Diary Manager/Executive Assistant

The Home Office works to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter-terrorism, policing, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports.

The Corporate Services Group works closely with the Home Office’s policy and operational commands to enable us together to deliver the department’s priorities. The group is comprised of different teams and professional functions, including Commercial, Communications, Finance, People, Portfolio and Project Delivery, Private Office, Security, Estates and Information.

The Home Office Commercial function plays a critical role in delivering key departmental priorities, managing a diverse portfolio of contracts and suppliers that support frontline operations.

We are looking for a highly organised and proactive Diary Manager to join the Commercial Executive Support Pool. This role provides diary management and administrative support to Deputy Directors across the Commercial Directorate, helping to ensure leaders can focus on delivering business priorities.

As part of a collaborative Executive Support Pool, you will work flexibly across a range of business areas, providing high-quality support, coordinating meetings and stakeholder engagement, and helping to ensure the smooth running of senior leadership offices.

This is an excellent opportunity to develop your organisational, communication and stakeholder management skills in a fast-paced and high-profile environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Managing busy and changing diaries for Deputy Directors, ensuring effective prioritisation and coordination of appointments and meetings.
• Arranging meetings, coordinating logistics and responding to competing demands on behalf of senior leaders.
• Acting as a first point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, handling enquiries professionally and efficiently.
• Supporting meetings through the coordination of agendas, papers, actions and follow-up activity.
• Managing correspondence, meeting requests and administrative tasks in a timely manner.
• Maintaining accurate records and ensuring information is handled appropriately and sensitively.
• Working flexibly across the wider Commercial Executive Support Pool to provide resilience and support where required.
• Building effective working relationships with colleagues across Commercial, the wider Home Office and external organisations.
• Supporting continuous improvement of administrative processes and ways of working.

Working Pattern

Due to the business requirements of this role, it is only available on a full-time basis.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Ability and Experience.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

We will endeavour to conduct the selection process in line with the dates indicated below, but cannot guarantee that these will not, where necessary, be revised.

As part of the application process, you will first be asked to confirm your eligibility by providing some basic personal information.

After submission of this first stage, you will be invited to complete the following Civil Service Verbal and Judgement test(s).

• Online Test – by Thursday 3rd September 2026.

If you successfully pass the Verbal and Judgement test(s), you will be invited to complete the full application form. Please complete the online test(s) as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended). If you fail to complete the online test(s) or full application before the deadline, your application will be withdrawn.

Guidance for the Civil Service test(s) will be available when you are invited to take the test(s). The online tests are accessed via the Civil Service Jobs website.

Online Test Maintenance

Our online test supplier will be performing scheduled maintenance between 4pm to 7pm on 23rd August and 4pm to midnight on 30th August 2026 You will be unable to access tests during this period.

If you are in the middle of a test when the maintenance begins, your progress will be paused. You will be able to resume your test from where you left off via your application centre once the downtime has ended. Please note that you will not be able to launch any new tests while the system is offline.

You will be directed to the Talogy - True Talent – Scheduled Maintenance Window Webpage for online tests during an outage.

You cannot complete the tests on a mobile phone or tablet.

Following successful completion of your test/s, you will then be asked to complete the full application form.

2. Application – by Thursday 3rd September 2026.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

• CV
• Personal Statement (maximum 1000 words).
• Evidence of the Behaviour/s 'Delivering at Pace' (maximum of 250 words).

Your CV should consist of your career history and skills/experience, including any key achievements in each role. Your CV will be scored against the experience required for the role as noted within the essential criteria.

The Personal Statement should be aligned to and demonstrate how you meet the skills and experience set out in the essential criteria, detailed in the job description.

For guidance and information on how to construct your application (CV, Personal Statement and Behaviours), you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers website.

3. Sift – Monday 7th September 2026.

The sift will be held on the Personal Statement, CV and Behaviour/s, as listed in the advert.

Should a high volume of applications be received, an initial sift will be conducted on the Personal Statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will then be progressed to a full sift that will consist of all the remaining elements submitted (CV / Behaviours). Candidates who fail to meet the minimum pass score for the initial sift will not have their remaining submitted elements scored and will only receive a sift score for that assessed at the initial sift.

4. Interview – Monday 28th September 2026.

If you are successful at sift stage, you will be invited to an interview that will be Behaviours (as listed in the job advert), Strength based questions and Experience based questions. All Behaviours listed in the selection process will be scored at the interview.

The interview will take place via Teams.

Candidates will be required to have access to:

• A laptop (personal or work) with a working webcam
• Good internet connection
• Microsoft Teams

For guidance and information on what to expect and how to prepare for an interview, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers.

Problems during the application process

If you experience problems accessing this advert, or you think you’ve made a mistake on an initial application, please contact hocandidates.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk, including the vacancy reference, at least two working days before the vacancy closes. Further information can be found on our website.

Do not create or attempt to submit another application, online test or use a different Civil Service Jobs account to proceed as this would be in violation of the candidate declaration.

Location Preference

You can select up to three locations in order of preference. Please ensure that these are locations you are prepared to travel to. If you are offered a role at one of your preferred location(s) and you decline, your application will be withdrawn.

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made. There is no guarantee that being held on a reserve list will lead to a job offer. Further information can be found on our website.

Reserve lists will be held for each location. Candidates will be appointed in merit order by location.

Breaking Tied Scores

The behaviours, experience, and strengths have been ranked in order of importance to enable us to differentiate between candidates with tied interview scores.

Standards

All Civil Servants are expected to comply with the Civil Service Code, and its core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.

Additional Security Checks

As well as successfully obtaining UK Security Vetting clearance, candidates will be subject to a range of additional checks. The range of checks carried out will depend on whether you are a current Home Office employee, existing civil servant or an external new entrant as well as the role requirements. Further details are included in the Notes to Candidates.

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the “Assistance Required” section in the “Additional Requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct.

If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.