Business Manager & Head of Office to the Director for Local Growth and Devolution

Job summary

We are MHCLG

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Local Growth and Devolution Directorate in MHCLG, working closely with senior leaders to drive forward exciting work with real impacts across the country.

The Directorate oversees critical work to build sustainable local institutions with long-term funding, clear accountability and real decision-making power, and addressing regional inequalities, through unlocking local opportunities and helping attract investment in places that need it most.

We are looking for a Head of Office and Business Manager for the Director for Local Growth and Devolution. This is a pivotal role in the centre of the Directorate, working independently to provide strategic oversight and administrative support, whilst ensuring the smooth delivery of resourcing, financial planning and corporate coordination across the Directorate. You will work closely with senior leadership and key stakeholders to drive forward policy, support effective decision making, and drive efficiency.

Job description

Business Management – Resource & Workload Planning, and Finance & Budget Management

• Oversee directorate resourcing. This includes co-ordination of annual workforce planning for the directorate; collating and presenting monthly resourcing reports to senior leaders; and leading the directorates recruitment and onboarding processes.
• Deliver monthly forecasting for people, pay, and non-pay forecasting, working with policy teams and Finance Business Partners to ensure accurate monthly programme forecasting.
• Support policy teams with budget activity, year-end accruals, and work with Finance Business Partners to ensure any corrections and reconciliation are aligned to budgets.

Head of Office

• Effectively manage the flow of work to the Director, ensuring they spend their time on their priorities and have the necessary information to able to make informed decisions. You will need to build relationships with teams to guide them on their contributions, and ensure relevant information is communicated back.
• Attain and assimilate information quickly and utilise this information to brief and advise the Director across a variety of complex issues. This spans policy, stakeholder engagement, finance and resourcing.
• Provide support in meetings by capturing key details and aligning them with the current strategic direction. Capturing, disseminating and tracking actions to ensure they are delivered within set timescales.
• Champion corporate work within the Directorate, ensuring corporate workstreams remain visible and accessible and holding them to account on their expected plans and timetables. Appropriately disseminate central communications within the Directorate, and provide clear channels of communications for any issues raised.

Leadership

• As Head of Office you will have line management responsibility for two Diary Managers within the Directorate. You will need to maintain a collaborative atmosphere and to delegate effectively.

Person specification

Skills and experience

• This will be a fast-paced role, so you will need be highly organised and able to exercise good judgement to take decisions on diary, meetings and briefing requirements.
• Strong communication skills, both orally and in writing, with the ability to build strong stakeholder relationships and influence colleagues at all grades, including being comfortable providing challenging feedback.
• You will be able to work autonomously, taking initiative to drive workstreams and solve problems independently.
• Ability to synthesise complex information and draw strategic links - working collaboratively to share knowledge and providing strategic input on a multitude of issues/agendas.

Desirable experience

• Experience of managing budgets; including forecasting and managing workforce numbers and pay budgets and presenting this information.
• Comfortable working with data and using data when briefing senior officials.
• Good leadership skills, including line management experience.
• Experience in local growth or devolution policy.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,092, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £16,829 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Staff Benefits Scheme, Childcare Vouchers, and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

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

Application and Selection

The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Ability , Behaviours , Experience , Strengths

Please ensure your CV does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Note: We do not consider direct CV applications. All applications must be submitted via the provided application link.

Important: Your CV and Cover Letter must be merged into a single document before uploading.

Stage 1: Sift (CV & Cover Letter)

Experience & Ability: Your covering letter should be no more than 500 words, referencing why you are interested in the role and how you meet the essential skills and experience required.

If you run into any technical problems when applying through Be Applied (for example, trouble logging in or submitting your application), their support team can help. Please contact them at hello@beapplied.com.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, Seeing The Big Picture.

• Strengths: The strength-based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

Sift and Interview

Sifting is envisaged to take place starting 11/06/2026.

Interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

Disability Confident Scheme (DCS)

We are a Disability Confident employer.

We apply a fair and proportionate interview process for all candidates. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to progress candidates who apply under the Disability Confident Scheme and meet the required minimum selection criteria.

However, where high application volumes are received, progression to interview may be limited to those who best meet the role criteria. In these circumstances, the benchmark required to proceed to interview may be raised for all candidates.

How We Recruit

Find out more about our recruitment processes here.

• Applying

• Sifting

• Interview

• Interview Results & Feedback

• Reserve List

• Near Miss

• Civil Service Grades

• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer

• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements

• Civil Service Nationality Requirements

• Right to Work

• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

• CV Declaration

• Sponsorships

• Salary and Grade

• Existing Civil Servants

• Conflict of Interest

• Location and Flexible Working

• Internal Fraud Database

• Appeals and Complaints

• Fixed Term Appointments for:

• External Candidates

• Existing Civil Servants (Including Loans)

• Secondments

• MHCLG employees

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office: + SC

London Office: + SC

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

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.

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

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Michelle Mullarkey
• Email : michelle.mullarkey@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Further information

If you are unsure about any part of the process or require additional information about the post to enable you to progress your application, you should speak to the Resourcing team - recruitment@communities.gov.uk. Candidates can appeal at any stage of the recruitment process if they believe there has been:

a procedural irregularity

an infringement of the Civil Service equal opportunities policy

exceptional circumstances which were not notified to the interview panel which might have affected performance on the day.

It is important to note that these are appeals about the process not the decision. In the first instance, an appeal should be directed to the MHCLG Resourcing Hub at recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

If the MHCLG Resourcing Hub is unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint, you may contact put your complaint in writing to the Civil Service Commission, Room G8,1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or by email to: info@csc.gov.uk