Assistant Chief of Staff (Policy, Legal & Media) PJHQ

Ministry of Defence

On-Site

Expires: Expiring in less than 4 weeks

Policy

Full time

£81,000 per year

Job summary

The Permanent Joint Headquarters is an adaptable and agile headquarters created to command joint and combined military operations.

Headed by the Chief of Joint Operations, we are responsible for:

Planning and executing UK-led joint and multinational operations.
Exercising operational command of UK Forces assigned to multinational operations led by others.
Providing policy and resource aware military advice to the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

The J9 Division is an integrated team of Civil Servants and Military professionals who are expert in the management of policy, legal and presentational risks and issues relating to current and future operations. J9’s function is critical to enabling operations. It provides operationally focussed policy, legal and presentational advice to the Chief of Joint Operations and their deployed commanders. It supports policy development and media management activities in the MOD Centre. J9 also manages the non-financial Department of State function within the Permanent Joint Headquarters: providing direct advice to Ministers on operational activity and helping Ministers discharge their duties to Parliament (for example by drafting answers to Parliamentary Questions) and to the public (for example by responding to Freedom of Information requests).

The J9 Division’s mission is to provide high quality, responsive and integrated policy, legal, media advice to the Chief of Joint Operations and their deployed commanders, to Ministers and to MOD Centre.

You will head up the J9 Division that provides responsive and integrated policy, legal and media advice to the Chief of Joint Operations (CJO) and their deployed commanders as well as other senior leaders, including Ministers, through the leadership of a civilian-military team based in Northwood HQ and a deployed presence of Policy Advisors on operations.

You will be specifically responsible for ensuring the policy and legal basis to underpin the establishment and delivery of global operations commanded by CJO and for ensuring the supporting media wrap. This will require you to establish/secure operational policy, permissions, authorities and legal advice/underpinning from the concept of an operation, through to its recovery, for both enduring operations and in crisis, delivered 24/7/365 and to ensure the Ministry Of Defence is able to capture and clear content, and communicate details of UK Armed Forces on operations, preparing product for use at all levels of Government.

Job description

The current responsibilities of the role include:

Policy: To ensure operational activity is conducted in accordance with policies determined by Ministers. To influence the policy development process, ensuring operational and tactical realities are factored into the development and management of operations. To manage the Permanent Joint Headquarters' non-financial Department of State responsibilities.
Legal: To support the provision of legal advice to the Chief of Joint Operations and his deployed commanders, ensuring consistency with the advice provided to Ministers and policy colleagues by MOD Central Legal Services. To provide direction, guidance and support to Legal Advisors (LEGAD) deployed in the Chief of Joint Operations’ Joint Operational Areas. To support the provision of legal advice to Standing Joint Force Headquarters (SJFHQ) to the extent compatible with the team’s other responsibilities
Media: To provide presentational and media handling advice to the Chief of Joint Operations and their deployed commanders. To ensure that media and communications activity supports delivery of operational objectives. To ensure content of PJHQ operations is captured, cleared and available for use to support the communication of Armed Forces activity.
Leadership: Lead the J9 Division (c.30 staff in Northwood, and c.10 overseas), undertaking line management, mentoring and countersigning tasks as required by the role. Manage the delegated budget efficiently within agreed limits. Play a wider leadership role across the MOD Operational Policy and Crisis community.
Advising: Policy Advisory support to Deployed Commanders, ensuring they are supported with informed, timely Operational Policy Advice. Responsible for the recruitment, selection and deployment of Policy Advisors (POLADs) to operational theatres.
Role Modelling: Part of the Senior Civil Service leadership team within the Permanent Joint Headquarters. Role model and champion to the Civil Service in the Headquarters and deployed on operations and exemplar to military staff on the role and contribution of the Civil Service to operations and the Permanent Joint Headquarters.

Person specification

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their experience and skills against the following essential criteria:

Experience working on international security issues and an understanding of the key policy and legal concepts that apply to UK military operations.
Proven leadership skills with the ability to motivate, empower and support diverse and inclusive teams, including subject matter experts, to provide high-quality work under pressure and to tight deadlines.
Excellent strategic thinking and analytical skills, with the ability to anticipate emerging challenges quickly assess the practical implications of political and diplomatic developments and identify pragmatic solutions.
Extensive experience of crisis management and policy development processes, whilst being comfortable operating in a Defence and Security environment.
Exceptional oral and written communication skills, with the ability to summarise complex issues, influence Board-level stakeholders, and develop these capabilities within your team.
Proven stakeholder management skills in a political, pressured environment, with the ability to build relationships and command the confidence and trust of senior stakeholders across complex environments.

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a strong field of candidates when there is a need to distinguish between candidates. This will be as a second sift, after the essential criteria has been considered:

Direct experience of working alongside the UK military or with the Ministry of Defence;
Experience working overseas in a defence and security context.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

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 employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process no later than 23:55 on Sunday 28th June and will involve providing the two documents outlined below via the Civil Service Jobs portal:

A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role.

External candidates who join the MOD and are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

For further information about the role and full application process, please refer to the candidate pack attached below. If you wish to receive any material in a different format for accessibility, then please contact People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk.

Expected Timeline

We will try and offer as much flexibility as we can, but it may not be possible to offer alternative dates for assessments or interviews. You are therefore asked to note the below timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process, to meet the dates given. Please note that these dates may be subject to change. If you anticipate any difficulties attending, please alert People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.ukupon application.

The anticipated timetable is as follows:

Advert closing date: 23:55 Sunday 28 June 2026

Shortlist: Thursday 9 July 2026

Psychometric Assessments: w.c 13 and 20 July 2026

Staff engagement exercise: Monday 20 July 2026

Panel Interviews: Wednesday 29 July 2026

It is expected that interviews will be conducted in-person in Northwood, however this will be confirmed during the shortlisting process and successful candidates will be informed accordingly.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

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Contact point for applicants

Salary range

£81,000 per year