About the job

Job summary

Our Senior Principal - Head of Enforcement plays a pivotal role in the effective delivery of Commission’s regulatory ambitions. Reporting to the Legal Director, the role is key to delivering the Commission’s strategic goals over the next few years and involves overseeing a wide range of regulatory interventions, from negotiating and monitoring high profile legally binding section 23 agreements, overseeing our Gender Pay Gap monitoring and enforcement work all the up to planning and delivering major statutory investigations. As a specialist group of regulatory professionals, the enforcement team also contributes to the wider legal work across the organisation. 

This maternity cover role is an opportunity for an ambitious and organised legal professional to make a real mark on the public facing work of the Commission, leading on regulatory interventions that will have a significant impact on those affected and on the landscape we regulate. The work will often attract national media profile and recognition.

The successful candidate will work closely with the Legal Director and the other members of the Commission’s senior leadership team to frame, understand and respond to the evolving challenges of our regulatory environment, building on existing work and coordinating creative, effective, and proportionate solutions to deliver against our strategic plan. The post holder will play an important role in contributing to the leadership and management of the Legal Directorate and will work closely with peers, direct reports and colleagues across the commission to deliver operational priorities in a timely, agile and effective manner.

Job description

You will:

• Will be responsible for the supervision and management of a sizeable team of legally qualified and non-legal staff, conducting the Commission’s regulatory enforcement activity. This will include reviewing work, conducting and overseeing negotiations, and guiding and managing appropriate risk. This work is some of the most high-profile undertaken by the Commission.
• Will be responsible for planning, coordinating and delivering our enforcement activity, ensuring that our work remains focused, cost effective and proportionate, in the context of the specific regulatory intervention we are undertaking and the impact we are seeking to achieve.
• Will be experienced in, or demonstrate a strong aptitude for, conducting and overseeing regulatory action including applying rigorous investigatory practices, to lead a team capable of delivering within our statutory framework, ensuring our work results in clear and impactful outcomes which are proportionate, timely and legally defensible.
• Will be responsible for effectively coordinating a complex, busy and multifaceted workload, delivering against operational priorities in a challenging and often changing strategic environment.
• Will ensure the provision of timely and accurate specialist technical expertise and advice on equality law. This will include monitoring and advising on regulation and legislation impacting the Commission’s enforcement work.
• Will be keen to set and establish a clear direction and arc of development for their area of operational responsibility and will seek to contribute to wider strategic thinking, both within the Directorate and the wider Commission.
• Will be experienced and confident in engaging with colleagues at all levels in the organisation, up to and including at Senior Executive and Board level.
• Will be a proactive member of the Legal Directorate senior leadership team, working collaboratively with the Legal Director and the other members of the legal leadership team, ensuring effective operational delivery across the Directorate.
• Will be responsible for ensuring appropriate financial control and quality assurance for their area of operational responsibility, fostering efficient cross-team working and resource deployment.
• Will confidently and professionally represent the Legal Directorate at senior level meetings, both internally and externally, especially in relation to all enforcement activities involving Departments of State and other significant stakeholders.
• Will role model a positive, inclusive culture and a professional, supportive and stretching line management approach.
• Will deliver high-quality line management for at least four Principal/senior enforcement specialists, effectively delegating whilst providing support and guidance, ensuring that agreed outcomes are met and that legal and regulatory risk is identified and mitigated.

Person specification

The full list of Knowledge, Skills and Experience required for the role can be found in the Candidate Pack, found at the bottom of this advert.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £66,136, Equality and Human Rights Commission contributes £18,452 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

If this sounds like the role for you, please review the attached Candidate Pack for more information and submit your application via our Applied advert.

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.