AMS PSR

Legal Officer

Basis: Maternity Cover, full time, 36 hours per week

A £312 tax-free working from home allowance is also payable annually.

Location: Cardiff, Belfast or Edinburgh (Hybrid – minimum 2 days in office) or Remote (UK).

Benefits: Outstanding benefits including Civil Service Pension Scheme, flexible working, 28+ days holiday, performance-related pay and more.

Salary: £31,549 to £33,126 per annum.

Job description

This role is offered as a fixed term contract to cover maternity leave. The appointment is expected to run until early June 2027. However, if circumstances require, the contract duration may be reduced or extended to reflect the substantive postholder's ultimate return to work date following maternity leave.

About the Electoral Commission

The Electoral Commission is the UK’s independent body overseeing elections and regulating political finance. Everything we do is about ensuring trust, participation, and integrity in the democratic process.

As we enter a bold new chapter under our five-year Corporate Plan, we are increasing our workforce and transforming how we plan and deliver core services. This post plays a central role in that journey.

About the role

The Legal Officer will provide vital administrative and organisational support to the Legal Team. You will help ensure the smooth and efficient operation of the team through activities such as processing invoices and purchase orders, maintaining documentation and record keeping systems, managing filing and information logs, and providing accurate note taking for meetings and hearings.

You will also act as a superuser for the Legal Case Management System, supporting colleagues with system use, maintaining accurate data, making updates and producing reports that inform planning and decision making. You may also have the opportunity to support legal work when required, such as assisting with legal research, proofreading or litigation support. These tasks will depend on the needs of the team at the time and form part of the wider administrative contribution to the Legal Team.

About the team

You’ll be joining the Legal Team, part of the Devolution and Law directorate.  

The team is currently comprised of a Head of Legal, a Legal Management Team of Senior Lawyers, Lawyers and a Legal Officer, under the Commission’s General Counsel.   

We are a collaborative, supportive and solutions focused team that works closely with colleagues across the Commission.

We pride ourselves on being approachable, responsive and innovative in the way we provide legal advice. Our work is high-profile and varied with electoral reform, the regulation of parties and candidates, and devolution all being hot topics across the whole of the UK. The work is interesting, intellectually challenging, and varied.

Who we’re looking for

We are looking for someone organised, proactive and confident in delivering high quality administrative support within a busy legal team. You do not need legal experience. What matters is strong administrative skills, good IT capability and a willingness to learn.

You will be comfortable managing your own workload, meeting tight deadlines and paying close attention to detail. Clear communication, problem solving and building positive working relationships are essential for success in this role.

This role will suit someone who enjoys working collaboratively, takes initiative and is motivated to provide a reliable, professional service that supports the effective running of the Legal Team.

Why work for us?

This role offers:

The chance to work at the heart of the UK’s democratic system

Exposure to a wide range of legal, and organisational work

Opportunities to develop skills in legal administration, case management, finance processing and quality management

Experience that can support progression into more senior legal support or public sector roles

We offer a strong total reward package, including:

Flexible working and hybrid model (40% office minimum)

28 rising to 30 days annual leave + bank holidays

Civil Service pension scheme (28.97% employer contribution)

Study support for professional qualifications

Ongoing learning and development opportunities

Ride2Work, eye care vouchers and more

How to apply

We are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment. To help reduce unconscious bias and ensure all applicants are assessed solely on their skills, knowledge and experience, we use an anonymous recruitment process.

When applying, please provide an anonymised CV which omits your protected characteristics and any personally identifiable information:

Do not include:

Your name, address, phone number, email or other contact details

Your date of birth or age

Gender, ethnicity, nationality or other personal identifiers

A photo of yourself

Educational dates (as these indicate age)

Primary education details

Do include:

Your employment history including employers and dates of employment

Explanation for gaps in your history

Your duties, responsibilities and achievements

If your CV contains personal details (such as your name or contact information), we will be unable to consider your application. Please double-check your documents before submitting, including the file name you use to save and upload your CV.

Supporting disabled applicants

The Electoral Commission is proud to be a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer. As part of this commitment, we aim to prioritise interviews for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria listed in the job description.

There may, however, be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. For example, during periods of exceptionally high application volumes or seasonal recruitment activity, the Commission may need to limit the overall number of interviews offered to both disabled and non-disabled applicants.

If you have a disability and would like to be considered under this commitment, please indicate this when you apply. We also welcome requests for reasonable adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process or within the workplace.

Key dates

Application deadline: 30th March 2026 12pm

Interviews (1st stage): 8th & 9th April 2026

Anticipated start date: May 2026

Interviews will be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams.