Working at the Central Digital & Data Office I am driving a programme of work to ensure government departments make the best use of their data when delivering strategic, operational and public-facing priorities. Responsibilities include:- Enabling UK government to deliver and action data maturity assessments to measure their capability, effectiveness and readiness to use data to support organisational priorities.- Establishing and managing the Chief Data Officers Council, the senior governance route that provides strategic oversight for delivery of Mission 3 of the National Data Strategy, as well as Mission 3 of the Government’s Digital and Data Strategy: ‘Better Data to Power Decision Making’- Running the cross-government data maturity community that provides peer support and shares best practice on how using the DMA improves government effeciency.

I led coordination of GDS’s engagement with ministers and parliament, ensuring work to deliver digital transformation across the public sector aligns with Government priorities. My responsibilities included:- Building ministers’ awareness and trust of GDS’s work through oversight of all GDS responses to Parliamentary Questions, Ministerial Correspondences and Freedom of Information Requests. I also coordinated GDS’s briefings for Parliamentary Committees and in responses to Select Committee inquiries.- Raising policy capability across GDS by delivering training sessions explaining how Whitehall works, how to write submissions and brief ministers, and how to lead teams in a policy environment.- Quality-assuring ministerial submissions from GDS to ensure they align with Government priorities.

I led MoJ's work to help UK lawyers practise overseas as part of Government’s pledge to support a flourishing legal services sector, which currently contributes £26bn to the economy with a £4.4bn trade surplus. My portfolio included:• As the UK prepared to trade independently, development of legal services trade policy that reflects the sector's priorities while supporting Government’s wider objectives for free trade agreements;• Development and delivery of a programme of work to maintain and improve legal services market access in priority countries, both by helping UK regulators secure mutual recognition agreements and by lobbying other governments through Embassies, High Commissions and other Whitehall departments;• Oversight of cross-Government work to promote UK lawyers overseas – e.g. through trade missions and the Britain is GREAT Campaign – and responsibility for the framework and policy objectives that communications activities support.I led a team of five policy advisors to deliver the objectives above.

I led delivery of the Ministry of Justice’s international relations policy, supporting ministers in their diplomatic engagements and helping promote the UK’s values and priorities on the international stage. I was led the international visits team, which delivered all incoming and outgoing departmental visits (outside of the EU). My responsibilities included:• Delivering ministerial meetings with international counterparts on law and justice-related issues, building visit programmes and meeting agendas and ensuring ministers and directors were fully brief on topics of discussion;• Development of the department's international relations policy, including timely and well-researched steers on emerging global issues such as the Rule of Law in Hong Kong and engagement with countries in the Gulf region.• Providing written and oral briefings for ministers ahead of participation in international conferences such the Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting, and offering analytical and lobbying support during the events.• Leading two-person visits team that organised incoming and outgoing ministerial visits, as well as official-level trips to the UK's prisons and courts. I provided strategic oversight of visits policy and ensured it supported departmental priorities whilst offering value for money.

As part of the team that manages the UK Government’s relationship with the Crown Dependencies (CDs) – the semi-autonomous jurisdictions of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man – my primary responsibilities included:• Ensuring UK Government departments fulfilled their constitutional obligation to consider the interests of the CDs, especially as the UK prepares for Brexit. I facilitated and chaired cross-Whitehall discussion, acting as a moderator where disputes arose and reporting back to ministers on progress.• Monitoring political developments in the CDs to ensure the UK’s obligation to safeguard good governance was fulfilled, and briefing ministers and senior officials on the appropriate action to take where concerns were raised.• Overseeing the extension of international treaties and sanctions to the CDs, by facilitating contact between the relevant departments and international institutions.

As half of the team that delivered a capacity-building programme aimed at young election professional across the Commonwealth my responsibilities included:• Design and delivery of four 5-day training events addressing ways in which electoral democracy could be strengthened throughout the Commonwealth.• Populating and moderating an online workspace for event participants that provided peer-to-peer networking and a forum to discuss topics introduced at training events.• Logistical arrangements for events, (travel, accommodation, conference facilities, etc.) and all budgeting, procurement and financial reporting to associated with the project.

Working in the Africa desk of the Political Affairs Division, I was responsible for coordinating briefing for diplomatic visits and election observation missions, including for the Secretary General, senior officers and former heads of state.

While researching my post-graduate dissertation on the evolution of civil society I worked for the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum, a member-driven NGO that lobbies on natural resource management issues, in Arusha, Tanzania. I was responsible for: producing briefing and research reports on governance and accountability in Tanzania’s natural resource sector for the head of programmes; ensuring proposed activities met both organisational objectives and donor's requirements; and travelling around northern Tanzania to interview local pastoralists as part of my research.