Chief of Staff
Location: National*
Closing Date: 8th April
Interviews: w/c 27th April
Grade: G6
(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)
Salary: £75,674 - £85,257 (London); £71,381 - £80,419 (National)
Working pattern: Full time, Part time, Flexible working
Contract Type: Permanent
Number of roles available: 4
*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP
We’re recruiting for four Chiefs of Staff here at MoJ, for the Justice Digital, Data and Science area. Supporting the Office of the Chief Digital and Information Officer, Office of the Chief Technology Officer Technology Services and Data and Science business areas.
The Chief of Staff is key in managing and developing strategic relationships between the different Directorates in Justice Digital and key stakeholders across the MoJ, including the office of the Director General - Service Delivery Transformation, as well as senior teams across the 4 key agencies in the department - His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), Legal Aid Agency (LAA), Criminal Injury Compensation Authority (CICA) and the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). The Chief of Staff will also support wider engagement across CDDO colleagues and government.
Representing the Director, the Chief of Staff drives forward their priorities, working closely with the Senior Management Team to contribute to and help drive successful outcomes. This post holder requires an outward-facing, engaged and authoritative style for the Director’s office to support and amplify key messages and priorities.
Objectives of this role:
Oversee strategic business initiatives, from development through successful execution, under the guidance of senior leadership
Assist and communicate with executives in decision-making, program management, and initiative implementation
Review, design, and execute improvements to organisational structure; find knowledge and skills gaps and help address them
Improve current processes and optimise organisational procedures for efficiency and productivity in the Digital or Technology Services Directorates
Own the creation of key Director General / Permanent Secretary / Ministerial submissions
Management of the Justice Digital Directors’ offices, including a Business Manager and a Diary Manager and other private office staff as applicable.
To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog.
Work with the Director to maximise value, by ensuring a clear focus on priorities, routing and collating work effectively and using your judgement to support the work of the directorate both within and outside the Justice Digital Directorate.
Act as an informed advisor to the Director, providing clear and rapid analysis of key issues and strategies across the programme and wider stakeholder landscape, providing situationally aware advice and handling plans for emergent issues.
Be responsible for ensuring join up across the Directorate SLT and that wider inputs into the leadership team issues are well considered, joined up and timely.
Run and participate in the monthly SLT meetings and both curate a thoughtful agenda as well as deliver on cross cutting actions and outcomes decided on by the group, leading on work streams as and when appropriate to deliver initiatives from concept to completion.
Manage and act as a point of contact for the Director’s team, senior stakeholders including Director Generals, Ministers and Permanent Secretaries on behalf of the Director, liaising and sharing information on key priorities and ensuring connections are made as necessary.
Lead a high performing team that can operate at pace within ambiguity, in a high profile, politically sensitive environment.
Be able to shape and influence teams and stakeholders to ensure that organisational priorities are realised, surfacing tensions and resolving conflicts when they occur.
Be able to digest a wide range of information at pace; handling both quantitative and qualitative evidence to provide situationally relevant and appropriately nuanced recommendations for senior stakeholders.
An ability to manage a large number of issues, workstreams and initiatives concurrently and be able to track things over the line to completion in a timely manner, including when they are being delivered through others.
Serve as a subject-matter expert, handling inquiries, developing action plans, and assisting with preparation and dissemination of communications.
Lead the business support team and have line management responsibility for a small group of people
If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!
37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best in class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
Staff have 10% time to dedicate to develop & grow.
Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 28.97% from April 1st 2024 (Contribution Rates).
25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the King’s birthday. 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.
Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
Wellbeing support including access to the Calm app.
Nurturing professional and interpersonal networks including those for Carers & Childcare, Gender Equality, PROUD and SPIRIT.
Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location).
Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers.
5 days volunteering paid leave.
Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.
Essential skills and experience:
Effective decision-making skills: You have proven experience that you can easily make informed decisions, considering various factors and potential impacts in a complex and technical environment.
Strategic vision: You demonstrate a deep understanding of the broader context and strategic goals, effectively aligning your work.
Communicator: You can articulate ideas clearly, collaborate with a range of audiences, and provide quality advice. This includes the ability to write submissions for senior stakeholders
Agile working: Handle multiple tasks efficiently and adapt to changing priorities.
Personal Resilience: Manage pressure, maintain focus, and stay composed during challenging situations.
Excellent stakeholder management experience inside and/or outside of government.
Experience of working in a digital/tech organisation.
Previous experience working in a Private Office environment or as a Senior Executive Assistant to C-Suite or as a Chief of Staff.
Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance
We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.
Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.
Candidates must submit a CV and Personal Statement. Your Personal Statement (no more than 750 words) should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken. It should address the following 4 criteria listed below taken from the Person Specification, using a separate paragraph for each:
Previous experience working in a Private Office environment or as a Senior Executive Assistant to C-Suite or as a Chief of Staff.
Experience of working in a digital/tech organisation.
Effective decision-making skills: You have proven experience that you can easily make informed decisions, considering various factors and potential impacts in a complex and technical environment.
Personal Resilience: Manage pressure, maintain focus, and stay composed during challenging situations.
A diverse panel will review your application against the criteria stated above.
Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on "Experience of working in a digital/tech organisation" and “previous experience working in a Private Office environment or as a Senior Executive Assistant to C-Suite or as a Chief of Staff" will be conducted before the panel sift.
Failure to provide both documents will result in a rejection of your application.
Application Guidance
Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply and how to complete a Personal Statement
Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1-hour panel interview held via video conference.
Please note, a short verbal challenge will be shared in advance and will be presented during the interview.
In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:
Communicating and Influencing
Seeing the Big Picture
Working Together
Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.
A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.
Use of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Please review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact digitalanddatarecruitment@justice.gov.uk