Senior Adviser, Performance and Planning

About the Electoral Commission

The Electoral Commission is the UK’s independent body overseeing elections and regulating political finance. Everything we do is about ensuring trust, participation, and integrity in the democratic process.

As we continue to deliver our five-year Corporate Plan, the Commission is building on a period of growth and change, expanding our workforce and modernising how we deliver our services to better support the needs of a changing democracy. As our organisation develops and adapts to meet future challenges, this post will play a vital part in supporting that progress and helping ensure we remain responsive to the democratic needs of voters, campaigners, parties and electoral administrators across the UK.

About the team

You'll join the Planning & Performance Team within the Corporate Services Directorate.

The team leads the Commission's approach to strategic planning, business planning, performance reporting, KPI development and benefits realisation. Working across the organisation, the team supports services to understand and demonstrate their contribution to corporate objectives while providing the performance insight needed to support effective governance and decision making.

About the role

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Commission as our Senior Adviser - Performance & Planning, helping to shape how we measure, demonstrate and improve organisational performance. Acting as a trusted adviser to senior leaders, you will support the development of meaningful performance measures, benefits realisation approaches and governance reporting that enables informed decision making across the organisation.

This role combines strategic thinking with operational delivery. You will work closely with Heads of Service, Senior Leadership Team members, project teams and corporate colleagues to ensure the Commission has high-quality performance information, robust performance frameworks and effective reporting arrangements in place.

The role has significant visibility across the organisation and offers the opportunity to influence senior decision making, shape organisational improvement and support delivery of the Commission's strategic objectives.

Key responsibilities include:

• Embedding the Commission's performance management and benefits realisation frameworks.
• Supporting senior leaders to identify, develop and monitor KPIs and benefits profiles.
• Producing and analysing performance information for Executive Committee, Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and Board reporting.
• Acting as a business partner to assigned service areas, providing expert advice on planning, performance and continuous improvement.
• Facilitating workshops, delivering guidance and supporting colleagues to effectively manage performance and benefits.
• Contributing to organisational improvement initiatives and the ongoing development of performance management processes.

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)

We are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment. To help reduce unconscious bias and ensure all applicants are assessed solely on their skills, knowledge and experience, we use an anonymous recruitment process.

When applying, please provide an anonymised CV which omits your protected characteristics and any personally identifiable information:

Do not include:

• Your name, address, phone number, email or other contact details
• Your date of birth or age
• Gender, ethnicity, nationality or other personal identifiers
• A photo of yourself
• Remove educational dates as these are a clear indication of your age
• There is no requirement to include your primary education details.

Do include:

• Your employment history including employers and dates of employment
• Explanation for gaps in your history
• Your duties, responsibilities and achievements

If your CV contains personal details (such as your name or contact information), we will be unable to consider your application. Please double-check your documents before submitting, including the file name you use to save and upload your CV.

Supporting disabled applicants

The Electoral Commission is proud to be a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer. As part of this commitment, we aim to prioritise interviews for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria listed in the job description.

There may, however, be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. For example, during periods of exceptionally high application volumes or seasonal recruitment activity, the Commission may need to limit the overall number of interviews offered to both disabled and non-disabled applicants.

If you have a disability and would like to be considered under this commitment, please indicate this when you apply. We also welcome requests for reasonable adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process or within the workplace.

Key dates

• Application deadline: Monday 28th September (23:59)
• Interviews (1st stage): Week commencing Monday 12th October
• Interviews (2nd stage): Week commencing TBC
• Anticipated start date: TBC

Interviews are expected to be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams

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