Higher Executive Officer (HEO) Fiscal Policy Officer
Business Area: Fiscal Economy and Trade
Role Title: Fiscal Policy Officer
Terms of Appointment: Fixed Term Contract/ Loan (24 Months)
Grade: HEO
Location: Belfast -Erskine House, 20-32 Chichester St, Belfast BT1 4GF
London – 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ
Occasional travel between Belfast and London may be required.
Vacancy Manager: Simon Jones/Luke Sunerton
Pay Band: National £35,335 / London £40,014
Applications Invited From: Cross Government/existing civil servants on level transfer and promotion
Existing Civil Servants will have their salary calculated in accordance with the Departments pay on transfer / pay on promotion rules.
The national starting salary is £35,335. The London starting salary is £40.014. Your salary will be dependent on your base location
Background
The Northern Ireland Office supports the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in promoting the best interests of Northern Ireland. We make sure that Northern Ireland interests are represented within the UK Government and that UK government responsibilities are fully and effectively represented in Northern Ireland. We are the centre of expertise on Northern Ireland issues across Government.
The Northern Ireland Office employs around 170 staff, with offices in Belfast and London. As a small Department, we adopt a flexible project-based approach to ensure that we have the right people, with the right skills, in the right place to support the delivery of our key objectives.
Due to our structure and size, we are able to offer extensive exposure to Ministers and the opportunity to work on a far wider portfolio of policy and responsibilities than might be the case in a larger department. This creates an interesting and stimulating work environment.
Our key priorities are set out in our Operational Delivery plan and include:
- Supporting greater inclusion, tolerance and openness in Northern Ireland
- Contributing to a safer Northern Ireland, where terrorist and paramilitary groups are less able to cause harm to communities
- Ensuring that governance in Northern Ireland is responsive, transparent and able to deliver effective public service.
- Addressing the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland
For more information about what we do:
Visit:
About the Role:
Provide vital policy, research, and coordination support for the UK Governments economic priorities in Northern Ireland, including driving forward economic growth You will support senior officials and Ministers on sensitive political and wider stakeholder engagement around departmental (and wider Government) priorities around economic growth and fiscal sustainability in Northern Ireland.
Duties and Responsibilities:
The main responsibilities of the role include but are not limited to:
- Budget Tracking & Evidence: Track, compile, and quality-check economic data to maintain an accurate evidence base.
- Briefing & Parliamentary Handling: Draft briefings, Parliamentary Questions (PQs), Freedom of Information (FOI) responses, and background notes for ministerial meetings, fiscal events and other key moments.
- Cross-Government Coordination: Monitor official-level working groups with HM Treasury and the NI Department of Finance, tracking action logs and deliverables.
- Policy Analysis: Support evaluations of ad-hoc NI policy funding asks and emergency/crisis allocations.
Essential Criteria:
The post holder will need to demonstrate the following in their application and at interview:
- Strong partnering and collaborating skills, and the ability to build strong relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders to support effective delivery of strategic outcomes;
- Sound judgement and analytical skills, the ability to make evidence based recommendations and decisions;
- Excellent communication and influencing skills to influence a wide variety of stakeholders at different levels; the ability to present and communicate complex information and recommendations to senior decision makers in a clear and impactful manner;
- The ability to deal with uncertainty, self-organise, prioritise and pay close attention to detail.
Desirable Criteria:
- Background in economics, finance, social research, or demonstrable experience with public expenditure analysis.
- Legislative policy experience or Bill management experience.
- Knowledge of the UK and Irish geopolitical landscape.
Behaviours:
We will assess you against the following Success Profiles behaviours for the – level during the application sift and interview process:
- Delivering at Pace (LEAD BEHAVIOUR): Highly organised and resilient, capable of turning around urgent requests for briefing and data checks accurately under tight deadlines.
- Communicating and Influencing: Expresses ideas clearly and concisely in written advice, selecting the most relevant evidence to support conclusions.
- Working Together: Actively collaborates across FET, the wider NIO, and partner departments, sharing information and supporting team-wide goals.
- Seeing the Big Picture: Connects day-to-day policy tasks with the broader objectives of fiscal discipline, driving economic growth, devolution, and public service reform in NI.
Experience:
Please provide a CV and a statement of suitability (500 words). Both will be used in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.
Your statement of suitability needs to set out evidence of how your experience meets the requirements set out above. Your layout is entirely your preference; you may choose narrative, bullets, etc. One narrative example may cover the requirements needed. You dont have to explain the whole process, just what you have done and the skills and experience you have used. Share with us what makes you suited to this role and why. What you can do, the skills you have that are transferable and the life experience or passion you have that are linked to this role.
If you dont have work-based examples then give examples from school/college, clubs, volunteering or other activities you have been involved in.
You will also be asked to complete a CV with details of your professional skills and full employment history. Your CV will not be formally assessed so please put the main evidence of your skills into your personal statement. Your CV will be used to add context to your personal statement.
More information on behaviours and success profiles can be found here.
Please note that in the event of a large number of applications being received we may run the initial sift on the lead Behaviour Delivering at Pace.
Interview:
You will be assessed against the same behaviours at the interview stage and will be asked to provide examples of how you have demonstrated the behaviours. You will be asked to respond to one strength question in the interview.
It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in and use the WHO or STAR model to explain:
- WHO- What it was? How you approached the work/situation? What the Outcomes were, what did you achieve? or
- STAR- What was the Situation? What were the Tasks? What Action did you take? What were the Results of your actions?
All applications for employment are considered strictly on the basis of merit.
Offer
Once all interviews have been completed, you will be notified of the outcome by email. Offers will be made in strict merit order to the highest scoring candidate first.
The successful candidate will be notified of a start date following successful security checks.
Additional information received after the closing date will not be considered. Failure to provide sufficient information in support of an application prior to the closing date will not be considered as grounds for an appeal if an applicant is not shortlisted for interview.
Security Clearance:
This role requires National Security Vetting CTC given the access to sensitive information afforded by the job role. You can find more information by reviewing the information held in the following links:
United Kingdom Security Vetting: Applicant – GOV.UK (
The vetting charter – GOV.UK (
In addition, there is a minimum UK residency requirement set by the Cabinet Office which is dependent on the security level required for the role.
This role requires – and to be eligible to apply for this role you should have been present in the UK continuously for the past 5 years.
Neither Detached Duty terms nor relocation costs will apply to this post.
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.
Further Information:
Further information about the post may be obtained from Simon Jones via email to
All applications for employment are considered strictly on the basis of merit.
This job description should not be taken as constituting conditions of employment.
Please note that due to the high interest in NIO opportunities, feedback cannot be given if you are unsuccessful at the sift stage. Feedback is available on request if unsuccessful following the interview.
Complaints:
The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commissions Recruitment Principles. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles.
Please contact SSCL () in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages:
Reserve Lists:
In the event that the advertised post following interview, identifies more appointable applicants than available posts, we may hold applicant details on a merit/reserve list for a period of 12 months from which further future appointments can be made. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact
to be removed from the reserve list.
Interview dates
Date(s) TBC
Closing Date:
hours.
Contact information
If you require any assistance please call (Monday to Friday 8am – 6pm) or e mail
WHJS1_NI
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