Borders and Infrastructure DD

Job summary

The UK Borders and Infrastructure team leads the physical delivery and system oversight for the UK agri-food border. From improving the current border system, to leading the change that a new UK-EU agri-food agreement with the EU will bring as part of resetting the UK’s relationship with the bloc. You will be responsible for working with policy and operational colleagues to balance competing priorities to enable trade, reduce costs for business, and protect the UK’s biosecurity from disease threats.

The team is outward facing, working closely with delivery partners across central government such as the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Home Office, Food Standards Agency, Department for Transport, and HMRC, as well as local government such as port health authorities, and industry – ports and traders. The devolved governments are a key partner given delivery is often devolved.

This role is a critical part of the Trade Delivery Directorate leadership team. The directorate is responsible for managing the EU Delivery Programme to implement the UK-EU agreement; leading our work on Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework; delivering on commitments to tackle international deforestation; and overseeing digital delivery across trade.

The directorate blends a transformational change with optimising and improving enduring functions to deliver significant outcomes for the whole of the UK.

Job description

Key Responsibilities

You will be responsible for ensuring that border infrastructure is ready to operate the changes brought about by a newly negotiated SPS agreement, working with commercial ports and government departments with a presence at the border to achieve this.

This includes understanding the needs of ports and what support they require from government. It will also specifically involve the responsibility on behalf of Defra for the Sevington border control post, oversight of the site operating contract, decisions on the long-term use of the site, and the associated charging regime following the implementation of the SPS agreement.

The postholder will also take on an overall cross-cutting programme and financial management for all Border & infrastructure projects within the EU Delivery Programme, with a team who work as the key point of liaison into the programme management office. The role leads approximately 40 full time equivalents and you should expect to manage significant capital and resource budgets.

Lastly, the postholder will, jointly with the second Deputy Director for Borders & Infrastructure, act as the senior service owner for the Border service in the run up to the SPS agreement, supporting improvements in the way in which the Border oversight is enacted by Defra. You will support the development of the end service ownership model for the Border for beyond the SPS agreement.

Person specification

Candidates CV and Personal Statement should demonstrate the following essential criteria:

• Experience with infrastructure development, and working with third parties (e.g. local authorities, private actors) on operational delivery
• Significant experience of successfully managing medium or high complexity projects covering scheduling, budgeting and cost management, risk and issue management, governance, assurance and change control
• Working knowledge of business change and implementation, business case development and benefits management
• A visible leader with experience of promoting diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity, respecting differences
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to develop effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, collaborating across boundaries
• Excellent communication skills demonstrated through the ability to influence and challenge effectively at a senior level

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £23,465 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%

Office Attendance

The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisational workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other locations including with supplier, customer or partner teams’ organisations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

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 (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Application Process
As part of the application process, candidates are asked to complete a CV and Personal Statement (no more than 1000 words) on how your relevant skills and experience meet the essential criteria. Completed applications must be submitted no later than the closing date of Wednesday 18th March 2026 at 23:55pm

Town Hall meeting via MS Teams

We will be hosting a 45 minute virtual townhall on Wednesday 11th March 2026 at 1.45-2.30pm, where interested candidates can learn more about us and our ambitions. Please dial in here

*This session will not be recorded

Sift

A sift will be conducted against the key criteria above and will assess your experience. The sift is to be conducted w/c 30th March 2026.

Short listed applicants may be offered an informal discussion with the Vacancy Holder. Details will be finalised after the shortlist is concluded.

Interviews

You will be asked to attend an in person panel interview in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the essential criteria for the role

• As part of the interview, we would ask you to prepare and present a short presentation and will confirm the topic in the interview invitation. You will be assessed on the following behaviours at the interview stage: Leadership, Working together, Making Effective Decisions and Delivering at pace

Other Information

Please let us know what adjustments we can put in place to help you through the recruitment process if you are disabled.

Candidates who pass the interview criteria but are not offered a post may be kept on a reserve list for 12 months and may be offered similar roles across the department.

Defra Is committed to ‘name blind’ sifting. That means that identifying characteristics such as your name, gender, age, address are removed from your application until after shortlisting for interview has taken place.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.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.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

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

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : SCS Recruitment
• Email : fs.recruitment@forestrycommission.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.

Attachments

DEFRA Candidate Pack Borders and Infrastructure DD final (1) (3) (6) Opens in new window (pdf, 1782kB)DEFRA - Accessibility Pack Borders and Infrastructure DD Opens in new window (docx, 1924kB)