Local council jobs in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has 11 councils and each one recruits for itself, on its own website or recruitment portal. They employ people in waste and recycling, leisure, parks, planning, building control, environmental health, registration and economic development. Pay follows the National Joint Council (NJC) scales and staff join the Local Government Pension Scheme (Northern Ireland).

The 11 councils

The councils are:

• Antrim and Newtownabbey
• Ards and North Down
• Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon
• Belfast
• Causeway Coast and Glens
• Derry and Strabane
• Fermanagh and Omagh
• Lisburn and Castlereagh
• Mid and East Antrim
• Mid Ulster
• Newry, Mourne and Down

Employee numbers vary a good deal. Newry, Mourne and Down says it has around 1,000 employees. Belfast publishes 14 pay grades. For a fuller look at the capital’s council, see working for Belfast City Council.

What the councils employ people to do

According to nidirect, councils run waste collection, recycling and civic amenity sites, street cleaning, grounds maintenance, cemeteries and public toilets. They handle local planning and building control, food safety, health and safety and environmental protection, dog control and licensing, and byelaw enforcement. They run leisure centres, parks, playgrounds and community centres, arts and heritage facilities, off-street parking, registration of births, deaths and marriages, and local economic development and tourism support.

That gives a wide mix of jobs, from refuse collectors and lifeguards to planning officers and registrars. Rozile has English profiles for several, including planning officer, environmental health officer, registrar and lifeguard. They describe the work well, though pay and some qualification routes differ in Northern Ireland.

Councils in Northern Ireland are not responsible for education, personal social services, roads, public housing, fire and police services, trading standards, drainage, sewerage, libraries, street lighting, transport or urban regeneration. If you want a social work, housing, libraries or roads job, look at the Health and Social Care trusts, the Housing Executive, the Education Authority or the relevant Department instead. The Northern Ireland public sector guide has the map.

Where vacancies appear

There is no single site. What the councils say on their own pages:

• Belfast City Council uses its own online recruitment portal. It does not accept CVs.
• Newry, Mourne and Down has an online recruitment portal. Each advertised job comes with a job description, person specification, summary terms and conditions, guidance notes and an application form with a Fair Employment Monitoring Form. Enquiries go to [email protected] or 0330 137 4025.
• Mid and East Antrim posts its jobs on its GetGot portal.
• Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon sends its jobs page to a GetGot portal.
• Lisburn and Castlereagh lists vacancies on an external recruitment portal linked from its job opportunities page.

Councils also run job fairs through their Labour Market Partnerships, which the Department for Communities funds. Lisburn and Castlereagh’s first fair of 2026 was on 26 February at Lagan Valley LeisurePlex in Lisburn. Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon runs work experience placements, which it says are generally unpaid: you complete a form, normally at least four weeks before the start date, and the council aims to reply within 10 working days.

For councils in other parts of the UK, see where councils advertise jobs. Other public bodies, such as the Housing Executive and Translink, advertise separately.

Pay

Council pay follows the NJC Green Book scales. For 2026/27, the unions report that a 3.3 per cent award has been agreed and backdated to 1 April 2026. In the last union update, in late August 2026, some employers had not confirmed when it would be paid, so pay may arrive later than the effective date. The NJC pay spine has the national figures.

Belfast City Council shows what the scale looks like in practice: £25,614 at the bottom of Grade 1 and £78,388 at the top of Grade 14 from 1 April 2026. Other councils publish their own grades, so check the salary on each advert.

Pension, leave and other terms

The Local Government Pension Scheme (Northern Ireland) is run by NILGOSC, which holds the pension fund and has sections called Main Section and 50/50 Section. LGPS in Northern Ireland explains how it works.

Leave and holidays differ council to council. Newry, Mourne and Down gives 24 days, rising to 31 after 10 years, plus 13 public holidays. Belfast gives 24 days rising to 29 after five years and 32 after ten, plus 12 days of extra statutory, bank and public holiday entitlement. Both describe flexible working, and Newry, Mourne and Down lists free access to council leisure facilities. It says its pension is a career average scheme to which the council contributes 15.5 per cent from April 2026. Check each council’s page for current terms, because they change with each agreement.

Monitoring forms and checks

Expect a fair employment monitoring form with your application, as Newry, Mourne and Down’s job packs show. It records community background for monitoring and is kept apart from selection. Some roles, such as leisure centre work with children or vulnerable adults, need an AccessNI check. Basic and standard checks cost £16 and enhanced checks £32, and your employer usually starts the application for you. AccessNI checks covers the levels.