Assistant Chief of Staff for Policy, Legal and Media

Ministry of Defence

Location: MOD Northwood, Middlesex
Salary: £71,000pa
Ref: 79873

About the job

The Permanent Joint Headquarters is an adaptable and agile headquarters created to command joint and combined military operations.
Headed by the Chief of Joint Operations, we are responsible for:
• planning and executing UK-led joint and multinational operations
• exercising operational command of UK Forces assigned to multinational operations led by others
• Providing policy and resource aware military advice to the Ministry of Defence (MOD).
The Permanent Joint Headquarters is commanded by the Chief of Joint Operations, who is responsible for exercising operational command of UK forces assigned to overseas joint and combined operations; and to provide politically aware military advice to the MOD to achieve MOD UK’s strategic objectives on operations.
The Chief of Joint Operations appointment rotates between the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force. The current incumbent is Vice Admiral Ben Key CBE.
Permanent Joint Headquarters is organised into functional branches, known as Joint Divisions. Joint Division 1/4 is responsible for personnel and logistics; Joint Division 2 covers intelligence; Joint Division 3 is responsible for operations; Joint Division 5 is responsible for planning; Joint Division 6 for communications; and Joint Division 8 for finance. There is also a Command Support Group.
Joint Division 9 is an integrated team of civil servants and military officers responsible for ensuring that the right policy aims, assumptions, guidance and permissions are in place for the military operations for which Permanent Joint Headquarters is responsible, and that the planning and conduct of those operations is consistent with them and responsive to changing political circumstances.
The post holder works closely with MOD policy officials, planners and deployed military commanders and provides leadership and support to the Northwood-based and deployed members of the Joint Division 9 team. They are also the role owner for deployed policy advisers.
The key responsibilities of this post include:
• Leading and managing a team of civil service policy advisers to:
– Ensure operational activity is conducted in accordance with policies determined by Ministers;
– Influence the MOD-level policy development process, ensuring practical military realities and local political conditions are taken into account;
– Ensure Ministers, and where necessary Parliament, are appropriately informed about operational developments, and consulted on novel or contentious aspects of operational activity.
• Managing a team of civilian and military Legal Advisers to:
– Provide legal advice to Chief of Joint Operations and his deployed commanders, ensuring consistency with the advice provided to Ministers and policy colleagues by MOD Central Legal Services;
– Provide direction, guidance and support to Legal Advisers deployed to Headquarters under Permanent Joint Headquarters’ command.
• Manage media operations and communications to:
– Provide presentational and media handling advice to Chief of Joint Operation and deployed commanders;
– Oversee the work of Permanent Joint Headquarters’ media and communications team in planning media events and products, and clearing content for release;
– Manage the embedding of journalists within deployed UK units in overseas theatres;
– Co-operate with the Directorate of Defence Communications and Strategic Command on operational media handling matters, the Overseas Bases and other issues of mutual interest.

About You:
The ideal candidate will need to demonstrate their capability and potential against the following criteria:

Essential
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to summarise complex issues and influence senior military and civilian officials, international partners and external contacts.
• Clarity of thought and analysis, and the ability to explain the practical implications of political and diplomatic developments and identify realistic courses of action despite incomplete or ambiguous information.
• Strong stakeholder management and relationship building skills, with experience of understanding Ministerial priorities and interests.
• Proven leadership skills and the ability to motivate and support a varied team, including subject matter experts, to provide high-quality work under pressure and to tight deadlines.
• Familiarity with Government crisis management and policy development, including the processes for inter-Departmental co-ordination and Parliamentary and Public accountability.
Desirable
• Knowledge of Defence and military issues would be highly desirable.

Closing date: 15 November 2020.