Private Secretary to the SpAds of the Minister for AI

Job summary

The role of a Private Secretary is varied, challenging and fast-paced where no two days are the same. Positioned at the centre of government, this offers an exciting opportunity to work directly for the Cabinet Office’s Special Advisers (SpAds).

Our Special Advisers form a core part of our political team. They provide our Ministers with political support and advice, and help them to drive through their priorities within the department and across Government. We have a small number of SpAds to support our Ministers on the full range of the Cabinet Office’s work. An effective Private Office function is crucial in enabling them to do this.

This role is based in the Minister for Artificial Intelligence’s private office, supporting his two special advisors. The post holder will have a significant amount of autonomy, overseeing and supporting the special advisers to drive forward the ministerial portfolio. The role is critical to ensuring the Minister and special advisers’ team deliver their priorities effectively with the rest of the department, No10, wider Government, key external stakeholders, and Parliament.

The successful candidate will operate at a senior level across government with credibility not often matched at this grade, and be a visible leader across the department.

Job description

You will have responsibility for the day-to-day running of the SpAds’ workload and diaries. Your key responsibilities will be:

• Ensuring the Minister’s and SpAds’ priorities are understood across the Department.
• Coordinating briefing and advice for the SpAds to ensure the effective and timely delivery of the Minister’s key priorities.
• Building a network of key officials; developing a more detailed understanding of the key milestones and issues; and working closely with the relevant ministerial offices to ensure the effective delivery of priorities.
• Demonstrating excellent understanding of policies across the Minister’s portfolio, keeping abreast of emerging issues and work at pace to resolve them effectively.
• Demonstrating exceptional organisational skills and ability to prioritise, problem solve and balance a high number of short demanding deadlines.
• Working directly with the Comms SpAd to manage the Minister’s Communications plan
• Office Management

Person specification

Essential:

• Strong understanding of how Whitehall operates.
• Experience of having worked or covered in a Private Office for a Minister or Permanent Secretary.
• Excellent judgment and policy analysis which can be deployed flexibly across a wide range of issues.
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills.
• Strong political awareness.
• Strong organisational skills.

Desirable:

• Experience of having worked with Special Advisers.
• Experiences of having worked in Artificial Intelligence policy.
• Experience using AI to automate and build dashboards.
• Experiences of diary management.

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:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,409, Cabinet Office contributes £12,285 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• 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

Candidates should share a max 2-page CV that includes details of your current role and responsibilities and a 500 word personal statement setting out how you meet the essential criteria.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be undertaken using the personal statement.

Selection process

Successful candidates will be invited to interview, where there will be a 5 minute presentation, alongside 2 behaviour questions and one strength based question.

The two behaviours assessed are managing a quality of service and communicating and influencing

Expected timeline (subject to change)

Expected sift date – w/c 4/10

Expected interview date/s – w/c 11/10

Interview location - virtual

Further Information

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Reasonable Adjustment

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.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 10 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.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

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

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Oli Tao
• Email : oli.tao@cabinetoffice.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 (2) Opens in new window (pdf, 302kB)Cabinet Office Terms and Conditions - Across Government 2025-02-20 (1) Opens in new window (docx, 60kB)