Delivery Standards Manager

Job summary

Do you have excellent project management skills with the ability to develop and implement measurable delivery standards on time and to budget?

Are you able to work effectively in a fast-changing environment and show high levels of resilience?

If so, this is an exciting opportunity to join the Food Standards Agency (FSA) as our Delivery Standards Manager, and we’d love to hear from you!

The FSA is a non-ministerial department of over 1600 people. We play a critical role in protecting public health and consumers’ wider interests in food across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our vision is an important one - to drive change, delivering “food you can trust” and working towards a healthier and more sustainable food system.

Job description

Our team plays a vital role in ensuring that food and feed regulation across the UK is effective, consistent and future ready. This work supports the wider purpose of the organisation by helping to maintain high regulatory standards, partnering with agencies such as local authorities and port health authorities to ensure safe, transparent and trusted food systems. You will join a multi location team that provides leadership across a range of statutory functions, core regulatory services and the development of modernised approaches to official controls. This role offers the opportunity to work collaboratively across the organisation, contributing to key areas of delivery policy and regulatory reform.

In this role you will build strong relationships with stakeholders to co-develop and deliver policy objectives across the food regulatory system. You will lead and manage projects that shape how official controls are delivered, including the development of governance frameworks for delivery partners. You will be responsible for managing services that support regulatory functions, responding to enquiries and providing technical guidance where required. The role involves designing, testing and implementing new and innovative approaches to regulatory delivery, supporting a more data driven and intelligence led model. You will ensure performance and reporting systems demonstrate compliance with UK regulatory obligations and will contribute to digital and data initiatives that strengthen delivery.

Person specification

Please read the attached Candidate Pack to discover further details about the role, our organisation, who we are looking for and the criteria we will assess against during the selection process.

We look forward to receiving your application and wish you every success.

Qualifications

Please confirm which qualifications you hold in line with those outlined in the Food and Feed Law Codes of Practice

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,596, Food Standards Agency contributes £12,340 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.Our candidate pack details the benefits that the FSA has to offer. Please also refer to the attached Terms and Conditions statement.

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.

Full details of the selection process are detailed in the attached candidate pack.

Application and shortlisting

You will be asked to provide personal details (not seen by the Panel) and to confirm your eligibility to apply for the role.

Technical: You will be asked a question to confirm that you meet the Technical requirements of the role.

• A “suitable or appropriate” qualification as outlined in the Food and Feed Law Codes of Practice

If you cannot answer yes to this question – you will not be able to proceed further with your application.

You will then be asked to complete an application which will be used to assess you against the following essential criteria.

Essential criteria

Experience

· Lead criteria: Experience of delivering official controls on behalf of a competent authority or delivering a complex food management system that was subject to official controls by a competent authority

· Strong influencing and effective personal engagement skills

· Strong analytical skills, weighing up different sources of information to underpin operational decisions and make clear recommendations to senior officials

· Ability to adapt to a fast-changing environment. This includes the ability to confidently manage different workstreams at once while maintaining a high quality of work

Lead Criteria An initial sift will take place on the Lead Criteria.

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, the minimum pass mark for the Lead Criteria may be raised at shortlisting stage. Candidates who apply under the DCS, GPTW or RIS schemes and meet the minimum requirements will be unaffected by the pass mark raise.

Interview

If successful at shortlisting stage, you will be invited to a final interview in which we will assess you against the following Experience requirements of the role and Civil Service Behaviours.

Behaviours

· Seeing the Big Picture

· Making Effective Decisions

· Communicating and Influencing

Full details of the positive indicators being assessed for each Behaviour can be found in the Candidate Pack.

Experience

· Experience of delivering official controls on behalf of a competent authority or delivering a complex food management system that was subject to official controls by a competent authority

Expected Timeline

Advert closes: 21/04/26

Sift: Expected to take place from 22/04/26

Final panel interview: Expected to take place w/c 04/05/26

Interviews will be held remotely via MS Teams. (If you do not have the Microsoft Teams application installed on your computer, you can join on the web without installing the application).

Please note that indicated dates may be subject to change.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to the Food Standards Agency from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare.

Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Reserve List

A reserve list will be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointment may be made.

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that the FSA does not offer visa sponsorship and cannot provide advice on visa applications

Making a complaint

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

If you feel your application has not been treated fairly in accordance with the principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should email the FSA’s Director of People at jo.bushnell@food.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.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

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Fiona McClements
• Email : Fiona.mcclements@food.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : hr.recruitment.campaigns@food.gov.uk

Further information

If you wish to raise a complaint then please email hr.recruitment.campaigns@food.gov.uk in the first instance.

Attachments

Delivery Standards Manager - Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 986kB)Terms and Conditions as at April 2020 Opens in new window (pdf, 42kB)