Business Manager and Private Sectary to the Director General

Details
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Reference number

476829

Salary

£35,367 \- £41,494
National: £35,367 \- £37,497 London: £39,377 \- £41,494
A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28\.97%
GBP

Job grade

Higher Executive Officer### Contract type

Permanent### Business area

DBT \- CMRR \- Private Office### Type of role

Policy### Working pattern

Full\-time### Number of jobs available

1
Contents
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• Location


• About the job


• Benefits


• Things you need to know


• Apply and further information

Location
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Darlington, LondonAbout the job
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Job summary

The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) is the department for economic growth. We support businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the country. The Department works with businesses, consumers, regulators and partners across government to create the conditions for a strong and competitive economy.

The Domestic and International Markets and Export (DIME) Group within BIST plays a vital role in advising, supporting, and promoting UK businesses to grow and export, delivering economic growth through our services and policy interventions across the UK and overseas.

The DG DIME Private office is a small and agile team of 3, led by the Head of Private Office and supported by a wider operational team. The office supports two Director Generals who work in a job share.

Job description

Working in Private Office is really rewarding and a fun place to work, but you will need to be resilient to the challenges that arise. To be successful, you must be able to build networks across all levels and communicate effectively in writing and verbally. You will be empowered to make decisions and so must demonstrate excellent judgement in the face of uncertainty, competing views and demands. This is an exciting and stretching role with significant developmental opportunities.

As the Business Manager and Private Secretary to the Director Generals, you will play a central role in supporting the effective running of the DG DIME Private Office.

Working closely with the Director Generals’ Head of Private Office, Assistant Private Secretary, and operational team. You will develop an understanding of the Director Generals’ priorities, so you are able to advise on key decisions and communicate these effectively. You will work closely with the Director Generals’ Senior Leadership Team to ensure the Director Generals are using their time in the most effective and focused way.

You will own the Director Generals’ diary, manage conflicts autonomously and horizon scan so upcoming challenges are managed in an effective and timely manner.

You will also support coordination of cross\-cutting activities and returns, ensuring alignment with wider departmental priorities.

Additionally, you will coordinate high\-quality briefings, submissions and visit programmes, and ensure the Director Generals are prepared for meetings, travel and engagements. The postholder will need to exercise sound judgement, anticipate issues, resolve competing demands and maintain momentum across multiple workstreams.

The role will also provide strong operational and administrative support to the Director Generals, including managing travel and visit logistics, processing expenses, maintaining accurate records and filing systems, and responding to transparency and information requests in line with departmental requirements. The postholder will also develop a positive relationship with the Director Generals, building up trust through clear communication and developing a sufficient knowledge of their policy portfolio to give advice when required. The postholder will build effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders, represent the office professionally and handle sensitive communications with discretion. They will work creatively and collaboratively to unblock issues, support commissions from the Director Generals, horizon scan for risks and opportunities, and help ensure the Director Generals’ engagements are strategic, well planned and aligned to DIME priorities.

Person specification

Essential criteria

The below criteria are essential and will be assessed at application stage.

• Previous experience of working with and directly supporting senior leaders in a large organisation, Private Office, or similar environment, with a flexible and people\-focused approach to supporting varied priorities.


• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to track, manage and prioritise multiple competing demands in a fast\-moving environment.


• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to summarise complex issues clearly and tailor messages for different audiences.


• Ability to build and maintain strong working relationships, foster collaboration across teams and support effective join\-up.


• Sound judgement, with the confidence to make decisions, identify emerging issues and know when to escalate risks or concerns.


• Flexible and proactive team\-working skills, with the ability to support colleagues and respond effectively to urgent priorities.


• Excellent IT skills with experience using Microsoft 365 collaboration tools including MS Teams, Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and SharePoint, with a proactive approach to improving ways of working and managing sensitive information appropriately.

Desirable criteria

The below criteria are desirable only. These will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process, but will be used in the event of tied scores between candidates.

• Ability to maintain an understanding of emerging issues within your portfolio area


• Experience in managing a complex diary.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions


• Delivering at Pace

Benefits
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Alongside your salary of £35,367, Department for Business and Trade contributes £10,245 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides .* Learning and development tailored to your role

• An environment with flexible working options


• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity


• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28\.97%

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Things you need to know
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Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.### Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.
Interviews for this vacancy will be conducted virtually on MS Teams. We will, however, consider in\-person interviews by exception.

Please ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.

To apply for this post, you will be asked to complete the following as part of the online application:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages.


• A Personal Statement of up to 500 words, explaining how your experience and skills provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential criteria.

Your application will be sifted against the Experience criteria of the Civil Service Success Profiles.

We aim to sift both the CV and the Personal Statement but, in the event of a large number of applicants, an initial short sift may be conducted on the Personal Statement only. Candidates who pass the initial sift of the Personal Statement will either be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to interview.

Candidates who pass the sift will be invited to interview, where we will assess you on the Success Profiles elements of Behaviours, Experience and Strengths as well as a desk\-based exercise.

This exercise will be to assess how you would deal with some of the scenarios we come across in private office. We'll provide you with this information 30 mins ahead of the interview and ask you to talk us through how you would prioritise and action the information.

We aim to follow the below timelines for sift and interviews

• Sift – week commencing 14th September


• Interviews – week commencing 21th September

However, this is subject to change.

Please note, following a recent change to the Machinery of Government, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has been renamed to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) as of 20th July 2026\. BIST will connect the UK’s world\-class science and technology base directly to the businesses, places and workers that will drive good growth across the country. Such changes will not affect the selection proce

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