Deputy Director Strategic jobs

468119

£86,000

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Permanent

Animal and Plant Health and Welfare Directorate

Policy

Full-time

1

Bristol, London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York

• Head of the UK the National Plant Protection Organisation (NPPO) and International leadership of UK plant health at the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and European Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO).
• Head of Profession for the UK Plant Health Service
• Deputy Director for policy on plants, trees, bees and plant varieties and seeds.
• Lead the assessment of new and emerging risks to plant, tree and bee health and co-ordinate and lead the government’s central response to major incursions and outbreaks
• Lead and commission a research, evidence and analysis portfolio
• External lead and spokesperson on plant, tree and honeybee issues and a wider advisory role to UK government and other stakeholder organisations.
• Lead policy, science and analysts c. 73 people and a delegated budget of c. £27m

• Ownership and improvement of a publicly available Plant Health Portal
• Ownership and improvement of a publicly available plant health risk register to achieve better risk prioritisation and management
• Prioritising items identified by the monthly Plant Health Risk Group (PHRG) for presentation and discussion at the Monthly Biosecurity Meeting with Ministers, alerting Ministers to high profile pests for action
• Chair consultation meetings with stakeholders: Tree Health Policy Group and Plant Health Advisory Forum
• Chair UK NPPO group with Devolved Governments and UK Coordination Group with Crown Dependencies
• International leadership as Head of UK NPPO with EU, EPPO and IPPC
• Develop, maintain and test the plant health Contingency plans to ensure a rapid and effective response to pest outbreaks by
• Leading emergency response to new or changing pest threats; evidence of new pest outbreak response. Oversee development of pest specific contingency plans via the PHRG
• Lead spokesperson for plant and bee health matters for media interviews
• Implementing the Plant Biosecurity Strategy and SRO for Plant Health Programme Boards
• Policy customer oversight of APHA and Fera delivery of plant health inspection, surveillance and diagnostic activities
• Implementation of the tree health resilience strategy as part of 25 year environment plan
• Leadership of the Plant Variety and Seeds function through facilitating the breeding of varieties for UK conditions and maintaining the quality of marketed reproductive material, including improved disease resistance and reduced pesticides, and boost UK productivity.
• Leadership of honey bee health policy and SRO for the Healthy Bees Plan as part of the National Pollinator strategy.
• Written and verbal communication at events, conferences, webinars

Other corporate roles:

• Defra lead scientist for plants; lead for plant and tree initiatives across Government and with external stakeholders
• SRO for Fera SSCS contract
• Member of APHA Steering Board
• Member of Forest Research Board
• Member of the BBSRC the Food and Animal & Plant Health Programme Board

• A relevant qualification in a plant related discipline such as, plant pathology, entomology, mycology or a related discipline with clear evidence of professional expertise
• Policy Leadership. Experience of policy leadership and sound judgment in a political environment. You will demonstrate clear ability to assimilate a wide range of information, analyse complex problems, identify how best to reconcile the conflicting priorities of different stakeholders and make propositions to ministers.
• Leading People. Outstanding people leadership skills, with a track record of leading, motivating and developing large, high performing teams and building a diverse and inclusive culture, while leading people through change and re-prioritisation.
• Negotiating and Influencing. Strong proven experience of successfully working collaboratively with and influencing a broad range of Board-level and more senior stakeholders internally and externally, and ideally, in international negotiations and wider representative roles.
• Excellent communication skills at all levels with demonstrable experience of communicating clearly and succinctly in all forms (written and oral) to a broad range of stakeholders, adapting the style for the appropriate audience, ensuring that complex issues are set out in a simple and accessible way that is influential and authoritative.
• Incident Response. The ability to work at a strategic level in a high-stakes incident or crisis and the flexibility and personal resilience to adapt to rapidly changing and high-risk circumstances.

Desirable criteria:

• Be a member of/join the Register of Plant Health Professionals
• Media trained or experienced in speaking to the media

Alongside your salary of £86,000, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £24,914 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides .

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

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Job contact :

• Name : SCS Recruitment
• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk