Assistant Principal roles in State agencies: how specialist AP competitions differ

Five specialist Assistant Principal roles in State agencies and the Civil Service are advertised on publicjobs, closing between 22 October and 16 November 2026. They sit outside the main Assistant Principal 2026 competition, and each has its own booklet, eligibility and application process. Some of them use a different competency model from the one AP 2026 candidates prepared for. This post sets out what each competition says about itself, where the differences are, and what to adjust if you are bringing examples across from AP 2026.

I coach candidates for civil service and public sector competitions at Assistant Principal level, and I spent years in the Civil Service myself, entering the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as a Third Secretary and leaving as a First Secretary. The facts below come from the publicjobs adverts and the booklets I could read on 19 October 2026.

Key facts at a glance

Competition	Closing date	Salary as stated	Framework in the booklet	How to apply
ICT Applications/Digital Solutions Manager, Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Vacancy ID 8410)	3pm, Thursday 22 October 2026	Starting at €83,113	Six Assistant Principal Officer level competencies	publicjobs
Assistant Principal, Risk Manager, NAERSA (Vacancy ID 9155)	3pm, Thursday 29 October 2026	€83,113 to €103,576 (LSI 2)	Key Competencies for the level	publicjobs
Data and Research Manager, Citizens Information Board (Vacancy ID 9658)	5pm, Monday 2 November 2026	€81,475 to €101,535 (LSI 2), from 1 June 2026	Six competencies, starting with Team Leadership	Application form and one-page cover letter, emailed to the Citizens Information Board
Head of Corporate Governance and Board Secretary, AHRRA (Vacancy ID 9714)	12 noon, Monday 16 November 2026	See the role specification	See the role specification	Through CPL, which runs the process for AHRRA
Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, AHRRA (Vacancy ID 9715)	12 noon, Monday 16 November 2026	See the role specification	See the role specification	Through CPL, which runs the process for AHRRA

All five are permanent posts. The NAERSA post is based in Letterkenny. The others are in Dublin, and the OGCIO booklet says most of its vacancies are expected to be in Dublin.

How are these different from the main Assistant Principal 2026 competition?

These are separate competitions, each with its own booklet, its own eligibility and its own application route. The main Assistant Principal Officer 2026 competitions recruited generalist managers for placement across the Civil Service. These five recruit for a specialism: ICT and digital delivery, risk, data and research, corporate governance, and communications.

Two of them, OGCIO and NAERSA, are run through publicjobs with a full candidate information booklet. The Citizens Information Board runs its own process, with an application form and cover letter sent by email. AHRRA uses the recruiter CPL. So the first job is to find the right booklet or role specification for each one, and to follow its instructions, not the ones you followed for AP 2026.

Which framework will the board use?

The answer depends on the competition, and it is not always the framework AP 2026 candidates prepared for. The main AP 2026 competition used the four dimensions of the Civil Service Capability Framework:

1. Building Future Readiness
2. Leading and Empowering
3. Evidence Informed Delivery
4. Communicating and Collaborating

The OGCIO ICT booklet lists six Assistant Principal Officer level competencies instead, and the Citizens Information Board candidate pack lists six very similar ones:

1. Leadership (Team Leadership in the Citizens Information Board pack)
2. Judgement, Analysis and Decision Making
3. Management and Delivery of Results
4. Interpersonal and Communication Skills
5. Specialist Knowledge, Expertise and Self Development
6. Drive and Commitment to Public Service Values

The NAERSA booklet asks candidates to show "the Key Competencies identified for effective performance at this level" and links to them from the booklet. Read the version that applies to your competition. My guide to the capability framework explains the framework, and why some competitions still use a competency model, so the booklet is the final word.

Eligibility is specialist, so check it first

Each of these competitions sets specialist eligibility, and it is the first thing to check. The OGCIO booklet sets out four routes, combining a computing qualification (or, in one route, industry certifications) with between three and eight years of directly relevant, hands-on experience. The NAERSA booklet asks for a Level 8 degree in a relevant discipline and at least five years' significant experience in risk management, compliance or internal control, including work on enterprise risk management frameworks. The Citizens Information Board asks for a Level 7 degree in a relevant discipline and at least five years' professional experience in research, data analysis or policy analysis, including management responsibility.

