Director, Prime Minister\'s Official Spokesperson

This role will be based full-time at 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA.

The Director, Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson will lead a brilliant and high-performing No10 Communications team, speak on behalf of the Prime Minister at daily lobby briefings and have the chance to travel with the Prime Minister for both domestic and international events and visits. This is one of the most exciting and challenging jobs in government communications, providing a unique opportunity to work at the heart of the Prime Minister's Office.

The post holder will need to provide trusted media advice to the Prime Minister and his wider political team, represent the Prime Minister and the Government directly at 'on the record' briefings to political journalists, motivate and develop the talented No10 Communications team as well as work in close partnership with Whitehall counterparts, providing leadership to the cross-government Communications cadre.

The post holder will also be responsible for providing excellent leadership across the No10 Communications team, instilling strategy, continuous improvement and driving an integrated approach between the multiple communications functionalities, including press and digital, available to No10 and the Prime Minister.

This post will appeal to an experienced and confident communications operator, who enjoys working with senior ministers, political advisers, officials, and journalists, who is equally confident that they can articulate the clear sense of direction necessary to motivate a high-performing team and who wants to play an active leadership role in the wider Prime Minister's Office senior leadership team, contributing to the corporate functions of the unit.

Working at No10 involves regularly delivering under pressure and to challenging deadlines. The No10 Communications team comprises around 55 staff, including two senior civil servants. To be successful in this post will require establishing strong relationships at the most senior levels of government both within No10 and across Government. The successful candidate will show credibility, resilience, and the ability to distil complex matters easily.

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead the No10 communications team, ensuring high quality 24/7 media operations, digital media, insights, and planning teams.
• Regularly brief the UK's political press on behalf of the Prime Minister as Official Spokesperson and chair briefings for foreign correspondents based in the UK.
• Lead and develop, in line with GCS principles, a No10 Communications senior leadership team who each lead on specific functions / policy areas.
• Ensure the Prime Minister, his political team and the No10 senior team are well sighted on emerging issues and that his day-to-day business is transacted efficiently and in a timely manner.
• Advise the Prime Minister and his senior team on media handling related, but not limited to government policy announcements, events, visits, and the full range of domestic and foreign affairs.
• Provide senior leadership oversight on government planning activity to ensure the coordination of cross-government press operations.
• Work collaboratively with the No10 senior team, private office, policy unit, delivery unit, cabinet office, departments, and others to manage announcements and deal with ad-hoc issues.
• Develop and use a wide range of media strategies, including active use of digital, direct, regional, and non-news media channels to promote and defend government policy.
• Financial responsibility for the No10 Communications team including budget management and contract management for services provided.
• Be a key member of both the No10 SCS management team and the Cabinet Office Communications Leadership Team, actively participating in corporate activities to further staff engagement, motivation, and inclusion.

This role is based at 10 Downing Street and office based only.

Person specification

It is important, that through your CV and supporting statement, that you provide evidence of the following Essential Criteria:

• A track record of inclusively leading and motivating a diverse, high-performing, ambitious team of professionals to deliver at pace on a demanding and complex agenda, driving progress despite a range of competing views and priorities.
• Effective judgement under pressure regarding the news cycle, ensuring that media operations work efficiently, emerging issues are handled appropriately, and concerns escalated as required to the relevant senior stakeholders.
• Experience working in a modern, fast-paced communications environment that requires strong credibility, personal resilience, and the ability to convey difficult or complex messages clearly and with tact.
• The personal presence, effectiveness and credibility to operate at a very senior level across Whitehall, with a proven track record of working closely and in partnership with senior stakeholders (e.g. Permanent Secretaries, C-suite leaders, Boards or Ministers) in challenging situations.
• A strong understanding of the wider media and political context in which No10 and the Government operates including an understanding of, and ideally strong experience with, the use of digital media as part of your media execution and strategy.
• Significant experience of leading cross discipline teams, with a detailed understanding of and appreciation for digital communications.
• Excellent interpersonal, negotiation and relationship building skills to ensure you can work closely, whilst under pressure, with colleagues across No10, Government departments and external media/organisations to support strategic thinking, analysis and use of evidence-based decision making.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £100,000, Cabinet Office contributes £28,970 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career within the Department and wider Civil Service. It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead, and you'll benefit from regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing.

As a Civil Service employee, you'll be entitled to a large range of benefits. This includes:

• 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years' service. This is in addition to 8 public holidays and one privilege day to mark the King's birthday.
• A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire;
• Flexible working patterns including part-time or term-time working and access to Flexible Working Schemes allowing you to vary your working day as long as you work your total hours;
• Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers;
• Childcare benefits (policy for new employees as of 5 April 2018): The government has introduced the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme.