Chief of Staff to the Permanent Secretary

As a Deputy Director Chief of Staff, you will be managing a 20-30 person, multi-office network supporting senior officials.

The team is one of the most dynamic teams in DCMS, involved in all aspects of departmental business, supporting the Department’s senior leadership team with a high-quality service.

Working as part of the wider PO team, Officials Private Office is a close-knit, friendly team working across the whole breadth of the department’s work. Working closely with DCMS senior leaders, ministerial private offices, and policy officials, you will be part of a fast-paced team, where you will need to engage regularly with the most senior parts of the department and have a good strategic eye.

This is a unique opportunity to influence decisions at the highest levels of government while helping ensure DCMS is operating at its best.

Job description

The Chief of Staff provides strategic leadership and oversight of the Permanent Secretary's Office and the network of Director General (DG) Private Offices (PO) across the newly expanded department.

The Chief of Staff acts as the Permanent Secretary's principal adviser on corporate and cross-cutting issues, ensuring that strategic priorities are translated into effective action across the organisation. They provide leadership to the collective officials' PO function, strengthen alignment between senior offices, and ensure effective coordination with Ministerial POs.

The role is accountable for:

• Supporting the Permanent Secretary in the effective running of the department.
• Acting as a senior troubleshooter on complex, sensitive, and cross-cutting issues.
• Leading and managing the Permanent Secretary's PO and DG PO network.
• Building coherence across senior leadership structures and ways of working.
• Leading a review of support arrangements for the Permanent Secretary and DGs to ensure they remain fit for purpose within an expanded department.
• Strengthening links between officials' POs, Ministerial POs, and central corporate functions.
• Supporting crisis management and major incident responses affecting departmental leadership.

The post-holder contributes directly to the effectiveness of departmental leadership, governance, organisational performance, and delivery.

Person specification

The ideal candidate would have the following key skills and experience:

• Seeing the Big Picture: outstanding strategic judgment; anticipating emerging risks and opportunities across the wider operating environment, and translating overarching priorities into coherent action across complex governance structures.
• Making Effective Decisions: leading on complex, cross-cutting issues; synthesising ambiguous evidence, balancing competing priorities, and driving sound, timely decisions in a high-tempo environment.
• Leadership: visible, inclusive leadership through periods of change and ambiguity; empowering teams to deliver at pace while sustaining high standards, resilience, and wellbeing.
• Working Together: building influential relationships across executive offices and governance boards; resolving competing agendas and fostering collaboration to secure collective ownership of corporate priorities.
• Changing and Improving: championing continuous improvement and innovation; using operational and corporate insight to shape sustainable solutions that improve outcomes across the department.

Desirable skills include familiarity with some of DCMS’s policies and delivery agenda, and experience of working with, and delivering on behalf of, senior stakeholders, such as ministers or senior executives.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £86,000, Department for Culture, Media and Sport contributes £24,914 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

DCMS values its staff and offers a wide range of benefits to everyone who works here. We’re committed to developing talent, and supporting colleagues to have great careers in our department. Some of the benefits we offer include:

• Flexible working arrangements and hybrid working.
• 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing to 30 days after 5 years’ service.
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• Access to the Edenred employee benefits system.
• 3 days of paid volunteering leave.
• Up to 9 months maternity leave on full pay + generous paternity and adoption leave.
• Staff reward and recognition bonuses.
• Occupational sick pay.
• Access to the Employee Assistance Programme.
• Active and engaged staff networks.
• Exceptional learning and development opportunities.
• Season ticket loan, cycle to work scheme, and much more!