New entrants to the Civil Service will be expected to join on the minimum of the pay range.
Existing Civil Servants will have their salary calculated in accordance with the Department’s pay on transfer / pay on promotion rules.
The national starting salary is £42,914. The London starting salary is £49,325. Your salary will be dependent on your base location
On 2 February 2023, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland announced that he would establish an independent statutory inquiry into the Real IRA bombing of Omagh on 15 August 1998, in which 31 lives were lost.
The Inquiry was formally established on publication of its Terms of Reference in February 2024. Since then, it has conducted a number of procedural hearings and commemorative public hearings in Omagh and Belfast. The Chairman of the Inquiry is supported by a small secretariat, led by the Secretary to the Inquiry. The secretariat provides administrative and policy support to the Chairman and other office holders. The post holder will join a small innovative team and will contribute to the Inquiry’s work as it progresses towards holding evidential hearings.
It’s an exciting time to be part of an energetic growing team with lots of potential for development and growth.
About the Role:
Working to the Head of Operations, the Operations Service Manager is a key role and will support the Inquiry’s Secretariat to build and provide robust services to support the Chairman and Inquiry Legal Team in the delivery of the Inquiry.
The post holder will work flexibly across the small Secretariat team to lead on and provide support across various work strands and will have the opportunity to have oversight of projects and processes from start to finish. The role provides a number of opportunities for the post holder to see the tangible impact they will have across the Inquiry.
The role will act as a project manager and lead on a number of varied projects and processes including; finance management and contract management. The post holder will be responsible for putting processes and structure in place and support the Inquiry in its delivery.
Duties and Responsibilities:
The main responsibilities of the role include but are not limited to:
Essential Criteria:
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Forecasts and budgeting – working with the Head of Operations to develop the Inquiry’s forecast and budgets. This involves working with numerous internal and external stakeholders including the NIO to build and have ownership over the Inquiry’s spend.
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Reporting schedule – working with the sponsorship team within the NIO to consolidate monthly accounts and provide accurate reporting figures to the Inquiry Secretary and Chairman for review. The post holder will also be responsible for consolidating the quarterly accounts and working with the colleagues across the Secretariat to arrange publication.
Section 40 - this role will act as the link from the Secretariat to the Inquiry Legal Team (ILT) to provide oversight for Section 40 awards and spend. This will involve tracking spend, working with the ILT to determine awards and escalate issues w- appropriate.
Contract Management – this will involve leading on and acting as contract manager including working with the Secretariat and Inquiry Legal Team to consider team capacity and scaling support w- required. The post holder will work with suppliers to onboard contractors and allocate resource to meet requirements.
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Project management – the post holder will provide project management support across the secretariat to allow the Secretary to the Inquiry to have increased oversight.
Reporting and Governance – providing support to the Head of Operations in their role at the Governance Board including deputising w- needed.
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Hearings – the post holder may also need to provide support to the Inquiry during hearings.
The post holder will need to demonstrate the following in their application and at interview:
The role can be based in Belfast or London but the post holder must be willing to regularly travel to either location.
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Strong organisational skills
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Strong prioritisation, communication and influencing skills
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Experience of working with a range of stakeholders
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Experience of working to tight deadlines and ability to quickly resolve problems
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Experience building robust systems and providing service delivery in a fast-paced and dynamic environment
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Strong attention to detail particularly in written communication
Desirable:
We will assess you against the following Success Profiles behaviours at SEO level during the application sift and interview process:
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Previous experience working on independent inquiries (or similar work)
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Previous experience building budgets and forecasts
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Previous project management experience
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Existing CTC clearance (or higher)
Behaviours:
Experience:
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Managing a Quality Service (application and interview) (lead behaviour)
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Working Together (application and interview)
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Delivering at Pace (interview)
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Communicating and Influencing (interview)
Please provide a work history and statement of suitability no longer than 750 words outlining how you meet the essential and desirable criteria. Both will be used in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.
Your statement of suitability needs to set out evidence of how your experience meets the requirements set out above. Your layout is entirely your preference; you may choose narrative, bullets, etc. One narrative example may cover the requirements needed. You don’t have to explain the whole process, just what you have done and the skills and experience you have used. Share with us what makes you suited to this role and why. What you can do, the skills you have that are transferable and the life experience or passion you have that are linked to this role.
If you don’t have work-based examples then give examples from school/college, clubs, volunteering or other activities you have been involved in.
You will also be asked to complete a CV with details of your education, professional qualifications, previous skills and full employment history. Your CV will not be formally assessed so please put the main evidence of your skills into your personal statement. Your CV will be used to add context to your personal statement.
More information on behaviours and success profiles can be found .
Please note that in the event of a large number of applications being received we may run the initial sift on the lead behaviour – communicating and influencing.
Interview:
You will be assessed against the same behaviours at the interview stage and will be asked to provide examples of how you have demonstrated the behaviours.
It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in and use the WHO or STAR model to explain:
Strengths
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WHO- What it was? How you approached the work/situation? What the Outcomes were, what did you achieve? or
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STAR- What was the Situation? What were the Tasks? What Action did you take? What were the Results of your actions?
You will be asked a strength question at interview on the strength ‘organiser’.
It is difficult to prepare for strength type questions. However, you can think through your answers, focus on your achievements and aspects you enjoy and decide how these can be applied in the organisation and role. While strengths questions are shorter and we do not expect a full STAR response, the panel is interested in your first reaction to the question and information or reasoning to support this.
If you do not have work-based examples then please give examples from school/college, clubs, volunteering or other activities you have been involved in.
All applications for employment are considered strictly on the basis of merit.
Offer
Once all interviews have been completed, you will be notified of the outcome by email. Offers will be made in strict merit order to the highest scoring candidate first.
The successful candidate will be notified of a start date following successful security checks.
Additional information received after the closing date will not be considered. Failure to provide sufficient information in support of an application prior to the closing date will not be considered as grounds for an appeal if an applicant is not shortlisted for interview.
Security Clearance:
This role requires National Security Vetting given the access to sensitive information afforded by the job role. You can find more information by reviewing the information held in the following links:
United Kingdom Security Vetting: Applicant - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The vetting charter - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
In addition, t is a minimum UK residency requirement set by the Cabinet Office which is dependent on the security level required for the role.
This role requires CTC and to be eligible to apply for this role you should have been present in the UK continuously for the past 3 years.
Neither Detached Duty terms nor relocation costs will apply to this post.
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. W 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.
Further Information:
Further information about the post may be obtained from Bethany Marriott via email to [email protected].
All applications for employment are considered strictly on the basis of merit.
This job description should not be taken as constituting conditions of employment.
Please note that due to the high interest in NIO opportunities, feedback cannot be given if you are unsuccessful at the sift stage. Feedback is available on request if unsuccessful following the interview.
Complaints:
The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles.
Please contact SSCL ([email protected]) in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages:
http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitment/complaints/
https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/code/
Reserve Lists:
In the event that the advertised post following interview, identifies more appointable applicants than available posts, we may hold applicant details on a merit/reserve list for a period of 12 months from which further future appointments can be made. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact
[email protected] to be removed from the reserve list.
