A recruitment campaign has been launched to fill five senior posts at Birmingham City Council following stinging criticism from a government watchdog.

The new jobs include a strategic director of change and support services, with a salary of up to £153,000, and assistant director for business change who will be paid up to £87,000 per year.

The council wants candidates to fill three new roles and two vacancies after being rapped for dragging its feet and leaving existing management overworked.

The Birmingham Independent Improvement Panel, set up to oversee changes to the city council following the damning Kerslake report, last week said that, despite raising the issue in March, nothing had been done.

The five jobs are:

• Strategic director change and support services (£138,000-£153,000) - to ensure the organisation adapts to austerity-driven changes. The role is currently performed on a temporary basis by Sarah Homer

• Assistant chief executive (£82,000-£91,000) - a two-year appointment to support chief executive Mark Rogers through a busy period of city council transformation and the combined authority project

• Assistant director business change (£78,000-£87,000) - filling a vacancy in the people directorate which runs schools and social services

• Strategic director place (£138,000-£153,000) - in charge of refuse collection, housing and neighbourhoods. Replacing Sharon Lea who retired this month

• Director of skills and employment (£90,882-£100,980) - a new joint role with Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council following a deal to share economic development and skills services

The council says the appointments will be made by October and in post by early 2016.

Council deputy leader Ian Ward said: "We have made it clear we will do everything necessary to deliver the organisational change that is required to ensure the council functions as effectively as possible for the citizens it serves.

"We are doing this at the pace needed to address speedily the challenges the council faces and to ensure we make the right decisions.

"These roles will make a significant contribution towards making the changes we need to be ready to tackle the challenges of the future."

Last week, the chairman of the Birmingham Independent Improvement Panel John Crabtree said in an open letter that in March he had warned the council leadership "senior management was extremely stretched and there could be a severe risk to the delivery of the improvement plan if the council did not address this".

He added: "However, three months later the roles had still not been advertised."

The council leader Sir Albert Bore has to report back to the panel in September and, if it is not convinced progress is being made, there is a risk the Government could take over in the autumn.