Head of Major Event Delivery

This is an opportunity to work within the Ceremonials and Major Events Division in DCMS, leading on the strategic planning and delivery of ceremonial events as well as creating a foundation for our ambition for delivering on future major events.

The Ceremonials Division sits within the Project Delivery and Major Events Directorate and is responsible for planning and delivering major projects, events and commemorations. Most recently the Directorate coordinated the delivery of Their Majesties Coronation as well as parts of Her Late Majestys funeral as well as supporting the AI Safety Summit.

We are currently enhancing our capability to deliver other major national events. We are looking to fill a role as head of this team to build the skills and responsibilities on behalf of the department.

The successful candidate will be someone who enjoys working at pace, leading others to deliver, demonstrates strategic thinking and is good at managing a number of stakeholders.

This role will be responsible for leadership of the Major Events delivery team, providing oversight of key work streams for building an event delivery capability. You will lead a small team, with ambition to grow in line with the increasing number of major events Government supports. Major events are seen as priorities for the department, the role holder will need to be able to gain the confidence of Ministers and Seniors and work with them to shape events.

You will lead a team working to help deliver complex programmes, and should be comfortable working at pace and to tight timescales. Your core role will be helping to build expertise within the team and department covering the knowledge and skills required to deliver major events as well as leading planning for those events.

The role will be instrumental in building the departments operational event delivery capability, as such, you may be expected to:

• be confident in briefing Ministers and Senior Civil Servants,
• design and implement command and control structures,
• operate in a Silver Command role on behalf of government,
• work within crisis management and event delivery systems and be able to operate under pressure,
• You will also lead on developing our events Testing and Exercising capability, helping to ensure the departments event delivery capability is fit for purpose and staff understand their roles and responsibilities.

You will lead on implementing skills, experience and products to establish the team as experts in delivering best practice on event delivery and continue to support delivery of key Bridges planning priorities, such as crowd management, working closely with the G6 Ceremonials lead.

Essential requirements

• The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate excellent leadership skills, have strong stakeholder management skills, and be able to prioritise, coordinate and handle multiple issues concurrently.
• The ability to work at pace where necessary, driving progress in the face of a range of challenges and being calm and resilient in pressurised situations.
• Strong organisational skills and experience of working in a cross cutting role and/or on a variety of projects with clear demonstrable outcomes.
• A critical and creative thinker able to come up with solutions to complex problems. Ability to think strategically and see the bigger picture.

Desirable skills

• Understanding and awareness of C3 (Command, Control, Coordination) principles in event delivery.
• Commercial Awareness, including monitoring of costs, undertaking procurement and working with suppliers.

We are running an information session where prospective applicants can find out more about the role. This will be hosted by David Henderson, and will take place on:

• Wednesday 13th November 2024

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.

Please register your interest by filling out this sign up form and you will be sent an invitation.

Please note that the session will not focus on the DCMS recruitment process - please direct any queries that you have on this topic (timelines, reasonable adjustments, onboarding etc) to [email protected]

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace