23146 - Strategic Support Manager

Strategic Support Manager

Location: National*

Closing Date: 23 October 2026

Interviews: From 10 November 2026

Grade: HEO

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary**: London: £40,014 - £42,859; National: £35,335 - £37,847

Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working, Job share

Contract Type: Permanent

Number of vacancies: 1

Vacancy number: 23146

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP

Please note that unless you are an existing member of staff at Justice Digital, Data and Science, the only London location being recruited to is 10 South Colonnade, E14 4PU. We are no longer recruiting to 102 Petty France, SW1H 9AJ.

The Role

We’re recruiting for a Strategic Support Manager here at Justice Digital, Data and Science (JDDS) to be part of our warm and collaborative Strategic Priorities Unit team.

The Strategic Priorities Unit works across JDDS to help senior leaders set direction, translate priorities into action, and maintain a coherent view of the organisation's most important strategic activity. The team works closely with the JDDS Senior Leadership Team, directorates across JDDS, teams across the Ministry of Justice, and senior private offices.

This is a varied role at the heart of the team. You will help ensure that the Strategic Priorities Unit operates effectively, that strategic commissions and information requests are handled to a high standard, and that the information, processes, and coordination needed to support strategic decision-making are in place.

The Strategic Support Managers provide the operational, information, and commissions backbone of the Strategic Priorities Unit, helping the team and senior leaders turn strategic priorities into well-coordinated activity.

You will work across a wide range of subjects, often at pace, and will need to be comfortable managing competing priorities and working with colleagues at all levels. Alongside core commissions and operational responsibilities, there will be opportunities to take ownership of projects, contribute to strategic work, improve the way the team operates, and develop a broad understanding of JDDS and the Ministry of Justice.

You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:

• A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.

• 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.

• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours. Designed to support a positive work–life balance.

• Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.

• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!

You can find more details of the Benefits we offer here. To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital, Data and Science please take a look at our blog.

Key Responsibilities:

Commissions, Briefing & Information

• Manage and coordinate commissions and information requests from senior leaders, private offices, and other internal and external sources, ensuring requests are understood, allocated, tracked, and delivered within agreed deadlines.

• Coordinate responses to central requests for information, including Parliamentary Questions, Freedom of Information requests, briefings, correspondence, and other corporate commissions.

• Gather and synthesise information from across JDDS, producing first drafts and coordinating contributions where appropriate.

• Support the quality assurance and clearance of responses, identifying gaps, inconsistencies, or issues requiring escalation.

• Help ensure that responses and briefings reflect agreed JDDS priorities, evidence, and organisational messages.

• Maintain accessible and reusable sources of organisational information, including previous responses, key facts, briefing material, agreed narratives, and other core information.

• Develop a strong understanding of the roles, responsibilities, and expertise of teams across JDDS and the wider MoJ, enabling requests and commissions to be routed effectively and the right colleagues to be engaged at the right time.

Strategic Management & Coordination

• Support the team's management of JDDS strategic priorities, commitments, and other strategic activity, helping to maintain accurate and up-to-date information on progress, decisions, dependencies, and actions.

• Coordinate regular information-gathering and reporting activity across JDDS, working with colleagues to ensure that material is complete, timely, and suitable for senior decision-making.

• Support the preparation of papers, briefing packs, presentations, and other material for senior leadership discussions.

• Maintain effective records of decisions, actions, and relevant strategic information so that they can be readily accessed and used by the team.

• Support the organisation's strategic-management and governance cycles, including periodic reviews and planning activity.

Extended SLT & Senior Leadership Support

• Provide operational and coordination support for JDDS extended Senior Leadership Team activity, working closely with colleagues responsible for shaping its agenda and content.

• Coordinate meeting logistics, scheduling, room bookings, attendance, papers, and other practical arrangements to ensure sessions run effectively.

• Support forward planning of meetings and maintain clear records of agreed actions and follow-up activity.

• Work with colleagues across JDDS to commission and coordinate material required for extended SLT discussions.

• Support other senior leadership events, workshops, and strategy sessions where required.

Team Operations & Continuous Improvement

• Help manage the team's overall workflow, ensuring upcoming deadlines, commissions, meetings, and priorities are visible and effectively coordinated.

• Own and maintain key team processes, trackers, records, shared information, and administrative systems.

• Support team recruitment, onboarding, planning, events, and other operational activity where required.

• Identify opportunities to simplify and improve processes, including making better use of digital tools, automation, and reusable information.

• Help ensure the team has effective ways of working and is able to focus its capacity on the highest-value activity.

Projects & Stakeholder Relationships

• Take ownership of defined projects and pieces of work, including research, coordination, analysis, engagement, and process-improvement activity.

• Build effective relationships across JDDS and the wider Ministry of Justice, including with private offices, business management teams, corporate functions, and colleagues responsible for strategy, governance, finance, people, and delivery.

• Work collaboratively with Strategic Priorities colleagues to deliver larger commissions, workshops, events, and strategic projects.
• Act proactively to identify issues, dependencies, and opportunities, resolving these where possible and escalating where appropriate.

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Person Specification

Essential Criteria

• Experience of coordinating commissions, projects, governance activity, information requests, or comparable work involving multiple contributors.

• Experience working across a broad and changing portfolio, can quickly build an understanding of a complex organisation and its responsibilities, and can adapt as priorities change.

• Has strong organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to take ownership for delivering work and manage multiple activities and deadlines simultaneously.

• Has strong written communication skills and can produce clear, concise material for different audiences. Can quickly understand information from different sources, identify what matters, and communicate it clearly and accurately.

• Can build effective working relationships with a range of stakeholders, including senior colleagues.
• Demonstrates sound judgement, including knowing when to act independently, when to challenge, and when to escalate.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.

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 and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Salary Information**

Base salary for this role is: London: £40,014 - £42,859; National: £35,335 - £37,847

• Existing Civil Servants moving on a level transfer will retain their current base salary or move to the minimum of the pay band for the role, whichever is higher.

• Existing Civil Servants who are promoted will either move to the bottom of the new grade’s pay band or receive a 10% uplift, whichever provides the greater increase.

How to Apply

In Justice Digital, Data and Science, we recruit using the Success Profiles Framework. We shall assess a combination of your Experience and Behaviours during the assessment process.

Stage 1 - Application and sift:

To apply for this position, you must submit the following as part of your application:

• A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). Your CV will be assessed against the essential criteria outlined within the Person Specification of this advert.
• Answers to two Experience Questions and one Behaviour Question (no more than 500 words each) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken. They should specifically address the following three criteria listed below, using a separate paragraph for each.
• Experience of coordinating commissions, projects, governance activity, information requests, or comparable work involving multiple contributors.

• Experience working across a broad and changing portfolio, can quickly build an understanding of a complex organisation and its responsibilities, and can adapt as priorities change.
• Has strong written communication skills and can produce clear, concise material for different audiences. Can quickly understand information from different sources, identify what matters, and communicate it clearly and accurately.

A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and your answers to Experience and Behaviour Questions to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and your answers to Experience and Behaviour Questions do not include your name or any other identifying details.

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply - Application Guidance

Stage 2 - Interviews:

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a panel interview held via Microsoft Teams. At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements – Experience and the following Behaviours:

• Communicating & Influencing

• Delivering at Pace

• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

Appointments are made strictly in merit order. In the event that two or more candidates receive identical interview scores, the ‘experience of coordinating commissions, projects, governance activity, information requests, or comparable work involving multiple contributors’ will be applied as the primary lead criterion to determine the final merit order.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

Use of 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.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact [email protected]