About the job

Job summary

The International Hub plays a pivotal strategic role to deliver DCMS’s international agenda, and as such these roles will be challenging and 
rewarding. Both provide the opportunity to work closely with senior officials and ministers to generate impact on the international stage and achieve DCMS’s priorities. 

The Hub is a central function, working with colleagues throughout DCMS and across government to represent DCMS’s global interests, and those of our sectors. The team’s responsibilities include: coordinating DCMS’s international and cross-government engagement; delivering programmes of international Ministerial Visits; driving forward DCMS’s international trade policy; developing DCMS’s approach to international boycotts, divestment and sanctions policy; and implementing international strategy for DCMS. 

• The Hub is based in the Media and International directorate (MINT). MINT has an active and engaging corporate culture which postholders will be encouraged to get involved in.
• We have team members spread across the London and Manchester offices.
• The team has an excellent working culture, focused on values of being strategic, insightful, balanced and kind.

Job description

Sanctions and Regional Lead

With sanctions becoming a more established foreign policy tool, DCMS’ sectors need to respond to a changing global context. The postholder will be responsible for representing DCMS in the cross-government approach to economic deterrence initiatives, including boycotts, divestment and sanctions. This will include working to determine DCMS sectors’ risk to be exploited for sanctions circumvention and how we can work with businesses to prevent this. The postholder will also be involved in a horizon scanning exercise to determine DCMS’ vulnerabilities to future sanctions by, e.g. being overly-reliant on certain products, regions or partners, and work with industries and policy partners to identify solutions to this.

The team is responsible for leading on DCMS’ interests in Africa, the Middle East and Russia-Ukraine. The postholder will be responsible for a subset of countries in this region, coordinating incoming and outgoing visits as well as identifying opportunities for collaboration and promotion of the department’s interests.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead sanctions circumvention and preparedness projects
• Acquire geographic expertise and lead departmental business in their area, including stakeholder engagement and international travel to support DCMS’ objectives
• Work across DCMS policy teams, building strong working relationships with creative industries, sports, tourism arts and heritage sectors
• Represent DCMS in cross-government conversations, working closely with the Office for Trade Sanctions Implementation, the Department for Business and Trade and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

International Trade Policy Advisor

It is an exciting time to be working on international trade policy since the UK has an ambitious Free Trade Agreement agenda and focus on driving economic growth. The postholder will be responsible for developing and implementing international trade policy to best serve DCMS sectors’ interests, focusing on promoting the mobility of DCMS sectors in Europe and beyond. This will include advocating for DCMS interests to shape the UK’s negotiating mandates for trade agreements, engaging with key stakeholders to develop a strong evidence base, and supporting the implementation of the terms of trade between the UK and the European Union. 

The team is responsible for leading on DCMS’ interests in Europe, North America and the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. The postholder will be responsible for engagement with subset of countries in the Europe region, supporting incoming and outgoing visits as well as influencing government strategies, identifying opportunities for collaboration and promotion of the department’s interests.

Key responsibilities:

• Lead mobility trade policy development to support DCMS sectors
• Maintain oversight of UK Government’s broader mobility strategies 
• Work across DCMS policy teams, building strong working relationships with creative industries, media, sports, visitor economy, arts and culture, heritage, youth and civil society sectors.
• Represent DCMS in cross-government conversations, working closely with the Department for Business and Trade and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
• Develop geographic expertise and lead departmental business in that area, including international travel to support DCMS’ objectives.

Person specification

The ideal candidate would have the following key skills and experience:

Essential Requirements:

• An enthusiastic self-starter who can work independently to deliver high quality work at pace and in a changing environment.
• Ability to develop and maintain expertise in a technical brief, and to provide high quality written and verbal advice.
• Ability to operate strategically by building effective relationships with a wide set of stakeholders and influencing their positions.
• Ability to proactively solve problems, using a wide range of skills and approaches, to represent our sectors interests and reach workable solutions.
• Ability to prioritise between multiple workstreams and drive towards long term goals, whilst achieving short term ambitions.

Desirable Skills:

• Experience working as part of teams to deliver quality outcomes.
• Experience of writing formal briefing papers or equivalent.
• Experience developing and maintaining project management tools.
• Evidence of an interest in international affairs and continued professional development in this area.
• Experience in international policy e.g. working with international organisations, on international trade or sanctions policy.

We are running an information session where prospective applicants can find out more about the role. this will be hosted by Susann Hering and Laura Bowker, and will take place on Friday 5th April, 1:00 - 2:00 pm.

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.

Please register your interest by filling out this form and you will be sent an invitation. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,095, Department for Culture, Media and Sport contributes £8,935 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, Strengths and Experience.

To apply for this post, please send us the following documents no later than 23:55 PM Wednesday 10th April via the CS Jobs portal:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential and desirable criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages and you should insert your CV into the "Job History" section on Civil Service Jobs on the Civil Service Jobs application form.
• A Statement of Suitability (max 500 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential requirements highlighted. You may also choose to reference the desirable skills listed.

For the shortlist, we will assess your experience and select applicants demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence provided in your application.

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial sift will be conducted on the statement of suitability. Those who are successful in the initial sift will then be scored on all elements of the application.

For support in writing your application and interviewing, please refer to the ‘Application and Interview Guidance’ document attached to the job advert.

The interview process will assess behaviours and strengths and include a presentation of a scenario based task which will be provided ahead of the interview.

The behaviours to be tested at interview are:

• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

You will not be made aware of the strengths being assessed prior to your interview. 

Ahead of the interview, we will send you a written exercise to complete. During the interview, you may be asked to deliver a short oral presentation on how you approached this exercise. Full details of this, including the topic, and whether or not you will need to use visual aids, will be sent to you prior to your interview. 

Your interview will take place remotely via GoogleMeets.

For indicative sift and interview dates please refer to the attached Candidate Information Pack.

Further Information

If the vacancy is offered as FTA/Loan, existing Civil Servants must join on a Loan basis only., Prior agreement to be released on loan must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to Department for Culture, Media and Sport from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk  

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out. 

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

DCMS has a London and a National pay scale. For more information on this, including the circumstances in which each pay scale will apply, please see the ‘Information for Applicants’ document.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Reasonable Adjustment

We are committed to supporting candidates so they can perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. This includes making reasonable adjustments to our process.

In order to request an adjustment, please:

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section on the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or a verbal test rather than a written one. 

Alternatively, contact the Government Recruitment Service via dcmsrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility difficulties with any of the attachments, please contact us. Contact details can be found in the 'contact point for applicants' section of the job advert.

Feedback

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.