Senior Government Engagement Advisor

Please apply online via the link provided.

Senior Government Engagement Advisor

Job available in these locations:
United Kingdom
Flexible - CQC office-based, United Kingdom
United Kingdom

Grade B: £42,044 (National) or £47,900 (London – for London office-based or home-based workers within the boundary of the M25) – There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £600 per annum for those working from home.

Contracted Hours: Full-time 37 hours per week or talk to us about compressed hours.

Contract Type: Fixed Term, Secondment opportunity up until October 2027. This post is currently advertised for 12 months due to time-limited funding. Internal applicants must obtain written confirmation from their line manager, granting permission to be released from their current role, before applying for this opportunity.

Location: Home-based OR office-based opportunity, flexible location. You can also opt for hybrid working (3 office days and 2 days a week from home). CQC’s offices are in London, Newcastle, Leeds, Nottingham and Bristol. The role may require some travel to London, potentially at short notice.

Closing Date: Thursday 2 July 2026 at 11.59pm

Make a difference

Every role at CQC helps us make care better for people. If you’re looking for a role in government and stakeholder engagement with real purpose, this could be for you.

As a Senior Government Engagement Advisor, you will play a key role in shaping how CQC works with government departments, leading high-profile engagement with civil servants and Ministers, particularly in relation to CQC’s work assessing local authorities, helping ensure CQC is open, clear and trusted, while building strong partnerships and confidently presenting our independent regulatory voice.

You will also play a key role in ensuring insight from government stakeholders is captured and used to inform CQC’s approach, helping us continuously improve how we regulate and support better care.

Bring your experience to a role in CQC that really makes a difference.

The role

You’ll play a key role by

- Leading day-to-day and strategic engagement with government teams, including senior civil servants and Ministers
- Preparing clear, insightful briefings and providing strategic advice to senior leaders ahead of key engagements
- Building strong, two-way relationships with government stakeholders, ensuring CQC’s priorities are understood, and government perspectives are reflected in our work
- Leading and coordinating responses to government requests, inquiries, and accountability processes
- Monitoring external developments and translating insight into clear advice and action for colleagues across CQC

Show us

We’ll be looking for you to evidence the following skills, knowledge and experience:

- Delivering engagement or communications work with senior stakeholders ideally within a government, parliamentary or health and care organisation context
- Preparing and presenting clear briefings or strategic advice to senior leaders on complex or sensitive issues
- Managing multiple priorities while maintaining high quality, accuracy and good judgement under pressure

Compliance

Note for internal candidates:

This is a secondment/fixed term opportunity. Please read the recruitment and selection policy section on secondments. You must discuss your application with your line manager before applying.

To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work, you won’t be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Next steps

If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. Please see our information for applicants for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.

You can read the full details of the role in the Job Description.

If you’d like an informal chat about the role, contact James Bryant, Government Engagement Manager. For general enquiries, please email our recruitment team.

The Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including:

- Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
- Training and development opportunities.
- Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
- NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution.
- Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!

Please see our benefits page for the full list.

Equity for all

We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need.

We want every candidate to feel supported and able to do their best. If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit our accessibility page for more on this. If you’d like to chat, please contact our recruitment team. Please note, if you have previously informed us of adjustments you need for interview or within your role, these are not carried over and must be discussed for each individual application you make.

We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. Diverse teams make our work better, help us deliver our mission and make our culture stronger. See our ED&I page for more about this.

We welcome applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support and community among our many employee networks. This includes people of any:

- Age
- Sex
- Gender identity or expression
- Sexual orientation
- Religion or belief
- Ethnicity
- Disability

Values and vision

We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.

Excellence – being a high-performing organisation.
Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.
Integrity – doing the right thing.
Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.

We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.

A Note on AI

AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:

- AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
- Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
- Do not copy and paste AI-generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience.
- Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.