This is an exciting opportunity for a skilled Higher Executive Officer to play a key role in supporting senior leadership, driving effective business operations, and improving directorate ways of working.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.
Finance, Commercial, Audit and Systems (FCAS) and Strategy and Change (S&C)
These are two small directorates but the professions and areas of expertise are diverse, making it an interesting place to work. The directorate consists of experts from Finance, Project Delivery, Commercial, Internal Audit, Risk & Assurance, Policy and more. The business areas ensures strong governance, effective use of resources and robust assurance, enabling the organisation to operate efficiently and with confidence.
Job overview
As a Business Support Manager, you will work collaboratively with colleagues within the Directorate Business Support team in delivering highly effective business support activities to the director, senior leadership team and wider directorate. How your work is spread across the directorate will depend on its size and structure, and the complexity of some of the key tasks.
There will be an opportunity to join business support communities of practice, working collaboratively with business support colleague across ONS to develop and share best practice, solve operational issues, and improve processes.
The purpose of the business support function is to facilitate the smooth, efficient running of the directorate, dealing with operational matters (organisational, administrative), working collaboratively with other enabling functions (Finance, HR, Communications, Programme Management, and Risk & Assurance), and providing effective, efficient business support to the director, senior leadership team (SLT) and colleagues across the directorate.
Responsibilities
Leadership: Lead and matrix manage SCS Personal Assistants and business support officers, providing advice and guidance to them in completing a variety of business support activities to ensure the Senior Leadership Team are fully supported.
Stakeholder Relationships: Build and maintain excellent stakeholder relationships across the directorate, group, wider ONS and beyond, working flexibly and collaboratively to ensure high quality delivery of corporate business priorities, and ensure collaborative working.
Directorate Support: Under the guidance of a Senior Business Support Manager undertake activities including but not limited to: Corporate planning and reporting. Collation and delivery of key management information and briefings. Drafting and cascading key communications from the SLT. Maintenance of corporate registers, ensuring these are delivered within defined timescales and to agreed quality standards. Dedicated support to a division or Senior Business Support Manager as required. Ensure that these are delivered to time and quality standards.
Secretariat and key management meeting support: Coordinate and oversee activity for key directorate meetings, which add value, ensuring that a secretariat or other facilitator function is provided where necessary, this may include but not limited to: Directorate or group management boards. Directorate or group briefings. Senior Leadership Team workshops and engagement activities. Directorate or group resource panels.
Team administration: Take responsibility for ensuring that team inboxes are effectively managed, that requests and enquiries are dealt with promptly and appropriately, within SLAs (where these exist), liaising effectively across the directorate or wider organisation to resolve issues, escalating to senior managers as appropriate.
Team specific tasks Where appropriate, carry out delivery tasks and/or managing & delivering small projects under the direction of the Senior Business Support Manageror other senior managers.
Person specification
- Excellent interpersonal skills, both written and verbal, with demonstrable experience of collaborating and engaging effectively with people across the organisation, including at a senior level.
- Demonstrable experience of establishing, building and maintaining strong collaborative and productive relationships across a broad range of customers and / or stakeholders.
- Highly effective organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise and manage multiple tasks concurrently, delegating appropriately to ensure delivery to time and quality.
- Proven ability to work under pressure and at pace, responding flexibly to changing priorities while supporting others to meet tight deadlines.
- Ability to work both independently and as part of a team, including leading others to deliver high quality outputs, taking responsibility for outcomes, with experience in a business support or similar operational role.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Working Together
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Managing a Quality Service
- Communicating and Influencing
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £34,587, Office for National Statistics contributes £10,019 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.
Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.
Inclusion & Accessibility
At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.
If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.
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 (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Visa Sponsorship
ONS are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants are expected to hold a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are applying on a time-limited visa, this will need to be valid for at least 18 months.
To work at the ONS, candidates must meet both UK right to work and security clearance requirements (where applicable).
If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.
Security Clearance
For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.
If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.
At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:
- Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
- UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
- Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
- Security Services records
Applicant Support
Number of Stages: 3 stage process
- Stage 1: Civil Service Verbal Test
- Stage 2: Application
- Stage 3: Interview and In-tray Exercise
Stage 1 – Civil Service Verbal Test
Upon submission of Part 1 your application form you will be sent an invitation to complete Civil Service Verbal online tests.
There will be full instructions on how to complete each test including an opportunity to practice before undertaking the actual test. These tests are not time limited.
If you pass a test, you will then receive a further invite to complete each subsequent test if there is more than one for this vacancy. If you fail a test your application will not proceed to the next stage.
If you pass all tests for this vacancy, you will be invited to complete the final stage of your application, this is where you will provide information such as your work history. Skills and experience and Personal Statement.
Stage 2 – Application
The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, skills, experience and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.
A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum word count allowed is 1250, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.
When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.
Stage 3 – Interview and in tray exercise
If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.
In-tray exercise: Before your interview you will be asked to take part in an in-tray exercise. You will be presented with a scenario similar to one you could experience in the advertised role and asked to consider how you would respond. You will be asked to present your thoughts to the interview panel verbally at the start of your interview. Your interview will then be followed by interview questions against the behaviours.
Interviews will be via Microsoft Teams.
Our main locations are Newport (South Wales), Titchfield.
A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.
Important Dates
- The Sift will be conducted from 06/07/2026
- Interviews will be conducted from 20/07/2026
Dates are subject to change.
For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.
Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.
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 security 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.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job contact
Recruitment team
Further information
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact [email protected].
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.
Attachments
2721 Advert 1B Permanent - ONS National v1-00 - Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)
