About the job

Job summary

Air Command is the Headquarters for the Royal Air Force (RAF), and the Air Secretariat (Air Sec) leads on Ministerial and Parliamentary business relating to the activities of the RAF. The Secretariat ensure that the RAF fulfils its obligation to Ministers, Parliament, and the Public, supporting Ministers and the Permanent Secretary in discharging their responsibilities to Parliament on RAF issues. The Air Sec team works across the RAF and the wider Ministry of Defence (MOD) to deliver high quality, timely and accurate advice across the range of RAF business.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week. 

Job description

The team are responsible for producing the following output:

• Providing advice to Ministers on RAF issues, including on handling and presentational considerations.
• Supporting Ministers in their accountability to Parliament, whether through responses to Parliamentary Questions, briefing material or speeches for debates.
• Producing responses to Ministerial and ‘Treat Official’ Correspondence.
• Generating defensive media briefing and ‘lines to take’ on emerging news events for both national and regional media enquiries and briefing.
• Responding to Freedom of Information requests and enquiries from the public.

The work is high profile, involving regular liaison with Ministerial offices, RAF Senior Leadership Team and includes regular access to the small cadre of senior civil servants who work with the RAF. The role leads a focused and friendly team of four (2 x HEOs; 2 x EOs) managing RAF personnel matters which includes recruitment, training, career management, workforce requirements, Service Complaints, RAF Air Cadets, and RAF data breaches. 

This is an interesting and busy role in a fast-paced environment, providing an excellent opportunity to develop skills and experience in the MOD’s policy profession. The role will require the post holder to support and task the team, providing direction and guidance as required, alongside also producing the output mentioned above. The role would suit a motivated individual who is able to prioritise effectively and respond to changing priorities, balancing short-and-long term pieces of work. High-quality drafting skills, the ability to deliver at pace and excellent organisational skills are essential. 

Person specification

• A supportive leader who makes time for team management and champions development and diversity.
• Strong organisational skills, able to track and oversee a wide spectrum of secretariat business across their portfolio.
• An excellent communicator, with the ability to draft quickly and concisely; and able to commission work from teams and hold them to account, often at pace.
• Able to quickly develop a good network and co-ordinate activity with other teams, working collegiately across different areas.
• Able to make effective decisions on own authority but also good judgement for issues which may need escalation/attract political attention.
• Excellent research skills and ability to analyse and interpret complex data.

While experience of dealing with Ministers and parliamentary casework would be useful, it is not essential as support will be provided.

 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,631 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Please present your evidence using the S.T.A.R. format (Situation, Task, Action, Result)

Applicants are strongly advised to ensure that their submission uses the STAR format and demonstrates the behaviours detailed at SEO level in the Civil Service Success Profiles – Civil Service Behaviours booklet.   Comprehensive coverage on Success Profiles can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles  

 You will be assessed against the following behaviours:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

 In your application you only need to provide evidence of:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

 A 500 word statement of suitability and CV will be required for this position; this cannot be uploaded to the advert. You will submit using the CV template provided on the CS Jobs dashboard, detailing job history, full qualifications, previous experience and skills.

Part-time or Job-share will only be considered provided full time hours can be covered.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk . 

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.  

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn. 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.