The role of a Senior Executive Officer in the Army Policy and Secretariat is coordination and delivery focused, offering an exciting opportunity to improve your policy, analytical and collaboration skills. Working closely with colleagues across Army HQ and Defence, you will develop your specialist expertise while contributing to briefing Ministers and senior Army officials on priority issues.
The post will support the core outputs of the Policy and Secretariat team, which include:
- Provision of clear, effective, and impartial Departmental advice regarding Army matters to Defence Ministers and senior military and civilian staff.
- Generation and quality assurance of Ministerial submissions; supporting the development of Army policies and plans; and ensuring they are aligned with wider Departmental and Government policies.
- Broader support to Ministers, including the provision of briefings prior to meetings and responses for use at Parliamentary Select Committee inquiries.
- Development of lines to take and presentational advice about Army issues that may attract public, media and Parliamentary attention.
- Answering Parliamentary questions, drafting responses to Ministerial and Treat Official correspondence, and responding to Freedom of Information requests.
Key Responsibilities
- Contribute to the effective delivery of all Parliamentary Business relating to the Army, ensuring that it is completed within Departmental and legally mandated timescales.
- Support the provision of proactive, reliable, high-quality advice to Ministers and other stakeholders on all aspects of the Army portfolio including on matters of policy, Parliamentary and media interest.
- Provide Secretariat advice on Parliamentary and presentational matters to senior colleagues across the Army.
- Work as part of team to provide the Department of State function within the Army, including meeting or exceeding all statutory, Departmental and Government-wide targets for the delivery of Parliamentary and Ministerial business and fulfilling the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (2000).
- Share responsibility with other Senior Executive Officers (SEO) in the team for allocating requests for information and correspondence (Ministerial Correspondence, Parliamentary Questions, Treat Officials, Freedom of Information Act requests) across the whole team, ensuring a balance of workload.
- Building strong relationships with key stakeholders throughout Defence and Army.
- Line manage up to two Higher Executive Officers (HEO) members of staff and provide leadership and development to the wider HEO cohort within the Secretariat to ensure consistent high quality of output, including assurance of correspondence.
- Must be prepared to travel occasionally within the UK (including London and Scotland).
- Participate in the continued development of the Secretariat function within the Army HQ through engagement with the leadership team, testing amended ways of working and suggesting alternatives where appropriate and role modelling positive behaviours.
