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Civil Service Grade 7 (G7) jobs

There are currently 212 G7 vacancies open across the Civil Service.

Grade 7 is the senior professional grade of the delegated Civil Service and the last one before the Senior Civil Service. A Grade 7 usually owns a policy area, a major programme or a specialist function outright, and is the person ministers’ private offices and directors come to when they want the definitive answer on it.

The change from SEO is one of authority rather than scale. A Grade 7 is expected to have a view and to defend it — to tell a director that a preferred option will not work, and to be right. Much of the job is making judgement calls on incomplete information under time pressure, then being accountable for them long after the pressure has passed.

Grade 7 is also where the Civil Service recruits most heavily on genuine expertise. Legal, digital, economics, statistics, commercial, actuarial and engineering roles at this grade compete directly with the private sector, and several professions carry allowances or their own pay frameworks that sit above the departmental norm. The profession filter is the fastest way to see which of these are currently live.

On assessment, Grade 7 moves up a behaviour level, and the shift is real. Panels expect examples where you shaped the direction rather than delivered within it — where you decided what should be done, persuaded people with the power to stop you, and took responsibility for the result. Strong SEO examples often fail at Grade 7 not because they are poorly told but because the candidate was executing someone else’s decision throughout.

Live vacancies

Search and filter all 212 vacancies

The full board also shows how many posts each campaign is filling, which the official results list does not.

Common questions

Is Grade 7 part of the Senior Civil Service?
No. Grade 7 and Grade 6 are the most senior delegated grades; the Senior Civil Service begins above them at SCS Pay Band 1, which is typically a Deputy Director role.
What behaviour level applies at Grade 7?
Grade 7 sits a level above HEO and SEO in the Success Profiles framework. Panels look for evidence that you shaped direction and made decisions with organisational consequences, not that you delivered well within a direction someone else set.
Which professions pay most at Grade 7?
Specialist professions that compete with the private sector — digital and data, legal, commercial, economics and actuarial among them — frequently pay above the departmental norm at this grade, sometimes through profession-specific pay frameworks or allowances.
Can I move straight into Grade 7 from outside the Civil Service?
Yes. Grade 7 is one of the most common external entry points for experienced specialists, and many campaigns are open to all. The framework you are assessed against will still be Success Profiles.

Read the full guide — what the grade involves, how it is assessed, and worked answers.