Head of Magistrates’ Appointments Team, Judicial Human Resources, Judicial OfficeMinistry of Justice

21278

Descriptions & requirements

Job description

The Post

The post is open to existing Grade 7s.

This is a fixed term appointment of 12 months, with a possibility of an extension for up to 24 months.

Key Responsibilities

•             Process and service delivery: Lead the end-to-end appointments process for magistrates, ensuring a smooth transition from recruitment to appointment and reducing duplication, delay and hand-off risks.

•             Develop efficient workflows, digital process arrangements that support high-volume delivery and provide clear, consistent service standards.

•             Ensure sensitive magistrates’ records are managed securely and in accordance with data protection and GDPR requirements.

Stakeholder and system leadership

•             Build strong working relationships with HMCTS, Advisory Committees, Judicial Office HR, assurance colleagues, the National Magistrates Recruitment Team, the Magistrates’ Uplift Team and Judicial College.

•             Create a joined-up approach to complex appointments and assurance activity, ensuring stakeholders have clear information, ownership and routes for resolving issues.

•             Represent the function in cross-government forums and external networks where required, promoting effective collaboration and shared delivery outcomes.

Leadership and team management

•             Provide senior leadership across magistrates’ appointments activity, including HR Operations and the National Magistrates Recruitment Team, setting clear expectations and ensuring delivery against agreed priorities and targets.

•             Build team capability, resilience and capacity to manage high-volume onboarding and respond effectively to peaks in demand.

•             Drive continuous improvement in onboarding processes, service quality and ways of working.

Performance, risk and assurance

Flexibility and wider contribution

•             Provide flexible leadership support across wider appointments functions, including courts, tribunals and complex cases, during periods of peak demand or capacity pressure.

•             Support a whole-system view of appointments, and offboarding to improve efficiency, consistency and service quality across the wider function.

Required Skills and Experience

Operational delivery

•             Experience of leading high-volume recruitment, or comparable operational delivery activity from end-to-end.

•             A strong track record of delivering against deadlines, policy requirements and quality standards in a complex operating environment.

•             Ability to turn recommendations into completed appointments, or equivalent operational outcomes, while maintaining accuracy and pace.

Stakeholder management and communication

•             Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, including the ability to work confidently with senior leaders, judiciary, external partners and operational teams.

•             Ability to provide clear, evidence-based advice on recruitment, appointment and onboarding matters.

•             Experience of working across organisational boundaries to deliver shared outcomes and resolve dependencies.

Process improvement and digital working

•             Strong capability in designing, improving and embedding operational processes, workflows and supporting guidance.

•             Experience of using digital tools, data and file management systems to improve efficiency, consistency and service quality.

•             Ability to identify process weaknesses and implement practical, sustainable improvements.

Governance, risk and compliance

•             Experience of working in regulated or policy-driven environments, ensuring compliance with statutory, governance and assurance requirements.

•             Good understanding of data management, confidentiality and GDPR requirements for sensitive records.

•             Ability to identify, assess and manage risks across operational pipelines, stakeholder dependencies and delivery plans.

•             Confident decision-maker, able to work independently, provide direction and make sound recommendations based on evidence and analysis.

•             Experience of presenting options, risks and recommended actions to senior stakeholders in a clear and balanced way.

Core strengths

•             Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage competing demands across appointment and onboarding pipelines.

•             High attention to detail and accuracy, ensuring records, briefings and assurance outputs are clear, complete and audit-ready.

•             Collaborative, adaptable and resilient, with the ability to work across multiple appointment streams and respond to changing priorities.

Civil Service Behaviours

•             Leadership: Provides visible, confident leadership across Magistrates’ appointments, setting clear direction, building capability and resilience, and creating a culture of accountability, inclusion and continuous improvement.

•             Managing a Quality Service: Ensures appointment services are delivered efficiently, accurately and consistently, with strong governance, clear standards, effective workflows and a focus on stakeholder and candidate needs.

•             Delivering at Pace: Takes ownership of high-volume delivery, maintaining momentum against targets and assurance milestones while managing competing priorities, dependencies and risks across the appointments pipeline.

•             Working Together: Builds effective relationships across Judicial Office HR, National Magistrates Recruitment Team, HMCTS, Advisory Committees, Judicial College and assurance forums to create a joined-up approach and resolve system-wide issues.

•             Making Effective Decisions: Uses evidence, performance data, risk insight and stakeholder intelligence to assess options, make sound recommendations, and support senior decision-making on appointments, assurance and delivery confidence.

Sifting and interview stage

If there are numerous applications the sift will be marked on the lead behaviour, Making Effective Decisions.

Statement of suitability and CV will be required, but only the statement will be marked.

The individual will be based in London, the Royal Courts of Justice and will be required to meet the 60% minimum mandatory office attendance.

The expectation is that the individual’s releasability for this role will be short, due to the urgency of the project, subject to CTC requirement.