Kingston (On-Site)
£105,622 - £118,566
About the Borough
Kingston is a beautiful royal borough with a historic setting on the banks of the Thames with excellent schools and a bustling retail centre, all surrounded by open green spaces such as Richmond Park and Bushey Park, former recreation grounds for Tudor Kings and Queens.
Kingston is a borough with many thriving diverse communities, rich in history and heritage and full of potential for our future. We have a Future Council commitment to ensure that the council is ready for the future, is managed effectively and responsibly in the best interests of our communities and delivery is supported by high quality services.
About the Service and Team
The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames offers thriving places to live, work, study and visit. Our communities are a vibrant cross-section of society and, for the most part, are thriving. But like all communities, we have those who require a larger range of services in order to ensure their health, safety and prosperity. Our diverse resident groups mean that we must deliver to a broad range of customer needs, in an increasingly challenging financial environment.About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate
This is a highly visible and collaborative role – providing trusted, strategic advice to elected Members, Chief Officers and partners. Kingston operates a committee-system and within this context you will lead critical services including Legal (via the South London Legal Partnership), Corporate Governance and Democratic Services.
We’re looking for a pragmatic Director to play a pivotal leadership role, ensuring that the council operates within a sound legal and ethical framework. You will also be the Council’s Monitoring Officer, upholding standards of conduct and legality across all our functions.
Our Offer to You
As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.
In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. We operate hybrid working, a flexible working model which allows staff to work from a variety of locations and staff are not required to work within the office 5 days a week. It enables staff to achieve a work life balance whilst still meeting the needs of the organisation.
Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:
- Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
- Three volunteering days per year in Kingston
- Flexible and agile working arrangements
- Comprehensive learning and development programme
- Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
- Interest free season ticket loans
- Local Government Pension Scheme
- Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
- Zip car scheme
- Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
- Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
- Subsidised gym membership
Application Process
Important
Please note that Starfish Search are working as our Recruitment Partners for this role and managing the end to end recruitment process. For further details, please click on the role profile and useful links below, or for more information please contact Tom Ripley (07701 217 520 / tom.ripley@starfishsearch.com) or Penny Ransley (07549 233685 / penny.ransley@starfishsearch.com).
Please apply online via this link on Starfish Searches website outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please ensure you refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application.
Hiring managers are encouraged to ensure that their interview panel is diverse, and representative of a range of protected characteristics, to help remove unconscious bias and ensure candidates are treated fairly during the selection process. Some characteristics may not be obvious, but our panels are diverse wherever possible. We have a number of measures in place to inform and support our approach, including mandatory EDI and unconscious bias training for all staff, safer recruitment training for diverse panel members, engaging with our staff networks and encouraging allyship. We are fully committed to removing barriers and enhancing the diversity of our workforce.
Timeline
Closing date: Monday 7th July 2025
Longlist meeting: Thursday 24th July 2025
Technical interviews (virtual): Tuesday 29th and Wednesday 30th July 2025
Shortlist meeting: Wednesday 20th August 2025
1:1s and stakeholder panels (in-person): Thursday 28th August 2025
Final interviews (in-person): Monday 1st September 2025
Additional Information
We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough. Our aim is to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and staff feel a sense of belonging. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, particularly Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, and disabled candidates, as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.
As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role.
We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.
We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.
The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.