Overview
How You'll Make a Difference
As Service Director Legal, Governance and Democratic Services Monitoring Officer, you will play a pivotal strategic leadership role at the heart of South Gloucestershire Council. You will shape modern, responsive, and proportionate governance arrangements that support innovation, pace, and organisational change. Acting as the council’s statutory monitoring officer and chief legal adviser, you will help ensure that the authority operates lawfully, ethically, and transparently, enabling confident decision‑making that delivers real benefit for residents. Through your leadership, you will strengthen governance, manage risk, support effective scrutiny and safeguard the council’s reputation while enabling innovation, transformation and inclusive service delivery.
Responsibilities
* Provide strategic and operational leadership across the Legal, Governance and Democratic Services Division, ensuring statutory, constitutional, and legislative compliance.
* Act as the council’s monitoring officer, promoting high standards of governance and ethical conduct, and providing authoritative advice on complex, sensitive and high‑risk matters.
* Lead and develop professional teams across legal, democratic, electoral, registration and governance services, embedding a culture of high performance, accountability and continuous improvement.
* Provide trusted, evidence‑led advice to members and senior officers, supporting effective scrutiny, transparent decision‑making and sound risk management.
* Oversee and modernise the constitution and governance frameworks, ensuring they are clear, accessible and aligned with the council’s operating model and strategic ambitions, enabling agile, well‑governed decision‑making that responds effectively to change and transformation.
Qualifications
* Qualified solicitor or barrister with substantial post‑qualification experience in providing legal, governance and constitutional advice within a complex, politically led organisation.
* Strong track record of strategic leadership, governance redesign and organisational change, with the ability to influence across professional, managerial and political boundaries and experience of shaping governance arrangements to support continuous improvement, transformation and confident decision‑making.
* Highly developed communication, interpersonal and influencing skills, confident to give clear, independent and evidence‑based advice under pressure.
* Substantial experience of risk management, assurance and ethical governance, supporting sound decision‑making and protecting organisational reputation.
* Commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and leadership on climate and carbon‑neutral ambitions.
* Advantageous experience at monitoring officer level, involvement in regional or national policy development, and knowledge of emerging areas such as data protection and AI governance.
Additional Information
* This post is politically restricted.
* Requires flexibility, including attending evening meetings and occasional weekend working to support democratic processes.
* Required to join the council’s Emergency Coordination Officer rota as a strategic lead responder; full training will be provided.
EEO Statement
We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, welcoming applications from everyone and ensuring people are selected and developed on merit.
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