Reusing your Assistant Principal 2026 examples

If you prepared for AP 2026, you have already done the hardest part: you have found your examples. What changes is how you sort them and what you put forward in each one.

Start with your existing example bank and map each example against the competencies in the new booklet, not the four capability framework dimensions. Some will move across cleanly. Others will need a different emphasis. Specialist Knowledge, Expertise and Self Development, for example, is a competency in its own right in these booklets, so you need an example that shows your expertise and how you keep it current. These competitions also ask for specialist experience, so at least some of your examples need to come from the specialism, not from general management. My post on building an example bank shows how to map a career against a framework.

If a governance or risk role is the one you are looking at, my post on governance, risk and compliance roles in Irish State bodies covers the patterns I see in those applications.

Five things I see in Assistant Principal applications

These come up again and again when I work with candidates at Assistant Principal level. None of them is about ability. All of them are about what reaches the page.

1. Dense answers. The candidate packs three achievements into one example, and the board cannot tell which part to credit. One occasion, told well, gives the board more to mark.
2. "We" instead of "I". At this grade candidates lead teams and share credit, which is right in the job. But a sentence without you in it cannot be credited to you. My post on I-centred language covers this in detail.
3. Actions that are not named. "I managed the stakeholders" tells the board the topic. What you said, to whom, and what you changed as a result tells them what you did.
4. Specialist detail crowding out leadership. Specialists describe the system, the dataset or the framework accurately and leave little room for the people they led and the decisions they made. Every one of these competitions recruits a manager as well as a specialist.
5. The difficult example left out. The strongest examples are usually the ones where something went wrong or people disagreed. Candidates often leave them out of first drafts because they do not feel like successes.

Any of these may cost a strong candidate marks for things they have done in the job. All five can be fixed before the application goes in.

What happens after the closing date?

After the closing date, these competitions shortlist on the application, and only shortlisted candidates are called to interview. Not everyone who applies will be interviewed.

The OGCIO and NAERSA booklets say that where there are many eligible candidates, an expert board gives applications a scored assessment, ranks candidates and invites them in batches from the top. Both list the methods that may be used, from a competitive interview to a presentation or report-writing exercise, and both say interviews are expected from November 2026. The NAERSA booklet says appointments are not expected from its panel after June 2028. The Citizens Information Board says its interviews are competency based, will take place on site in Dublin, and may involve a presentation or other exercise.

Assistant Principal interview questions to practice with

I have written these practice questions from the six Assistant Principal competencies in the OGCIO and Citizens Information Board booklets. They are not questions from any board, and the real ones will differ, but if you can answer each of these with a strong example, you are well prepared.

1. Tell us about a time you led a team through a period of change or pressure. (Leadership)
2. Describe a decision you made without all the information you would have liked. (Judgement, Analysis and Decision Making)
3. Tell us about a time a project you were responsible for went off track. What did you do? (Management and Delivery of Results)
4. Describe a time you had to persuade a senior stakeholder who disagreed with you. (Interpersonal and Communication Skills)
5. How have you kept your specialist knowledge current, and how has that changed your work? (Specialist Knowledge, Expertise and Self Development)
6. Tell us about a time you put the public interest ahead of what was easiest for your team. (Drive and Commitment to Public Service Values)

Answer them out loud, not in your head. Reading notes silently is not practice. The free interview preparation checklist sets out a plan you can start before any invitation arrives.

Where support helps

Most candidates I work with at this grade have the experience. What they want help with is choosing the right examples for the model in front of them, getting their own decisions onto the page, and saying it all clearly under pressure. That is what each of these is for:

1. Finding and building your examples. A session to re-sort your examples against the competencies in your booklet. Useful if you prepared for AP 2026 and are not sure how your examples fit the new model.
2. Application form review. A written guidance note on your draft, covering general feedback and feedback on each competency, followed by a session to talk it through. Useful if you have a draft and want to know whether a board would credit you at Assistant Principal level.
3. Interview preparation. A mock competency-based interview against the model in your booklet, with a written guidance note afterwards. Useful once you are shortlisted, and you can read what a session involves first.

In both of the first two, the application stays in your own words. I do not write or rewrite application forms; I help you find and shape what you already have. To book, or to ask which would suit you, email me at sarah@dedico.ie.

If you would rather prepare on your own, everything linked in this post is free and it is the same method I use with clients.

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