Policy Advisor

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

- 291812**Salary**:

- £33,875- £33,875 (London) - Please see Selection Process Details for more information.**Job grade**:

- Higher Executive Officer**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- A Union, Elections and Places Grouping**Type of role**:

- Policy**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- LondonAbout the job

**Job summary**:
We are seeking a policy advisor to join the Joint Election Security and Preparedness Unit.

Applicants must hold Security Check clearance or be willing to undergo SC clearance checks.

**Job description**:
The Elections Directorate is a welcoming and inclusive team. We are responsible for a challenging and dynamic policy landscape, always in the public eye, covering electoral policy and law. This includes how elections are run, who can participate and how elections and campaigning are regulated.

The Joint Election Security and Preparedness (JESP) Unit is a joint endeavour between the Elections Directorate in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the Government Security Unit in the Cabinet Office. The JESP Unit is a small team dedicated to leading government work on electoral security. The Unit takes a strategic approach to identifying and mitigating election security risks and improving preparedness. This includes horizon-scanning to get ahead of emerging risks - particularly technological developments.

The Unit delivers on its objectives directly and through others, leading a community of officials that draws together expertise from across government departments, and the security and intelligence community, as well as engaging other stakeholders such as local government officials, third-party suppliers, and political parties.

Applicants must hold Developed Vetting clearance or be willing to undergo DV clearance checks.

**Responsibilities**:

- Work closely with policy and operational teams across government, and external delivery partners, to identify and treat risks relating to UK electoral security. The postholder will be responsible for a selection of risks and will lead directly on delivery of risk mitigations, source regular updates from relevant partners, and track mitigation work across government, as necessary.
- Cultivate relationships with key external stakeholders and support engagement with a programme community within government.
- Keep track of developments in international elections and relevant academic research, and engage technical expertise across government, to support the team’s understanding of emerging issues related to electoral security.
- Monitor press coverage related to electoral security and maintain a central communications script for the Unit. Lead on drafting responses to parliamentary questions, ministerial correspondence and press enquires, as required.
- Support the delivery of high-quality briefings (orally and in writing) for ministers and senior officials on electoral security and related matters. This will include preparing briefing materials for the Defending Democracy Taskforce, chaired by the Security Minister.
- Help to create an open, supportive and inclusive environment, and make the JESP Unit a great place to work.

**Person specification**:
**Required**
- Experience of building effective relationships with stakeholders.
- Experience of being able to deliver high-quality work while managing competing priorities.

**Desirable**
- Some demonstratable knowledge of the administration of UK elections and / or security policy.

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

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

**Benefits**:

- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

**Selection process details**:

- This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Strengths.**We are for everyone**

**We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role.**

We are for everyone

DLUHC want to bring in a diverse workforce at all levels.

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.
- The assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially.
- Do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers.
- If talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on)

**At sift, we will be assessing**

Behaviour (Le