The Northern Ireland Civil Service has launched a recruitment drive to hire 500 executive officer-level staff to work across a range of departments.
Finance minister Conor Murphy said that as well as filling the immediately-available roles, the drive would be used to create a “waiting list” of suitable candidates to fill further vacancies as they arise.
Last year, the Department of Finance admitted the NICS needed “fundamental change” in the way it recruited staff after the Northern Ireland Audit Office flagged that a lack of workforce planning across departments had led to almost 1,500 vacancies and an agency staff bill of £45.7m in 2018-19.
Finance minister Murphy said the majority of current vacancies were in the Greater Belfast and North West travel-to-work areas, but he added that the competition may also be used to fill vacancies in other areas.
“With posts available across a number of departments this is an excellent opportunity for people who want to make a real contribution to society,” he said.
“I welcome applications from talented and motivated people regardless of their age, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, community background, disability or ethnicity.”
The application window for executive officer grade one posts opened on Monday and will stay open until midday on 28 May. The window for executive officer grade two posts opened last week and closes at midday on 21 May.
The pay scale for the EO grade one roles is £27,845 to £28,730, and for the EO grade two roles is £25,229 to £26,051.