JOB SUMMARY

The Culture Directorate aims to promote and protect the long-term resilience of our nation’s best cultural and historic assets to ensure they are made available to the widest possible audience. The Directorate comprises of policy teams working across:

• Arts & Libraries
• Museums and Cultural Property
• Cultural Funding and Regions including City of Culture

The Creative Industries & AI Directorate aims to support and promote growth in the creative industries across the country, and to realise and maximise the cultural, social and economic benefits these sectors bring. The Directorate comprises of policy teams working across:

• Creative Industries
• Artificial Intelligence

Both Directorates are supported by a team of analysts. We achieve our aims by:

• Overseeing the work of public bodies (Arms Length Bodies), tasked with supporting and developing the long term resilience of our sectors
• Finding ways to support our sectors
• Delivering our own projects and programmes
• Working with partners around Whitehall to promote the value of our sectors and encourage their growth

JOB DESCRIPTION

We are recruiting two Private Secretary posts to support the:

• Culture Director
• Creative Industries & Artificial Intelligence Director

The role of Private Secretary is pivotal in ensuring the efficient operation of a directorate and the effective management of senior priorities. As the interface between your Director, the rest of DCMS and various stakeholders, the Private Secretary facilitates seamless communication and coordination, enabling senior leaders to focus on strategic decision-making and organisational priorities.
Applicants will be considered for both roles but can indicate a preference.

Each role will consist of:

• Stakeholder Engagement: Acting as a key liaison between the Director’s Office and internal/external stakeholders, ensuring effective communication and collaboration.
• Team Leadership: Line managing a small executive support team, and fostering a positive and productive team environment.
• Business Planning Support: Coordinating the Director’s input to the business planning process, ensuring timely execution and successful outcomes.

Organisational Prioritisation: Overseeing information management and prioritisation within the Director’s Office for accuracy and accessibility.

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Strong interpersonal skills, capable of building and maintaining relationships in high-pressure contexts;
• Sound judgement and a proactive approach to tasks and challenges, capable of working independently and with spreadsheets;
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively within a dynamic team environment, often meeting tight deadlines to achieve shared objectives;
• Strong management skills, capable of delivering projects efficiently and developing a supportive and inclusive team environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a keen attention to detail.

DESIRABLE SKILLS:

• Business management experience
• Line management experience

We are running an information session where prospective applicants can find out more about the role. This will be hosted by Greg Forrest and Lydia Jacobs, and will take place on:

• 13:30-14:30, Monday 18th August 2025

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the roles, the team, wider directorates and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.
Please register your interest by filling out this Registration form by 23:55 on Sunday, 17th August and you will be sent an invitation.
Please note that the session will not be recorded and will not focus on the DCMS recruitment process - please direct any queries that you have on this topic (timelines, reasonable adjustments, onboarding etc) to recruitment.team@dcms.gov.uk.

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)
• 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

Each role will consist of:

• Stakeholder Engagement: Acting as a key liaison between the Director’s Office and internal/external stakeholders, ensuring effective communication and collaboration.
• Team Leadership: Line managing a small executive support team, and fostering a positive and productive team environment.
• Business Planning Support: Coordinating the Director’s input to the business planning process, ensuring timely execution and successful outcomes

To apply for this vacancy, you will need to submit the following documents which will assessed against the experience success profile:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential and desirable criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages and you should insert your CV into the “Job History” section on the Civil Service Jobs application form.
• A Statement of Suitability (max 500 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential requirements highlighted. You may also choose to reference the desirable skills listed however these will not be considered in the assessment of your application except in circumstances where there are a high number and calibre of candidates