Deputy Head of Office/private Secretary to The

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 377992**Salary**:

- £41,156 - £48,817- National: £41,156 - £45,112, London: £44,942 - £48,817- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%**Job grade**:

- Senior Executive Officer- SEO**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- DBT - CS - Communication and Marketing**Type of role**:

- Communications / Marketing**Working pattern**:

- Full-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, London, ManchesterAbout the job

**Job summary**:
Are you an organisational whizz and thrive in a fast-paced environment juggling various competing priorities at one time? Would you like a role that is challenging and wide-ranging, interacting with and engaging staff in 40+ countries across the globe?

DBT’s Communication and Marketing Directorate covers a huge range of issues, both domestic and international facing, including promoting the UK’s trade deals with countries around the world, supporting entrepreneurs to start up and grow, as well as leading on high-profile media issues such as the historic Post Office Horizon IT scandal.

The role is at the heart of a busy directorate, it demands a highly organised individual with significant private office and line management responsibilities.

The role of Private Secretary presents an exciting opportunity to work closely with the Director for Communication and Marketing and their senior leadership team, leading on a wide range of high-profile matters.

In return, you will gain great exposure to senior decision-making, build relationships with a wide range of people, and develop your skills as a line manager.

You will join a small, friendly team who are on a mission to create the best environment for everyone in our directorate.

**Job description**:
In this role you will:

- Build a close working relationship with the Director, anticipating and understanding their preferences and requirements, clearly communicating their intent to others and providing sound advice and judgement across a range of high-profile issues.
- Manage the Director’s inbox, diary, box, travel arrangements and any other corporate items.
- Provide secretariat support to the Communication and Marketing Senior Leadership team.
- Support the wider business management team with finance, workforce, corporate, and governance matters.
- Assess the Director’s work priorities, drawing urgent items to the Director’s attention and equipping them to respond to requests for comments and clearance.
- Work closely with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders domestically and overseas, build high quality relationships; and represent the Director and Directorate as needed.
- Proactively engage with officials across the Directorate, wider Department and across-Whitehall to ensure the Director is briefed on relevant issues and prepared for upcoming meetings.

You will report directly to the Head of Office to the Director of Communication and Marketing.

**Person specification**:
You will be a friendly and approachable individual, who aims to make the directorate a better place to work. You will be required to juggle a wide range of competing demands that are often urgent, complex and politically sensitive. You should be able to build sound, high level knowledge of the directorate as well as be adaptable, calm under pressure, able to handle a range of issues with diplomacy, discretion and a can-do attitude. You will need to be able to identify and handle potential risks, knowing when to tackle issues directly and when to escalate. You will be regularly updating the Director on a range of issues.

You will be motivated by achieving high-quality outcomes and will have great soft skills - working closely with the Director, their senior leadership team, the Director’s Head of Office and other private offices across the department (including ministerial) - with the ability to build excellent collaborative relationships across the department and Whitehall, as well as the overseas network. You’ll have the ability to tactfully, yet assertively, challenge (often senior) individuals when needed, and explain the Director’s priorities and requirements in a manner that helps build relationships and trust and be able to quickly assimilate complex information.

**Essential**:

- Flexible, self-motivated and highly organised.
- A confident communicator, comfortable working and engaging with senior leaders.
- Strategic awareness of the environment in which the department operates.
- A relationship builder that establishes mutual respect and trust.
- A motivator who is highly driven and persuades others to deliver for them.
- A level of resilience to recover and learn from setbacks.

**Desirable**:

- Line management and the ability to motivate a team.
- Financial and workforce forecasting.
- Event/conference plan