Deputy Principal Private Secretary

As Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the Lord Chancellor, you will help deliver the Department's priorities, working in a fast-paced and exciting environment where strong team working is vital. You will gain invaluable experience at the heart of the Department's decision-making process, working directly with the Lord Chancellor, Special Advisers, Senior officials across the department and Whitehall, and external stakeholders.

This role, working to the Principal Private Secretary to the Lord Chancellor, will have responsibility for oversight of the Lord Chancellor's Private Office, working closely with the existing Deputy Principal Private Secretary who has oversight of the Junior Minister offices. You will need to have the personal credibility and experience to build trust and confidence with the Lord Chancellor and the wider Ministerial team, ensuring work that is sent to Ministers is of high quality and that advice, briefings and correspondence on a range of complex and challenging policy and operational issues are clear.

You will need to be an excellent leader and manager, ensuring the Lord Chancellor's Private Office team have a high standard of pastoral care in demanding roles and that you promote join up across the team and ensure issues are escalated appropriately. Alongside oversight of the Private Office you will lead on the vitally important finance portfolio for the Lord Chancellor, working closely with key teams across the department in the lead up to next year's Spending Review.

In time you should become the key expert in Private Office on relevant issues. This role demands excellent interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence in order to collaborate in a high-pressured environment with policy, finance, operations and other Private Office colleagues, making sure that the Lord Chancellor and SpAds are looped in on emerging issues in the right way, at the right time. This is a demanding and high-profile role in Private Office, working on critical priorities for the Lord Chancellor and has regular interaction with Number 10.

This role therefore requires the ability to work at pace, navigate complicated political dynamics and engage confidently with key officials and special advisers at the centre of Government. You will be a key go between for the Lord Chancellor and the Department and must be comfortable working with colleagues at all grades. Please note that this role requires working extended hours for which a Private Secretary allowance is payable., The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows.

This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity. Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working.

Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone's circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review. For nationally advertised roles: All successful candidates will be appointed to the nearest viable office nearest to their home postcode and on its respective pay scale. This will be at either a HQ building (subject to desk allocation, a Justice Collaboration Centre (JCC) or a Justice Satellite Office (JSO) - See Map.

All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity). For current MoJ employees, your base location will need to be changed to the nearest viable office (to your home postcode), either at a HQ building, JCC or JSO within the National Office Network and moved its location's respective pay scale (any legacy arrangements/locations will need to be amended).

Some of MoJ's terms and conditions of service are changing as part of Civil Service r