About the job

Job summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Engagement Officer

Location: National*

Closing Date: 28th April
Interviews:  w/c 13th May

Grade: SEO
(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary: London: £45,824 - £50,039; National: £39,868- £43,535

Working pattern: Full time, Part Time, flexible working Contract Type: Permanent

Vacancy number: 86271

*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
The applicant will also have a willingness to travel to London and/or Sheffield for team collaboration when necessary.

The Role

We are seeking an experienced Engagement Officer to join the Delivery Operations team within Prison Digital. This role is crucial for maintaining and enhancing our engagement strategies both internally within the Justice Digital Directorate and key stakeholders in HMPPS and external to the Ministry of Justice. The ideal candidate will be skilled in strategic planning, event coordination and ensuring our messaging & positioning are impactful and aligned with our strategic objectives.
You will be joining an enthusiastic team of professionals helping to make a difference in the digital services we provide to our prisons.
You will have the ability and experience of supporting self-organising agile teams by acting as the central engagement person across the DPS portfolio, delivering internal communication to DPS teams as well as working with business change and implementation teams in prisons to support the creation of successful user-facing communications.
To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025

Key Responsibilities
 
●    Engagement Roadmap Development: Execute a comprehensive engagement roadmap, aligning with our strategic goals and ensuring consistent communication across all channels.
●    Event Planning and Coordination: Lead the planning and execution of internal events aimed at sharing knowledge and facilitating open dialogue across product teams, and ensuring they are executed flawlessly.
●    Strategic Messaging and Positioning: Develop and support a compelling engagement narrative that includes key messages, reinforcing our strategic positioning and messaging across all platforms.
●    Content Creation & Management: Oversee the development and maintenance of content across various platforms (including SharePoint sites) by collaborating on engaging articles, reports, and other communication materials.
●    Leadership Communication Support: Provide support for leadership on effective communications, ensuring their messages are impactful and align with the overall engagement strategy.
●    Monitoring and Reporting: Implement mechanisms to collate feedback and monitor engagement metrics and KPIs, providing insightful reports to leadership to inform strategic decisions.
●    Liaison Activities: Serve as a key liaison with various discipline areas within Prison Digital, including product, user research, and content design teams, to ensure cohesive engagement strategies.
●    Maintain a user-facing SharePoint site to ensure up to date information is always available to our stakeholders.

Benefits

●    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 Kings’ 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.
●    Free membership to BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.
●    Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.

Person Specification
Essential criteria

●    Proven experience in a role which requires engagement or communications.
●    Experience of delivering via digital channels.
●    Strong ability in content creation, management, and strategic communication planning.
●    Excellent organisational skills with experience managing multiple workstreams.
●    Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, capable of creating engaging content, storytelling and effectively communicating complex ideas.
●    Have knowledge of Agile ways of working and the ability to work collaboratively, across multidisciplinary digital teams and with external partners, including government bodies and leadership teams.
●    Proficient in monitoring and reporting on engagement metrics and KPIs, with a keen analytical eye.
●    Experience and understanding of Agile ways of working and collaborating with digital and multi-disciplinary teams.
●    Ability to work flexibly and use initiative and creativity to develop engagement capabilities.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance.
We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate on the basis of 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.

Person specification

Please refer to attached Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,868, Ministry of Justice contributes £10,804 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

How to Apply

Candidates must submit CV and statement of suitability (max 500 words). Failure to provide both documents will result in a rejection of your application. Also, if the statement is too long, we won’t read past the first 500 words.

The statement of suitability should outline your experience, against the following points of the essential criteria list above, under ’Person Specification’
 
●    Strong ability in content creation, management, and strategic communication planning.
●    Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, capable of creating engaging content, storytelling and effectively communicating complex idea
●    Have knowledge of Agile ways of working and the ability to work collaboratively, across multidisciplinary digital teams and with external partners, including government bodies and leadership teams.
●    Ability to work flexibly and use initiative and creativity to develop engagement capabilities.

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:
●    Working together
●    Changing and improving
●    Communicating and Influencing

Your application will be reviewed against the Person Specification above by a diverse panel. 

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1-hour panel interview held via video conference, which will include a short task.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on ‘Proven experience in a role which requires engagement or communications’ will be conducted prior to the sift.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for, but demonstrated the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and potentially offer you the position without the need for a further application.

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

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.