Stakeholder Engagement Lead

Location: National

Closing Date: 2nd October

Interviews: w/c 19th October

Grade: 7 (MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary: London: £63,343 - £70,725 National: £58,511 - £65,329

Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Number of vacancies: 1

Vacancy number: 22387

We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office.

The Role

We’re recruiting for a Stakeholder Engagement Lead here at Justice Digital, Data and Science, within the Digital Compliance team. Digital Compliance brings together specialist teams that help Justice Digital, Data and Science deliver secure, accessible, resilient and well-governed digital services. The effectiveness of these services depends on strong relationships with the people who use, deliver and are accountable for them, and on stakeholders understanding when to engage, why the work matters and how specialist teams can support successful delivery.

As Stakeholder Engagement Lead, you will establish, lead and continually develop the stakeholder engagement capability for Digital Compliance. You will set the strategic direction, operating model and priorities for stakeholder engagement across multiple specialist and technical functions, helping teams build trusted relationships, improve service adoption and support changes in organisational behaviour and practice.

You will lead three SEO Stakeholder Engagement Managers embedded across Digital Compliance teams. You will provide professional leadership, coaching and prioritisation, ensuring their work responds to the needs of individual specialist teams while contributing to a consistent, high-quality approach across Digital Compliance.

You will also provide strategic advice to senior leaders, using stakeholder insight to identify risks and opportunities, strengthen relationships and help Digital Compliance teams engage effectively with the people who use, deliver and are accountable for their services.

Inclusive and accessible working is a core expectation of the role. Digital Compliance has established accessible ways of working, and you will be expected to model, protect and strengthen these standards across stakeholder engagement, meetings, events, content, leadership activity and everyday team practice.

You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:

• A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
• 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours. Designed to support a positive work–life balance.
• Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!

Key Responsibilities

• Set strategic direction for stakeholder engagement.
• Develop and lead the Digital Compliance Stakeholder Engagement Strategy, translating organisational priorities into a clear approach for building relationships, improving understanding and supporting adoption of specialist services.
• Set priorities and consistent standards for stakeholder engagement across Digital Compliance, while ensuring approaches remain relevant to the needs of individual specialist teams.
• Identify cross-cutting stakeholder risks, opportunities and emerging themes, using insight to shape priorities and advise Digital Compliance leadership.
• Provide line management and professional leadership to three SEO Stakeholder Engagement Managers embedded across Digital Compliance teams.
• Prioritise engagement resource according to strategic need, stakeholder impact and organisational priorities.
• Coach and develop the team, building capability, sharing good practice and quality assuring high-impact engagement activity.
• Develop and maintain trusted relationships with senior leaders, Heads of Profession, service owners and other key stakeholders across Justice Digital, Data and Science.
• Advise Digital Compliance leads on stakeholder relationships, engagement risks and opportunities to improve understanding, collaboration and service adoption.
• Lead engagement on complex or cross-cutting issues where senior influence, relationship building or coordinated action is required.
• Help specialist teams better understand and engage the people who use, deliver or are affected by their services.
• Develop practical frameworks, guidance, communities and learning opportunities that strengthen stakeholder engagement capability across Digital Compliance.
• Use stakeholder insight, feedback and evidence to evaluate impact, identify barriers and continually improve engagement approaches.
• Set and model a high standard for inclusive and accessible stakeholder engagement, ensuring accessibility is considered from the outset.
• Embed inclusive practice across meetings, workshops, events, content and engagement activity, enabling people with different access, communication and information-processing needs to participate effectively.
• Constructively challenge inaccessible or exclusionary practice and work with Accessibility specialists where additional expertise or assurance is required.

Person Specification

Essential

• Proven experience of developing and leading stakeholder engagement across complex specialist, technical or service-facing areas, with evidence of improving relationships, understanding, collaboration or service adoption.
• Experience of establishing, developing or improving a stakeholder engagement capability across multiple teams, creating clear approaches, standards and priorities.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with experience building trusted relationships with senior leaders, navigating competing priorities and providing constructive challenge.
• Experience using stakeholder insight and two-way engagement to influence behaviour, support organisational change or improve how people engage with services.
• Experience leading and developing people, communities or professional networks, building capability and enabling others to deliver effectively.
• A strong track record of inclusive and accessible working, alongside excellent communication, facilitation and presentation skills.

You will be able to demonstrate how you have removed barriers to participation, considered different communication and information-processing needs, and influenced others to maintain high standards.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance.

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor. Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.

How to Apply

In Justice Digital, Data and Science, we recruit using the Success Profiles Frameworks. We shall assess a combination of your Experience, Technical skills and Behaviours during the assessment process.

Stage 1 - Application and sift:

• A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). Your CV will be assessed against the essential criteria outlined within the Person Specification of this advert.
• A Personal Statement (no more than 750 words) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken. It should specifically address the criteria listed above.

Please note that any content beyond the first 750 words will not be considered as part of the assessment.

A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and Personal Statement to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement do not include your name or any other identifying details.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on “Experience of establishing, developing or improving a stakeholder engagement capability across multiple teams, creating clear approaches, standards and priorities” will be conducted before the sift.

Stage 2 - Interviews:

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a panel interview held via Microsoft Teams. At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements - Experience, Technical skills and the following Behaviours:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture

As part of your interview, you will be asked to deliver a presentation that assesses your experience and technical skill, with the topic: Building Trust in Digital Compliance: Enabling Delivery While Maintaining Control.

Further details will be provided if successful at sift.

Appointments are made strictly in merit order. In the event that two or more candidates receive identical interview scores, Seeing the bigger picture will be applied as the primary lead criterion to determine the final merit order.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application; however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own), applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Please see our AI candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact digitalanddatarecruitment@justice.gov.uk