Governance Officer

The Governance Officer role is pivotal to the delivery of high-level decision making forums and supporting the Executive Team in the SFO. You will be responsible for ensuring that the organisation’s governance structure receives exceptional support and that it operates efficiently, effectively, transparently and with integrity.

This role requires privileged access to the highest levels of decision-making in the SFO and demands well-developed organisational and written skills, discretion, and flexibility. You must be able to deal confidently with staff of all grades. Your success in the role will depend on impressive prioritisation skills, strong insight into activities across the organisation and proactive identification of developments beyond the agency that affect its effective running and reputation.

As a Governance Officer you will:

• Provide efficient and effective secretariat support to the top tier of organisational committees, including leading on Case Evaluation Boards;
• Manage and provide high-quality support to boards and committees including practical arrangements for meetings, creating and maintaining a forward look of key committee agenda items, liaising with the Chair to prepare agendas and commission briefs and ensuring alignment of activity across committees;
• Draft accurate and concise minutes within agreed timeframes;
• Ensure that actions from meetings are correctly recorded and followed up, raising issues where necessary and appropriately tracking progress as well as updating and closing action items;
• Work with and support the Head of Governance to deliver effective and efficient governance to the Department, escalating issues as necessary;
• Work with colleagues across the Department to ensure issues are brought to the correct governance forum at the right time to support effective decision making at the right level;
• Assist the Head of Governance in the delivery of key recommendations emerging from an internal audit of SFO Governance;
• Manage internal communications about the work of the Governance Team, including managing the team’s intranet page; and
• Act as a point of contact for our Non-Executive Directors in relation to SFO meeting scheduling and other general queries.

Fore more information about the role and for a full list of responsibilities, please see the attached Job Pack.

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, Ability and Experience.

Application Stage

Stage one

You will first need to complete the two online assessments: Civil Service Verbal Test and Civil Service Work Strengths Test. If you pass both online assessments, you will be invited to complete the rest of the application form. In this section you will be asked to:

• Provide a specific example of when you have had to work under pressure, while maintaining focus and reacting to changing circumstances- 250 words
• Provide a specific example of how you have used your interpersonal skills, including the ability to communicate effectively at all levels, to build professional relationships- 250 words

Also, as part of the selection process please provide a supporting CV outlining your job history.

It will not be possible to provide feedback to applicants who are unsuccessful at the application stage.

Stage Two:

Candidates who are successful at Stage One will be invited to attend an interview.

At the interview stage we will be assessing the following behaviours:

• Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

Candidates invited to interview will also be required to complete an assessment.

Full details of the interview process will be made available to shortlisted candidates in the invite to interview.

Sift to take place from 13 November.

Interviews are expected to take place from 23 November

All dates are indicative and subject to change.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. To be eligible you must meet the following residency requirements dependent of the level of security vetting required:

• SC: 5 years residency in the United Kingdom preceding this application.

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