About the job

Job summary

Do you have experience leading external affairs and engagement with senior stakeholder groups?

Are you an experienced and confident stakeholder engagement professional?

Do you want to play an exciting part in keeping Britain moving, safely and sustainably?  

If so, we would love to hear from you!

Job description

We recently set out our vision to 2030, which explains the challenges we face and how our important work with partners can help to:

• Make roads safer.
• Improve services for our customers.
• Make road transport greener and healthier.
• Harness the potential of technology and data.
• Grow and level up the economy.

You’ll be responsible for bringing our partnership principles to life. They are:

• Better together - we know that we cannot do everything on our own, that two perspectives are better than one, and that a diversity of views enriches every decision.
• Shared understanding – being open about the social, technological, environmental and political landscape to give everyone realistic expectations.
• Trusted decisions – using evidence and good quality intelligence and data to improve every decision – sharing reliable data to reduce the room for disagreement.
• Shared goals - we want businesses to succeed - we want to agree on a vision and understand what our customers need and want, so we can all help each other consistently.
• Better outcomes – we want to improve together, and make decisions informed by each other, leading to sustainable outcomes which we can keep improving.

You'll help us to do this by developing and owning the key strategic relationships with external customers and stakeholders, ensuring their views and feedback are captured to inform DVSA’s work.

You will support policy officials and subject matter experts to ensure meaningful, fair, stakeholder engagement is at the start and heart of our work. You’ll help plan and deliver timely and transparent high quality stakeholder engagement, supporting colleagues to develop their engagement skills to enhance and improve relationships with external organisations.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to;

• Leading on external affairs for DVSA, supporting policy officials to develop better relationships with DVSA’s customers and stakeholders.
• Enable establishment and development of new relationships and partnerships with organisations who are non-traditional DVSA stakeholders.
• Formulate strategic communications and engagement plans with DVSA’s External Communications teams to educate, advise and guide road users.
• Proactively identify engagement activities or events and make recommendations for DVSA CEO, Director and senior management attendance.
• Oversee and own stakeholder mapping for DVSA and provide advice and guidance to projects on stakeholder engagement strategy and activity.

Please see the Candidate Pack attached to this job advert for more information about the role and responsibilities.

Additional Information

This role can be based in Swansea, Nottingham, Bristol, or Newcastle,(Chadderton/Garrett’s Green), your presence at one of these locations will form part of the working arrangements agreed with you. We operate a hybrid working model giving you greater flexibility about where and when you work. 

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business, or carry out detached duty in another DfT workplace, will also count towards this level of attendance. DfT workplace attendance expectations were updated in recruitment campaigns on 17 November 2023. Occasional travel to other DfT offices will be required.

There will be occasional travel required with this role to other DVSA locations, including overnight stays.

Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement, for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 30 hours per week.

Person specification

We are looking for someone with proven experience of external affairs and engagement with senior internal and external stakeholders – including directors, board members and chief executives.

We want someone who can act as an ambassador for DVSA and as an advocate for our external stakeholder groups.

You’ll be highly organised and self-motivated, able to work collaboratively and with influence. You will relish the opportunity to take ownership of the external affairs engagement plan, implement the actions and work with colleagues across DVSA to introduce them.

With strong communication and interpersonal skills, and demonstrable experience of effective and personable stakeholder engagement and management, you will be able to work confidently with senior stakeholders and able to understand and interpret their needs.

Please take note that DVSA does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship. 

About Us

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) helps keep Britain moving, safely and sustainably.  

  

We do this by helping people through a lifetime of safe and sustainable journeys, helping them keep their vehicles safe to drive, and protecting them from unsafe drivers and vehicles.  

We’re working hard to:  

• Make roads safer.
• Improve services for our customers.
• Make road transport greener and healthier.
• Harness the potential of technology and data.
• Grow and level up the economy.

We’re committed to giving all our colleagues purpose, professionalism and pride in what we do. We work in supportive, diverse and inclusive teams where everyone is valued. You can grow, develop and progress, and make a real difference to society.  

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice and welcome and encourage applications from everyone, such as ethnic minorities, women, disabled people and those who identify as LGBT+. 
 
To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace and making DVSA a great place to work visit our Careers website.  

Benefits

• An environment with flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.
• Exceptional pension with an employer contribution of an average of 27%.
• Generous Annual Leave - 25 days holiday, increasing by 1 each year of service, up to 30. 
• 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King’s birthday.  
• Latest IT and Tech devices.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues.
• Excellent learning and development tailored to your role including paid apprenticeships up to Masters level.
• Wide range of discounts schemes on high street names.
• Employee assistance program for health and wellbeing.
• Cycle to work scheme and Gym membership offers.

For more information see visit our careers page.  

 

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.

How to Apply 

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a CV and a 1000-word Personal Statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form. 

For your Personal Statement, please provide detailed evidence of the following: 

• Experience of working with stakeholders to gather intelligence to inform internal thinking, horizon scan and provide early warning.
• Experience of disseminating messages through stakeholder channels, encouraging their supportive voices.
• Experience of explaining policies to influential individuals and organisations.

You need to include details of your experience of all the essential criteria listed above including any outcomes in your Personal Statement, within the word count, as this will be used in conjunction with your CV to assess your candidate suitability to move to the next round in the recruitment process.

The selection process will be designed specifically for the role. As a result, your assessment will include: 

• An interview and presentation.

The sift is due to take place on Tuesday 2nd April 2024.

Interviews are likely to be held from Thursday 11th April 2024. 

This interview will be conducted via a video interview, details of which will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.  

We’ll try to meet the dates we’ve set out in the advert. But there may be occasions when these dates will change. We’ll give you plenty of notice of any important dates. 

If you would like to find out more about what it’s like to work for DVSA and how to apply, we will be holding virtual sessions to find out more. Please click here to secure your place at one of our upcoming events. 

You’re encouraged to become familiar with the candidate pack attached, as you may be assessed against any of the criteria recorded within. 

The Department for Transport recruits using Success Profiles. For each role, we consider what you need to demonstrate to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.   

You can read more about Success Profiles here.  

Pre-employment Checking

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 Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you cannot access the information on our website for any reason, please email DRGComms@dft.gov.uk for assistance.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

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. 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.