Chief of Staff 75,585 - 84,840 p.a. + benefits

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the UKs sovereign regulator for medicines, including biological medicines, medical devices, and blood products. Our primary purpose is to ensure that products intended for the UK market are safe and effective and to monitor the ongoing safety of licensed products

The Chief of Staff, leads the CEO/Chair Private Office, within the Strategy Group that works closely with other teams to collectively support managing and controlling the Agency effectively, through delivering effective support to and management of Board, Executive, expert and independent committees, together with delivering the highest standards of delivery across corporate governance, risk and assurance.

Role Purpose

The role will be responsible for the strategic and operational management of the Chief Executives and Chairs Private Office. The role forms part of a dynamic team delivering an effective service supporting the Chief Executive (CEO) and Chair to provide high quality policy advice, expert judgement, and operational and administrative support. The postholder will plan and prioritise across the CEOs and Chairs remit, ensuring that requests and decisions are delegated appropriately, escalating only those that require the personal attention of the CEO/Chair. They will represent the views of the CEO/Chair at internal and external meetings, making decisions on their behalf where necessary. The postholder will manage the CEOs and Chairs time to focus on strategic priorities, particularly ensuring visibility with colleagues and stakeholders and will ensure that the CEO and Chair work together seamlessly and are aware of each others priorities and key activities. The post holder will oversee support for ExCo and associated Boards and Committees as well as the Agencys Board and Board Assurance Committees. The postholder will lead the wider Private Office team, working closely with the Director of Strategy to support the delivery of the CEOs and Chairs priorities. The postholder will support the wider work of the Strategy Group.

There will be a requirement to travel nationally and internationally with overnight stays as needed.

• Lead and manage the team within the CEO/Chairs Private Office, ensuring an efficient and high quality service is delivered. Proactively manage incoming requests dealing with the majority and escalating where necessary. Approve correspondence prepared by the Correspondence Secretary where appropriate. Support the Diary Officer, Correspondence Secretary and Private Secretaries in the delivery of an excellent service for the CEO/Chair and Agency, ensuring his time is used most effectively.
• Commission briefings and various reports detailing complex and sensitive information in a systematic and logical structure to ensure the Chief Executive and other Board and Executive members are effectively briefed and appropriately sighted on key areas, ensuing that the relevant colleagues have been consulted and background briefings are available if appropriate. Commission draft reports on behalf of the CEO, ensuring that deadlines are met and the appropriate colleagues have been consulted. Prepare speaking notes and slides for external meetings as needed in collaboration with the Communication and Engagement colleagues. Accompany the CEO to meetings where necessary, preparing and commissioning briefings, taking notes if appropriate and actioning follow ups, including briefing other Executives and relevant colleagues.
• Manage relationships with key stakeholders across different departments and at all levels (including key strategic regional and national policy makers), ensuring that their requests are prioritised and actioned, including offering proactive briefing where appropriate and supporting colleagues who are escalating decisions unnecessarily to manage risks and take decisions.
• Support the delivery of the strategic priorities of the office through both internal and external partnership building, relationship management and inter professional collaboration. Use autonomous discretion as to when to involve senior managers (including the CEO) in matters, being sensitive to appropriate escalation.
• Take executive responsibility for tasks delegated by the CEO/Chair including working with Directors and Chief Officers and their Business Managers/Personal Assistants across the MHRA and exercise delegated authority from the CEO to plan, monitor and manage initiatives and projects. Apply appropriate judgement and theoretical knowledge to analyse complex information and assess a range of options in making autonomous decisions.
• Use persuasion and influence to negotiate outcomes and deadlines so that projects are completed on time. Proactively problem solve and negotiate where issues arise in the development and implementation of designated programmes, and support consensus building and manage conflict or opposing views.
• Represent the CEO in sensitive and political situations, delivering difficult messages where required to high-level audiences and senior individuals and stakeholders.
• Oversee the CEO budget on behalf of the Chief Executive and in conjunction with the Finance Business Partner

The job description is not intended to be exhaustive and it is likely that duties may be altered from time to time in the light of changing circumstances and after consultation with the postholder.

• Able to deliver complex and difficult messages with clarity and sensitivity, being persuasive when required.

• Able to balance working at pace and manage a full workload with conflicting short and long-term priorities. Ensure delivery of timely quality outcomes, through providing the right resources to do the job, reviewing, and adjusting performance expectations and rewarding success.

• Ensure decision making happens at the right level, not allowing unnecessary bureaucracy to hinder delivery; analyse and accurately interpret data from various sources to support decisions;present reasonable conclusions from a wide range of complex and sometimes incomplete evidence; make decisions confidently even when details are unclear or if they prove to be unpopular.

• Develop and maintain an understanding of economic, social, political, environmental and technological developments to ensure activity is relevant; ensure plans and activities in your area of work reflect wider strategic priorities and communicate effectively with senior leaders to influence future strategies; adopt a government wide perspective to ensure alignment of activity and policy.

Experience

• Significant experience of successfully leading a highly visible team, motivating and developing the team to consistently deliver excellence in their outputs.
• Experience providing Private Office (or similar) support to an executive leader or Chair.
• Experience and understanding of the life science or healthcare sectors.

Technical

• Relevant Masters qualification or equivalent professional experience
• Project management qualification or equivalent experience
• Demonstrate knowledge of public sector governance and assurance requirements. Strong understanding of the wider political picture.