Head of Private Office for the Archbishop of Canterbury

CompanyThe Church of England

LocationLondon, England, United Kingdom

Posted At1/23/2026

UK Visa Sponsorship Analytics

Analytics are greyed out due to low classification confidence (53.0%).

Occupation Type

Clergy

Occupation Code Skill LevelIneligible

Sponsorship EligibilityIneligible for Sponsorship

Above analytics are generated algorithmically based on job titles and may not always be the same as the company's job classification. You can also check detailed occupation eligibility, and salary criteria on our UK Visa Eligible Occupations & Salary Thresholds page.

Disclaimer: Hunt UK Visa Sponsors aggregates job listings from publicly available sources, such as search engines, to assist with your job hunting. We do not claim affiliation with The Church of England. For the most up-to-date job details, please visit the official website by clicking "Apply Now."

Description

This is a unique and high-profile position at the heart of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s ministry. As Head of the Private Office, you will provide leadership and operational oversight for a busy, complex office that supports the Archbishop’s work locally, nationally and internationally. The role demands exceptional organisational ability, political awareness, and emotional intelligence

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership: Oversee the Private Office to ensure it provides seamless executive support for the Archbishop. Manage administration, logistics and scheduling with discretion and efficiency.
Consultation and Communication: Act as a key conduit between the Archbishop and staff, consulting on decisions and disseminating her views effectively.
Confidentiality: Handle highly sensitive matters with discretion and emotional intelligence.
Diary and Requests management: Line manage the Archbishop’s Diary Manager and, in partnership with senior colleagues, ensure engagements reflect priorities and respond to changing circumstances. Ensure all incoming requests and invitations are logged, assessed, and responded to appropriately. Seek advice on prioritisation and alignment with the Archbishop’s objectives.

Hospitality: Ensure that the Archbishop’s guests and visitors receive warm and welcoming hospitality and are well looked after.

Travel arrangements: Ensure travel arrangements are made accurately and on time, including booking tickets and accommodations when necessary.

Inbox Management: Develop and maintain an efficient system for managing the Archbishop’s inbox, ensuring timely responses, prioritisation of urgent matters, and clear communication with the wider team.

Team Management: Line manage the Diary Manager, Correspondence Manager and Personal Assistant, fostering a high-performing team and collaborative work culture.

Briefing & Preparation: Ensure the Archbishop is fully prepared for all engagements, and that briefs from relevant staff members are produced and logged.

Research & Correspondence: Conduct research on a range of issues and draft sensitive, high-level personal correspondence in liaison with the Correspondence Manager.

Gifts Management: Maintain oversight of gifts given and received, ensuring accurate logging.

Stakeholder Engagement: Build and maintain relationships with key external stakeholders and personal contacts in a complex political environment.

Security Liaison: Coordinate with the Metropolitan Police regarding the Archbishop’s movements to ensure appropriate security measures.

Staffing: Occasionally accompany the Archbishop on visits and meetings as required.

Facilitate communication between Lambeth Palace staff and the Archbishop’s spouse, ensuring effective diary management and briefing.

All staff working at Lambeth Palace share responsibility to promote and maintain a strong safeguarding culture with regard to children and vulnerable adults, including identifying the key actions they should take given their role and responsibilities.

This role will be subject to a basic DBS check.

About You

Essential

Knowledge/Experience:

Experience of working in a complex organisation with multiple external, diverse relationships.
Experience of leading and motivating a team, enabling them to carry out integral support roles to a senior figure, with the ability to instil a positive culture with strong awareness of wider priorities.

Experience of planning and managing high level events in support of a senior figure.

Experience of overseeing the extensive/complex diary management of a senior manager/leader, which is affected by an evolving political landscape.

Demonstrative experience of drafting complex letters and other correspondence, taking into account the bigger picture.

Previous experience of coordinating research projects, including producing high-level briefing documents.

Experience of staffing a senior figure in meetings or/and on travel engagements.

Experience of managing staff in a busy and complex office.

Skills, Abilities and Attributes:

Sensitivity and good judgement in understanding and dealing with urgent and complex issues and relationships across a very wide range of subjects.
A commitment to supporting the Archbishop to provide compassionate, consistent and hopeful leadership to the Church of England and in the Anglican Communion.
A thorough understanding of the Church of England, and the ability to quickly grasp the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury, including her personal priorities.

Seeing the big picture and navigating a complex and constantly changing political landscape.

A natural instinct for prioritisation and seeing what is important.

Proven ability to be a proactive problem solver and to take initiative.

The ability to develop and maintain relationships in a fast-paced and politically complex environment, demonstrating confidence and emotional intelligence.

Proven ability to work collaboratively to achieve results.

Highly diplomatic and discreet, with experience of being exposed to highly sensitive material, involving a range of stakeholders.

Ability to juggle being a trusted and supportive adviser to a senior leader, whilst pushing

back where necessary.

Outstanding communication skills, both oral and written.

A calm and reassuring presence, with a nurturing leadership and communication style.

Resourceful and calm under pressure, with the ability to cope with a number of simultaneous demands.

Proficient in Microsoft Windows and the Office suite.

Due to the demanding nature of this role, a degree of flexibility with working hours and

responsibilities is required, with the ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances.

Interviews will be held on Monday 16th February 2026 in person at Lambeth Palace

If you need any support with submitting your application please get in touch via email to hr.recruitment@churchofengland.org or give us a call on 020 7898 1228.

About Us

The National Church Institutions comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation - a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder.

We Include. You Belong.

Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

Living out our values in all that we do, we:

Strive for Excellence
Show Compassion
Respect others
Collaborate

Act with Integrity

We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward. The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith. We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you.

Use of AI in your application

We appreciate that you may want to use AI tools to help you with your application. We're happy for you to use AI to come up with ideas and help structure your thoughts, but you shouldn't use AI to fabricate information or write your whole application for you. One of our values is integrity, and although we want you to demonstrate your best self, we don't want an AI-generated persona. If you simply copy and paste AI-generated content into your application, this will reduce your chances of success.