Do you have a background in committee administration, elections, and team management? If so, York could be the place for you.

We’re looking for a Head of Democratic Services to run our democratic, elections, and civics teams.  You’ll be experienced in running the full range of democratic services, including acting as a key liaison between the Executive, the Scrutiny Chairs, and the senior officer team.  You’ll also have experience of working on, or administering elections, and in dealing with civic events, and will play a leading coordination role in the Council’s forthcoming Local Government Boundary Commission for England’s Electoral Review of the City of York Council.

You’ll be highly experienced in managing member/officer relations and will have an excellent knowledge of local government law relating to meetings, and ideally will have experience acting as a Deputy Monitoring Officer and dealing with Code of Conduct complaints. Being a qualified legal professional would be beneficial, but not essential.

This post is deemed as politically restricted. As designated politically restricted officers, employees will not be allowed to undertake certain activities. Please refer to the guidance attached for further information.

As this role is public facing, applicants will need to demonstrate, at interview, their competency to converse and provide advice and guidance to members of the public, in spoken English to CEFR level C2: Can express themselves spontaneously at length with a natural conversational flow, avoiding or backtracking around any difficulty so smoothly that the person with whom they are conversing is hardly aware of it.

Hybrid working arrangements are available for this role. Each role at CYC is different and your working arrangements will be determined based on the requirements of the role and in collaboration with you and your needs as part of the recruitment process. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team.

Please note, we do not have a sponsorship licence to sponsor individuals for visas to work in the UK, therefore we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

The Council is committed to investing in the talent and wellbeing of our staff and can offer a generous annual leave allowance, access to the Local Government Pension Scheme, comprehensive Health & Wellbeing initiatives and a reward package which recognises your contribution. We can offer flexible working practices, community engagement and volunteer activities and, as part of our commitment to you, promote continuous Learning & Development. In addition we also offer a growing range of discounts, rewards and savings.

For further information or an informal discussion please contact Bryn Roberts (Director of Governance) at bryn.roberts@york.gov.uk 

Closing date: 6 July 2025
Interview date: w/c 14 July 2025

For further information or to apply, please click on the 'Enquire/Apply' button below.