Maritime Briefing, Correspondence and Engagement Officer

We have an exciting opportunity for a Maritime Briefing, Correspondence and Engagement Officer to join the UK’s Maritime and Marine Sector within the Department for Transport. This is an opportunity to be part of the prestigious London International Shipping week event along with delivering the honours process for the Merchant Navy Medal for Meritorious Service.
The UK’s maritime and marine sectors are key to Britain’s economy, directly contributing £18.7 billion gross value added (GVA) and directly supporting 227,000 jobs. This means that the sector is of the same scale as other high value industries like pharmaceutical manufacturing, aerospace and the road freight industry.
The UK has a dynamic maritime industry with a highly privatised and liberalised ports sector and world leading clusters of maritime professional services (insurance, ship brokering, legal services etc). The global shipping sector carries over 80% of world trade, the volume of which is expected to double by 2030. The UK is therefore ideally positioned to exploit this and drive growth in the maritime sector.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
+ Have oversight of all Ministerial briefings, invitations and relevant correspondence sent from the Maritime directorate to Ministers and support policy officials across the directorate in administration of these tasks. This includes drafting briefing and correspondence, as well as quality assuring other teams’ work.
+ Support ministerial visits and events, working with communications teams and the briefing and correspondence officer.
+ Work closely with the stakeholder manager, to ensure that external engagement is supporting delivery of maritime priorities.
+ Manage and attend high-profile events.
For further information, please see the attached Role Profile, A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business, or carry out detached duty in another DfT workplace, will also count towards this level of attendance.
There may be occasions where you will be required to travel to other DfT offices and attend meetings and visits around the UK.
Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement, for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 24 hours per week across 3 days.

Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
+ Communicating and Influencing
+ Delivering at Pace
+ Working Together
+ Seeing the Big Picture
+ Managing a Quality Service
We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:
+ Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
+ 1. Strategy 1.1. Policy Context and Purpose Level 1: Developing
+ 2. Democracy 2.1. Working with Ministers Level 1: Developing, This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a CV, Personal Statement and evidence of 1 behaviour.
For your Personal Statement, please provide detailed evidence of the following:
+ Someone who can build strong and productive relationships with senior colleagues and stakeholders.
+ Experience in securing inputs from others across a range of stakeholders, who are often managing conflicting demands.
+ Experience of drafting high-quality written material.
For your behaviour example please provide evidence of when you have demonstrated the following behaviour:
+ Communicating and Influencing
Your Personal Statement will be limited to 500 words. Each behaviour example will be limited to 250 words.
Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead behaviour which is Communicating and Influencing. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to interview.
The sift is due to take place from 19th September 2024
Interviews are likely to be held from week commencing 30th September 2024.
We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.
The selection process will be designed specifically for the role. As a result, your assessment will include:
+ An Interview
+ A written exercise
This interview will be conducted online via MS Teams. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.
You’re encouraged to become familiar with the role profile, as you may be assessed against any of the criteria recorded within.
You will be assessed against the Technical element of the Success Profile Framework. Two Policy Profession Standards are being assessed: Policy profession standards - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Department for Transport alongside other Government Departments recruit using Success Profiles. This means for each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate in order to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.
For further information on Success Profiles visit our Careers website.
Reasonable Adjustments
As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes., A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting.
Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements
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)

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Have you got excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to adjust your communication to suit your audience?
Do you enjoy being involved in high profile events?
Can you successfully build and maintain relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders?
If so, we’d love to hear from you!, The successful candidate must have strong and accurate drafting skills with the ability to write concisely and compellingly for different audiences. This will include drafting letters to MP's and public stakeholders, briefing packs for parliamentary debates and visits, and speaking points from senior official to Secretary of State level.
We are looking for someone who learns quickly and can get to grips with a complex policy area. You should be able to distil technical information into plain English for briefings and other communications. You will need to be comfortable delivering work in a fast-paced environment and able to effectively prioritise.
Strong stakeholder management and communication skills are required, to effectively establish relationships and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders.
About you:
To be successful in this role we are looking for:
+ Someone who can build strong and productive relationships with senior colleagues and stakeholders.
+ Experience in securing inputs from others across a range of stakeholders, who are often managing conflicting demands.
+ Experience of drafting high-quality written material.

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance.
Find out more about what it's like working at the Department for Transport https://careers.dft.gov.uk/our-agencies/department-for-transport-central