentary Champion in their role, coordinating the Parliamentary Steering Group, and leading on parliamentary capability building across the Department
• Supporting the Permanent Secretary in meeting his obligations as Accounting Officer, and overseeing Propriety and Ethics.

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA FOR THE ROLE WHICH WILL BE USED TO ASSESS YOUR APPLICATION, ALONGSIDE SUCCESS PROFILES:

• Experience of working in policy roles and familiarity working in a political environment as well as experience and understanding of large complex organisations
• Highly developed interpersonal and influencing skills, with the ability to establish credibility and trust quickly with a large and diverse network of senior leaders up to board and/or Ministers (or equivalent) level
• Deliver results at pace, handle uncertainty and demonstrate exceptional judgement in a complex environment

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS ROLE AND THE APPLICATION PROCESS, PLEASE SEE THE CANDIDATE PACK ATTACHED TO THE ADVERT.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.
As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.