About the job

Job summary

About the role: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is seeking a talented and motivated Senior Communications Officer to join one of the government’s busiest and highest-profile press offices. The successful candidate will have specific responsibility for communications relating to key communication issues that affect our Armed Forces and civil servants at home and around the globe. You will be expected to work from the Ministry of Defence’s Whitehall Office.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

What you’ll be doing: The Ministry of Defence including the Royal Navy, the British Army, and the Royal Air Force are subject to intense public, parliamentary and media scrutiny. You will be responsible for delivering successful proactive and reactive communications in the press office which protect and enhance the reputation of the MOD and the Armed Forces. You will: Respond to enquiries from national, international, regional, consumer and digital media outlets in order to enhance and protect the reputation of the department, ministers and senior military officers. Draft press releases, statements, rebuttals and briefings for senior spokespeople across Defence. Manage media access at a range of high-profile events. Provide professional and comprehensive communications advice to ministers, military officers, senior officials, special advisors, and members of the Directorate of Defence Communications. As part of the wider press office management team, Senior Communication Officers are expected to act as the Press Secretary to the minister for their portfolio area, advising them on key media and comms issues. In addition, you will be expected to act as a role model in the office, offering guidance and support to colleagues in their day-to-day work and to develop them over time, as well as have the leadership skills to provide direction and focus to both their own team and others across the office. You will also be required to take part in the out-of-hours duty rota, dealing with media enquiries across the full breadth of the MOD’s responsibilities. This involves occasional overnight stays in MOD accommodation for which an allowance is paid.  Communication areas you will cover include, but are not restricted to: Military Operations overseas Equipment procurement and latest technology being developed in Defence Lawfare and wider Defence policy issues that affect how the UK Armed Forces operate The role will provide opportunities for travel, both within the UK and abroad as part of your role as Press Secretary and wider media minding asks from across the directorate.

Person specification

Who we are looking for:

Essential criteria include:

• Excellent understanding of the media and social media landscape.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• The ability to pay attention to detail and absorb complex information at pace in order to inform and produce plain language communications that clearly articulate the department’s objectives.
• The discretion to handle classified and sensitive information pertaining to policy or personnel issues.
• Confidence and strategic judgement, as successful candidates will be required to become a trusted adviser to ministers and senior military officers.

Desirable criteria include:

• A proven record of working either in a media/press office environment,
• or in defence policy areas.
• Experience of news management in PR or journalism.
• Experience of using social media and evaluating communications.

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, Experience and Technical skills.

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience.  

Candidates will be required to provide a statement of suitability. (Word count: 500)  

At interview, you will be assessed against the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours

• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions 
• Communicating and Influencing 
• Delivering at Pace

Technical Skills

• GCS - Implementation

The Technical Skills - Framework link can be accessed using the following link: GCS Career Framework (civilservice.gov.uk)

if successfully through to the interview stage, candidates can expect to be interviewed against civil service behaviour criteria to assess their suitability, skills and experience for the role.

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.