About the job

Job summary

This role forms sits within the Naval Staff, headed up by the Director of Strategy and Policy. The Naval Staff leads on the development of strategy and policy; engagement with Ministers, the wider MoD and other Front-Line Commands; international and domestic engagement (e.g. allied Navies, events like the Mountbatten Festival of Music) and thought leadership on maritime issues in partnership with academia and think tanks.

This role is an exciting opportunity to coordinate and advise on the full breadth of Royal Navy relevant policy issues, as well as leading a team of Secretariat officers to ensure excellent and timely responses to Parliamentary Questions, Ministerial Correspondence, Parliamentary Committee hearings, and enquiries from the public and the media. The political context, as well as the profound transformation that the Royal Navy is undergoing, will make it a fascinating time for the successful postholder.

The successful candidate will be able to deliver high quality outputs in a fast paced environment, rapidly getting to grips with complex and sensitive issues, coordinating views from a broad range of stakeholders and communicating advice clearly and articulately. They will have line management responsibility for two HEOs, providing their pastoral support and performance management, while managing the parliamentary function (nine staff in total) alongside two other SEOs.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week and will include hybrid working.

This role is available at either Navy Command Headquarters, Portsmouth or Ministry of Defence, London.

If successful, for those applicants who are London based, it is expected that they will travel to Portsmouth around once a month for team meetings and engagement with relevant Navy subject matter experts. All travel costs will be remunerated.

Job description

The Policy Secretariat ensures that the RN fulfils its obligations to Ministers, Parliament and the public. It is a busy environment where we handle a diverse range of issues with much direction from, and engagement with, senior personnel and Ministers, often working to tight deadlines. We lead on all aspects of Parliamentary Business including drafting and submitting parliamentary questions, ministerial correspondence, provision of briefings and draft speeches for Defence debates and advice for Defence Select Committee and other Parliamentary enquires. We also provide support to Ministers, Directorate of Defence Communications and the RN Reactive Communications team on media lines to take. The Secretariat leads on the provision of advice to Ministers on the size, shape, activity and structure of the RN, including wider reputational matters.
This position provides a great development opportunity working within a very busy environment handling multiple subjects, with senior level oversight.

Person specification

Responsibilities  

• As a Senior Executive Officer, you will deliver effective Policy and Secretariat advice on behalf of Navy Command and produce high-quality products to Ministers, Senior Officials, Parliament, the General Public and Navy Command Business Partners. Strong engagement with subject matter experts is essential to this role and an understanding of Navy Command business would be beneficial.
• Provide sound and timely advice to Ministers private offices, using judgement and networks. Ensure all submissions sent, including Ministerial Submissions, are drafted in accordance with established policy, to deadline and business requirement, and to Ministerial satisfaction determined through feedback with Private Offices.
• Line management of two C2 Parliamentary Officers. Providing guidance and support in regards to their work and broader support across the Parliamentary team.
• Providing advice and opinion on complex or high-profile matters to Assistant Heads of Secretariat for consideration and to support decision making.
• Utilising relationships inside Navy Command & Head Office to build trust in the teams’ capabilities and outputs. Ensuring the policy and secretariat team are visible and valued, and that their judgement is sought as default. Leading as a business partner for select areas of the RN.
• Working in close co-ordination with Departmental subject matter experts, Media and Communications staff and Defence Press Officers, you will produce briefing material and Lines to Take, ensuring that the key messages and lines are consistent with Departmental Policy and Naval Communication Strategies.
• You will ensure that Navy Command, and the wider MOD, are engaged on the role and value of the Policy Secretariat team by building strong working relationships at all levels.
• This post requires an on-call commitment (around 1 in every 7 weeks) for which an allowance is payable. As a result of this requirement, the post is not suitable for part-time or job share working arrangements.
• We are advocates of a healthy work-life balance and flexible working, ensuring hours worked are not excessive. However, extended hours may be necessary at limited times to meet ministerial/parliamentary deadlines.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,070 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 position please complete the online application form.

Personal Statement

Please complete a 500 word personal statement for this role. This will be assessed against the Essential Criteria.

CV

• Candidates will be required to complete an online CV template to include job history, details of education and qualifications, and previous experiences and skills. CV’s will be scored.

Essential Criteria:

• Experience of ability to seek and analyse information to inform decisions based on best evidence.
• Experience of developing good working relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders/customers at all levels and of building strong personal relationships with colleagues and contacts to deliver shared objectives.
• Ability to work under pressure and prioritise activities.
• Self-starter. The ability to be independent and drive forward a culture of high performance and continuous improvement.
• Enthusiasm and a commitment to the development of team members.
  Desirable Criteria:
  

• Previous experience of working with Ministers or in Private Office.
• Experience in preparing and drafting correspondence and/or briefing material and Ministerial submissions.
• Line management experience.
• An understanding of working within a busy Secretariat team.
• Awareness of the current political and strategic context and how this might impact upon the Royal Navy.
  

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience. Behaviours should be written in the STAR format.

Behaviours 

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Communicating and Influencing  

Making Effective Decisions   

Leadership

If a large volume of applications are received, an initial sift may be conducted against personal statement only.

Candidates who are successful at the sift stage will be invited to interview where three behaviours will be assessed in conjunction with two strengths based questions.

• Communicating and influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership

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

Open to UK nationals only.

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.