No10 Senior Communications Officer – Foreign Affairs

Job summary

The Prime Minister’s Office enables the Prime Minster to deliver the Government’s overall priorities and to communicate the Government’s policies to Parliament, the public and international audiences. From the Policy Unit, Press Office, Switchboard and Custodians, to the Events & Visits team and the Private Office support; the diverse Downing Street team draws on varied expertise from across the Civil Service and beyond. The teams come together to deliver excellent service to the Prime Minister while also making No10 a great place to work.

Job description

The Senior Foreign Affairs Communications Officer in the No 10 Press Office leads on an exciting, varied and fast-paced portfolio of international issues.

Working to the Chief Press Officer for Foreign Affairs as part of a small team, this is a stretching role that involves working closely with a range of Ministers and senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office and across Whitehall.

The postholder will be responsible for devising and delivering communications plans and media handling for the Prime Minister's international, trade and defence engagements and crafting strong rebuttals and handling for major evolving news stories.

They will also prepare the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson for twice-daily lobby briefings and support relevant Whitehall departments in clearing engaging and headline-grabbing, press products, media handling and online content.

The role involves working under pressure, flexibly and to tight deadlines, as well as routine out of hours work. That includes taking part in a duty rota and regular overseas travel with the PM (which can be at short notice).

The role would suit an ambitious self-starter with strong news judgement and the communications skills to advise senior Ministers and officials on the highest profile issues of the day.

Responsibilities

Responsibility for a portfolio of policies as the subject matter expert in No10 press office;

• Preparing the Prime Minister's official spokesperson for twice-daily briefings with lobby correspondents;
• Travelling with the Prime Minister to manage media as part of overseas visits;
• Leading major policy announcements across government and co-ordinating multi-disciplinary communications plans for the PM's international and defence-related engagements, ensuring these are grounded in insight and hit a wide range of audiences across traditional, digital, consumer and regional media;
• Work collaboratively across a high-performing communications team, including with the digital, strategic communications and events teams;
• Advising departments on the presentation, planning and delivery of announcements and events, as well as the handling plans for major news stories;
• Clearing departmental press notices and media handling for MoD, FCDO, DBT and other departments as relevant;
• Clearing media products and reactive lines across Whitehall departments and responding to breaking news relating to the PM as part of the No 10 duty system;
• Building and maintaining excellent relations within No10, in particular with No10 Private Office and Events & Visits, and with relevant government departments.

Person specification

Essential Skills & Experience;

• First-rate media handling skills and the proven ability to shape and respond to the news at pace
• Experience of delivering high-profile announcements and media events;
• Excellent crisis communications skills and the ability to identify and mitigate risks
• Confidence and expertise to brief the Prime Minister and their senior advisers;
  Interpersonal skills to negotiate and influence with a range of interlocutors, from departments and political advisers to foreign governments;
• Demonstrable interest in and knowledge of the topics covered by the role of choice.
• Successful candidate must be willing to undergo Developed Vetting (DV) security checks.

Desirable Skills & Experience;

• Strong press office experience
• Experience leading briefings and visits for senior ministers
• Experience working on international summits or with foreign governments.

Additional information:

Cabinet Office policy is that a minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. For some roles, due to their nature and the business need, this may be up to 100%. Requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Behaviours

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

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

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £47,670, Cabinet Office contributes £13,809 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 which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and employer contributions of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Application process

Please submit a CV and Personal Statement (1,000 words max) to explain how you meet the Behaviours outlined in the job description and how your skills and experience make you a suitable candidate for the role.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Applications will be assessed against the CV and Personal Statement using the Success Profiles Framework.

Selection process

Candidates successful at sift will be invited to Behaviours and Strength-based panel interview.

The behaviours listed are the following:

Seeing the Big Picture

Making Effective Decisions

Communicating and Influencing

Delivering at Pace

Expected timeline (subject to change)

Expected sift date – April 2026

Expected interview date/s – April/May 2026

Interview location - Your interview will either be conducted face to face or by video. You will be notified of the location if you are selected for interview.

Reasonable adjustments

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via Cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Further information

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'contact point for applicants' section.

Please note that this role requires DV clearance, which would normally need 10 years’ UK residency in the past 10 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to Cabinet Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

Feedback

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 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 : No10 Recruitment
• Email : No10Recruitment@no10.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and wish to make a complaint, then in the first instance you should contact Government Recruitment Service by email at : cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission at info@csc.gov.uk. For further information on the Recruitment Principles and bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission, please visit their website at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk.

Attachments

Cabinet Office Employee Offer Opens in new window (pdf, 302kB)Cabinet Office Terms and Conditions - External 2025-02-20 Opens in new window (docx, 83kB)