49 Best guardian Jobs in Maidenhead (September 2026)

Chief of Staff X4

10 hours ago

Slough

On behalf of The Government Property Agency, we are looking for X4 Chief of Staff (Inside IR35) for a 6 month contract. This is a hybrid working role (up to three days per week office based - various locations available including London/Birmingham/Nottingham/Swindon/Manchester). The Government Property Agency is an Executive Agency of the cabinet office. It is changing the way the Civil Service works and is at the forefront of Government's transformation agenda; reshaping the relationship civil servants have with their place of work. The Agency is central to the delivery of key Government policies including moving 22,000 Civil Service roles out of London by 2030 and tackling climate change by contributing to the Net Zero agenda. To do this we are delivering a major change programme across the UK and consolidating our portfolio in order to save £1.4 Bn over 10 years. Beyond the bricks and mortar, the GPA is about providing great workplaces for our people. This is an ambitious and exciting task, for which we need innovative people, with strong commercial acumen, who are passionate about visualising and implementing customer needs. Job Purpose: To act as the strategic engine and trusted advisor to the Director and the guardian of the Directorate's delivery. You are responsible for ensuring the Director's priorities are driven forward, integrating business operations, advising on sensitive issues and ensuring consistent join up across the wider business ensuring digital tools are optimised across the organisation. This role requires you to provide independent advice, challenge assumptions and manage the interface between the director, their executive team and external stakeholders. We are looking for an experienced Business Integrator who understands how a complex organisation functions and how digital tools can support these functions. You will bring broad experience in operations, strategy and finance to act as the Director's Critical Friend. This is a recruitment for multiple vacancies across our directorates - Strategy, Investment, capital projects, Workplace Services, finance and COO. Upon appointment, successful candidates will be mapped to the role that best aligns with their individual skills, experience, and professional strengths. See the attached overview of our GPA structure and how the CEO Business Support function connects across our Directorates. PLEASE NOTE: SC Clearance is an essential requirement for this role, as a minimum you must be willing & eligible to undergo checks. Please note, due to the exceptional requirements of this position (short-term nature of this role and speed at which we require a postholder in situ) preference may be given to candidates who meet all of the essential criteria and hold active security clearance. As a Chief of Staff, your main responsibilities will be to: • Act as a sounding board and independent challenger to the Director. You are expected to 'provide input and challenge' on complex issues, testing the Director's thinking before ideas are presented to ExCo or the Board., • Provide 'high-quality, timely, and accurate advice' on sensitive issues. You must anticipate how the Director's decisions will land with Ministers, the Permanent Secretary, and the CEO, navigating conflicting views and priorities on the Director's behalf., • Operate with the trust of the Director. You will attend meetings and make decisions in their absence, ensuring the Directorate's momentum is maintained without the Director needing to be in every room., • Responsible for briefing the director on problems before they become crises, working with other heads of office to solve issues laterally., • You will implement consistent and contemporary data collaboration tools across the directorate to facilitate agile cross directorate collaboration., • Understand, articulate and drive forward GPA priorities within the Directorate. Ensuring the strategic priorities are clearly translated into the Directorate's plans., • You act as the 'bridge,' preventing the Directorate from operating in a silo., • Act as the final quality gate for all submissions and papers. You ensure they meet the corporate standards., • Maintain a 6-12 month forward look, anticipating emerging risks or cross-cutting issues that the Director and CEO's office needs to be aware of, and briefing the team proactively. Essential: • Experience of evaluating the effectiveness of interventions and providing recommendations' to senior leaders. You must be able to think beyond the immediate Directorate to the wider Government context., • Credibility with senior stakeholders is essential., • Experience of advising and influencing senior stakeholders despite having no direct line management over them., • The ability to manage uncertainty and ambiguity, making logical decisions even when the path forward is not clear., • experience working in a strategic or managerial role with a track record of connecting different parts of a business, • Experience of analysing and resolving complex challenges that span organisational boundaries, • A digital leader, demonstrably proficient in the use of AI tools, agents and contemporary collaboration software. Desirable: • An understanding of the machinery of government, • Experience of Private Office Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas. DE&I Commitment GPA guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance. Armed Forces Covenant The Government Property Agency guarantees to interview veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance. In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following 'this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different'. JBRP1_UKTJ

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