Ministry of Justice

Head of Director’s Office

G7

Civil, Family, Tribunals and Administration of Justice

The Civil, Family, Tribunals and Administration of Justice (CFTAJ) Directorate is recruiting permanently for Grade 7 Head of Director’s Office. This campaign is open to current civil servants on level transfer and suitable candidates on promotion

Location:

Due to the nature of the role, the successful candidate will be based at 102 Petty France, London. Occasional travel between the London (base location) and 5 Wellington Place Leeds office will be required. While flexible working is supported, the successful candidate will need to ensure that in person support is available in the office on a routine basis to meet the needs of the Director.

Ways of Working

At the MoJ we believe and promote alternative ways of working, these roles are available as:

• Full-time, part-time or the option to job share
• Flexible working patterns
• Flexible working arrangements between base locations, MoJ Hubs and home.

We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity

Salary

Existing Civil Servants will have their salary calculated in accordance with the Department’s pay on transfer / pay on promotion rules.  

Security Clearance

This role requires National Security Vetting given the access to sensitive information afforded by the job role.  You can find more information by reviewing the information held in the following links:

United Kingdom Security Vetting: Applicant - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The vetting charter - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

In addition, there is a minimum UK residency requirement set by the Cabinet Office which is dependent on the security level required for the role.

This role requires SC and to be eligible to apply for this role you should have been present in the UK continuously for the past 3 years.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MoJ is the largest government department, employing over 90,000 people with a budget of approximately £10 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including at 500 courts and tribunals, and 133 prisons in England and Wales.

Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice.

The Work of Civil, Family, Tribunals and Administration of Justice Directorate

The CFTAJ Directorate sits within the MoJ’s Policy Group and is responsible for wide-ranging policy areas that include the Civil Courts, its procedures and rules, as well as civil law itself. The Directorate is also responsible for court fees and Tribunals, death management, Coroners and inquests, including funeral sector regulation, digital justice and irregular migration. Family justice policy and system improvement also sit within the Directorate.

Head of Director’s Office

The Head of the Director’s Office is a busy and varied role, focussing on delivering the Director’s priorities and overseeing the corporate activities and business management of the Directorate.

The successful candidate must have a passion for and track record of excellent service delivery, outstanding relationship management skills and excellent planning and organisational skills. You will be comfortable managing your own workload while enjoying leading a wider team. You will make an important contribution in making CFTAJ a great place to work and will have a keen willingness and confidence to serve as an ambassador for the Director and the directorate.

This role requires developing a close and trusted working relationship with the Director and their senior management team (SMT). You must also show an ability to develop strong connections with colleagues across the directorate, central corporate functions, the MoJ and arm’s length bodies more broadly.

You will oversee the delivery of business support functions and will be responsible for the management and continuous improvement of the directorate’s systems and processes. These will include supporting the Director in their policy and leadership roles, assisting the senior leadership team in delivering its responsibilities and oversight of corporate workstreams such as finance, workforce and business continuity. You will also lead a team of one SEO and three EOs, ensuring they are supported in their corporate roles and helping in their own professional development.  

The successful candidate will need to be dynamic and adaptable, with the ability to prioritise across a broad range of areas. You will regularly use your judgement and initiative to identify solutions to knotty issues and address risks early on. You will build a sound understanding of the directorate’s business and its priorities, and confidently handle routine queries and request commissions on behalf of the director and SMT.    

You will be close to the action and will have access to sensitive information, so you – and your team - must also be discreet and respect privileged information. 

Your responsibilities will include: 

• Leading the Director’s office, ensuring the right systems and support are in place to allow the director to focus on the right policy and business priorities, while providing strong leadership for the directorate.  Key to the role is anticipating issues and pre-emptively sorting out problems before they arise. 
• Managing corporate commissions and directorate communications. 
• Managing the directorate’s SMT meetings and structures including planning and arranging the agenda so it is focused on the right urgent and/or important priorities for the short- and long-term issues.
• Lead all major corporate priorities for the Director. You will be expected to chair the monthly directorate wide meetings and directorate wide ‘away days’.
• Oversight of the directorate’s finance and workforce information, drawing data from a variety of sources to assist the SMT in effectively managing the directorate’s resources and workforce. 
• Oversight of directorate-wide corporate returns. 
• Building strong networks with MoJ’s central functions, Private Office and arm’s length bodies (including Finance, HR and the Policy Group corporate team) and acting as an interface between them and the directorate.  
• Line management of the Director’s business manager, who by extension manages three executive assistants. The executive assistants are responsible for the Director and Deputy Directors’ diaries and who have their own corporate responsibilities, which you will be expected to oversee.

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• A passion for excellent service delivery and continuous improvement. 
• Strong organisational, leadership and motivational skills. 
• Confident building strong personal relationships across a large and complex organisation, including with senior civil servants. 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills. 
• An eye for detail and an ability to work at pace calmly.
• Line management experience.   

Desirable:

• Private Office experience.
• Budget and resource management experience.  
• Knowledge of the justice system.

Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.

The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.

You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application, including your CV, statement of suitability and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

Experience

You will be asked to provide a CV during the application process in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.

You will also be asked to upload a Statement of Suitability of no more than 750 words stating what you would bring to the role, with reference to the Skills and Experience listed above.

Behaviours

During the application process you will be asked to provide an example of how you have met the following behaviours (see Annex A for more information):

• Communicating & Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf

Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the statement of suitability. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths.

Candidates invited to Interview

Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely/in person at 102 Petty France.

During the panel interview, you will be asked behaviour-based questions to explore in detail what you are capable of, and strengths-based questions to also explore what you enjoy, and your motivations relevant to the job role.  

In addition to the Behaviour(s) listed in the application form, you will be asked by the interview panel to provide examples of how you meet the additional behaviours listed below: 

• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

There is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well.

You can refer to the CS Strengths dictionary for more details:  Success Profiles - Civil Service Strengths Dictionary (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Interviews are expected to take place February 2026.

Contact information  

Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team:  Rawfiah Choudry, email: Rawfiah.Choudry@justice.gov.uk

Annex A - The STAR method

Using the STAR method can help you give examples of relevant experience that you have. It allows you to set the scene, show what you did, and how you did it, and explain the overall outcome.

Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

• Where are you?
• Who was there with you?
• What had happened?

Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

• What was the task that you had to complete and why?
• What did you have to achieve?

Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information on what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I” rather than “we” to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit for something that you did not do.

Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures. Explain how the outcome benefitted the organisation or your area. Make the outcomes easily understandable.

• What results did the actions produce?
• What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?
• Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.