Deputy Director, Principal Private Secretary to the Chief Operating Officer of the Civil Service and the Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office

Job summary

This is a high-profile and challenging leadership role at the heart of Government. The post-holder will lead Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary and Civil Service
Chief Operating Office (COO) Private Office team, act as her principal adviser, and work closely with very senior officials and Ministers within the Cabinet Office and
across Whitehall to drive forward government priorities.

Job description

As the Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the Civil Service, Cat Little, is responsible for reforming government to make it more
productive and improve delivery, as well as leading the Cabinet Office.

Specifically, her role is to:
● Rewire the state to make it more productive and agile, through tech transformation, better regulation, and reforms of the Civil Service and arm’s length bodies
● Support and challenge departments to ensure that the Government’s delivery and reform priorities are implemented with pace and rigour;
● Lead the Cabinet Office as Permanent Secretary, working closely with the Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster and his Ministerial team to set and deliver
our objectives; ensure we have the right capability; and have robust financial management, accountable directly to Parliament as Accounting Officer.

We are looking for highly motivated, experienced and talented applicants to lead the small and high-performing Private Office team, supporting her in the
achievement of her objectives. Outstanding leadership and collaboration skills are essential along with fine judgement, adaptability, prioritisation and ability to thrive
when working under pressure.

Key Responsibilities

The key responsibilities of the role are:

You will lead on the most demanding or sensitive parts of the portfolio, such as senior personnel matters. You will also be ready to step in to
support the team in their portfolio areas across the broad field of responsibility. The role of the PPS is to:
● Provide inspiring, confident, kind and empowering leadership to the private office team;
● Provide strategic advice, support and challenge to Cat Little, both as Civil Service COO and Permanent Secretary, to enable her to
undertake her wide-ranging responsibilities;
● Work collaboratively with very senior stakeholders across the Cabinet Office, the Civil Service and external partners to advance business
objectives, ensure strategic alignment and brokering resolutions where there are conflicting views;

Be an active leader within the Ministers, Accountability and Strategy Directorate, across Private Offices in the department, and across Perm Sec
offices in government.

Person specification

It is important that, through your CV and supporting statement, that you provide evidence of the professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post.

Essential Criteria:
● Highly developed communication, networking and negotiation skills, with the personal presence and credibility to secure confidence at the most senior
levels across the Civil Service and beyond, including in central departments;
● Experience of remaining calm, collaborative and maintaining the well-being of your team and self/selves while working in a dynamic and challenging
environment;
● Experience of working collaboratively with, and delivering through, a large and diverse group of internal and external stakeholders, showing excellent
stakeholder management skills;
● Demonstrable experience of juggling competing priorities and difficult challenges in a clear and logical manner, using your strategic awareness to
make sound judgement calls in an uncertain and ambiguous environment;
● Excellent management and leadership skills with a proven ability to lead across boundaries and run high-performing, motivated teams to deliver on a
challenging agenda in a fast-paced environment;
● Recent experience of working in or closely with the Cabinet Office.
● Excellent written and verbal communication skills
● Ability to prioritise work effectively and adapt rapidly to changing priorities or needs.

Desirable Criteria:
● Experience of working in or leading a private office environment
● Knowledge of the Cabinet Office and the Centre of Government

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Cabinet Office 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.

Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career within the Department and wider Civil Service.

It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead, and you’ll benefit from regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing. As a Civil Service employee, you’ll be entitled to a large range of benefits.

This includes:

• 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service. This is in addition to 8 public holidays and one privilege day to mark the King's birthday.
• A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire;
• Flexible working patterns including part-time or term-time working and access to Flexible Working Schemes allowing you to vary your working day as long as you work your total hours;
• Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers;
• Childcare benefits (policy for new employees as of 5 April 2018): The government has introduced the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. Working parents can open an online childcare account and for every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2000 a year for each child or £4000 for a disabled child. Parents then use the funds to pay for registered childcare. Existing employees may be able to continue to claim childcare vouchers, so please check how the policy would work for you here;
• Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket or a new bicycle;
• The opportunity to use onsite facilities including fitness centres and staff canteens (where applicable);
• Occupational sick pay.

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, outlined below. This should be completed no later than 23:55 on Wednesday 25th February 2026
1. A CV (max 2 pages or 1250 word) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
2. A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 1000 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

Failure to complete both sections of the online application form (CV and Statement of Suitability) will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

As part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say’. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for more information.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with us via: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

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 undergo a criminal record check.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

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

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.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 : GRS SCS Recruitment Team
• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Civil Service Commission Selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.
In accordance with the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles, our recruitment and selection processes are underpinned by the requirement of appointment on the basis of merit by fair and open competition. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance you should contact; scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission at info@csc.gov.uk and more information can be found at www.civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk

Attachments

2026-02-03 Candidate Pack PPS to Perm Sec & COO Opens in new window (pdf, 574kB)Cabinet Office Accessibility Pack 445680 Opens in new window (docx, 428kB)