Public sector jobs in Peterborough

Peterborough’s public jobs come from a handful of large employers: Peterborough City Council, North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust at Peterborough City Hospital, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mental health trust, HM Passport Office and the city’s schools. Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service cover emergency work. Entry-level pay is set nationally at £25,272 for NHS band 2 and £25,614 for the bottom of the council spine from April 2026.

Government jobs

HM Passport Office, part of the Home Office, has a large office in Peterborough that processes passport applications. It recruits regularly at administrative officer and executive officer grades. Demand rises ahead of the busy spring and summer period, so fixed-term contracts are common. Other departments have teams in the city from time to time.

Each department sets Civil Service pay rather than a national scale, and for 2026/27 departments could raise their pay bill by up to 3.5 per cent in total. Adverts state the salary for the grade. About three quarters of Civil Service posts are open to Commonwealth citizens and EEA nationals as well as UK nationals, but posts with security requirements are reserved for UK nationals, and passport work may fall into that group. The advert will say. Administrative officer (AO) in the Civil Service explains the entry grade and how to use Civil Service Jobs covers the application process.

Peterborough City Hospital and mental health

North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust runs Peterborough City Hospital along with Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon and Stamford and Rutland Hospital. Peterborough is the largest site, with the emergency department, maternity and a broad range of specialties. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health, learning disability and some community services, and East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust handles 999 calls.

Pay follows Agenda for Change for England with no high cost area supplement. From 1 April 2026, band 2 is £25,272, band 3 from £25,760 to £27,476, band 5 from £32,073 to £39,043 and band 7 from £49,387 to £56,515. Porters, domestics and many healthcare assistant posts are band 2, and NHS band 2 pay and jobs lists them.

Peterborough City Council

The council is a unitary authority responsible for social care, children’s services, education support, housing, planning, waste and highways. Serious budget pressures and reliance on government support in recent years have brought restructures, so ask about the stability of a team at interview. Some services are delivered through partnerships and council-owned companies. The employer named on an advert is then not always the council itself, and pay and pension terms can differ.

Council posts are on the NJC pay spine, starting at £25,614 (SCP 3) from 1 April 2026. Under the national Green Book, a full-time employee gets at least 23 days’ annual leave plus 8 public holidays and 2 extra days. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, with an elected mayor, recruits a smaller number of staff for transport, skills and economic roles.

Police and fire

Cambridgeshire Constabulary covers Peterborough and the rest of the county. Constables appointed now start on £32,255 from 1 September 2026 and reach £52,015 at the top of the scale. Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service pays £31,539 to firefighters in development and £40,358 once competent, from 1 July 2026. Both recruit staff for control rooms and support functions.

Schools

Peterborough has a young and growing population, and schools recruit across all subjects and phases. Most secondary schools and many primaries are academies. Teachers outside London start on £34,069 (M1) from 1 September 2026 under the accepted award, with maintained schools paying the new rates once the 2026 pay document is in force. Support staff are generally on the NJC spine and paid term-time only.

Cambridge is under an hour away by train and has a large biomedical campus and two NHS trusts, though housing costs there are higher. Public sector jobs in Cambridge covers those employers.