CDDO Chief of Staff

The Chief of Staff is key in managing and developing strategic relationships between CDDO and the wider cabinet office and government. Representing the Chair of CDDO and the Chief Executive, the Chief of staff drives forward their priorities, working closely with the Deputy Director of Transformation, Change and Operations.  

As Chief of Staff you will:

• act as an informed advisor to the Chair and Executive director, providing clear and rapid analysis of key issues and strategies across the government digital, data and technology space, and Cabinet Office. You will provide independent advice and challenge on most difficult and complex projects. You will be scanning across many interdependent workstreams piecing together disparate strands to spot and mitigate emergent issues and unblock them. You will also need to anticipate future events to ensure that the Chair and Executive Director are aware of key issues
• manage and act as a point of contact for senior stakeholders, ministers and DDaT board members on behalf of the Chair and Executive Director, liaising and sharing information on key priorities and ensuring connections are made between Cabinet office colleagues and CDDO teams. Proactively build relationships and networks with private office colleagues across government for key strategic relationships
• drive forward the Chair and Executive Director’s priorities in CDDO, ensuring they align with the Executive Directors priorities and government strategy. You will need to unblock and anticipate issues across government and in CDDO and ensure seniors are positioned to act in the most impactful way that progresses DDaT goals for government, and that the CDDO strategy progresses at pace
• join up the work of the Chief Executive and Chair, ensuring they are briefed clearly and regularly on their individual priorities and aligned and operating together.  Run the Executive Team meetings to ensure they are focused on the right priorities to run CDDO successfully
• supporting the Chair, Executive Director and Deputy Director of operations with the design and delivery of the CDDO business strategy, ensuring it aligns with key senior stakeholder priorities and the DDaT strategy
• Lead a high performing Private Office and DDaT Governance and Parliamentary correspondence function. The office must ensure that the Executive Director and Chair’s time is allocated effectively to the most pressing issues by mitigating and escalating risks where required. Your team will commission briefings and sequence meetings to align to the Executive Director’s strategic objectives and deadlines. Your team will also set up the cross-government DDaT governance and hold the responsibility for CDDO’s legal obligations on parliamentary correspondence

This role requires:

• experience in leading a high performing team that can operate at pace and within ambiguity
• ability to shape an influence strategy to ensure that organisational priorities are realised
• ability to digest a wide range of information at pace; turning this into clear advice for senior stakeholders, handling both quantitative and qualitative evidence to make decisions
• Experience in improving the overall health / operating environment of an organisation through its people strategy
• have significant experience of building and maintaining effective relationships, using a variety of channels to get the best results. have significant experience of working with multiple stakeholders across a large and diverse audience
• have strong negotiation skills and proven experience of managing senior stakeholders to deliver results
• quickly gain the confidence of the Executive Director, Chair and other senior stakeholders, and demonstrate your ability to deal with sensitive and confidential issues as they arise

Additional information

The standard selection process for roles at CDDO consists of:

• An application screening process - Simply, hit apply.  We only ask for a Cover Letter (up to 750 Words) and a CV. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “who you’ll be” section above. 
• An interview - We will assess you against the behaviour, Communicating and Influencing. Strengths will also be assessed at interview. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status.

CDDO offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home/remote working and also spends some time in their local office. You will agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs. 

Security Clearance: The level of clearance required for this role is Security Clearance(SC). Further details are outlined in Security vetting for employees.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. For further information see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/prison-leavers-project-improving-outcomes-for-prison-leavers