Deputy Director for Trade Analysis, Project Delivery and Support

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

On-Site

Expires: Expiring in less than 3 weeks

Management

Full time

£86,000 per year

Job summary

These are key leadership roles within the EU and International Trade Directorate. You will be working closely with your co-Deputy Director to lead the Trade Analysis, Project Delivery and Support team (TAPS). TAPS is a multi-disciplinary team covering the analytical, project management, business management and SCS private office diary support functions. We are looking for an experience analyst and highly visible leader, capable of leading and developing a high performing team as well as providing expert analytical advice on trade issues to Ministers and senior officials.

Job description

EUIT works to ensure that the UK’s trade policy, trade agreements and international and multilateral relationships deliver Defra’s environmental, climate change, food, farming, fisheries and biosecurity objectives. We do this in a range of ways, including representing Defra’s interests in UK trade negotiations and leading multilateral engagement at the World Trade Organization. We also lead work on exports to ensure UK producers and businesses can get the most out of these deals. This our key priorities include negotiations with the EU to secure a Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, to enable agri-food products to move more easily between the UK and EU.

Within EUIT, the TAPS team has a multi-faceted role with responsibilities spanning the provision of high-quality advice and analysis on trade policy, providing project management expertise and support across all policy areas of the directorate and ensuring the smooth running of the directorate through its business management function. The overarching aim is to ensure that policy development is made in a structured and well evidenced manner.

You will be expected to:

Co-lead the team with your co-DD by developing a strong vision for the team which has the capabilities and skills to deliver current and future objectives.
Confidently provide expert analytical advice on Defra’s trade interests to Ministers and senior officials.
Proactively shape the ways of working across the team, Defra and across Government to ensure that policy development is made in a structured and well evidenced manner.
Directly line manage 2-3 grade 6s and provide support to all five G6s as and when needed (e.g. on occasions when your co-DD isn’t working)
Provide leadership across the whole team, but with particular focus on trade policy analysis in support of bilateral and multilateral negotiations (tariffs, rules of origin provisions), the impact of international events on global and UK commodity markets, trade modelling and trade statistics, and standards in trade.
Actively contribute to the Cross-Government trade analyst community, helping to continually improve the capability and professionalism of the UKs trade analysis profession and helping strengthen collaborative working between departments.
Be an active member of the EUIT Leadership Group, proactively contributing to the leadership of the wider directorate.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

As part of the application process, candidates are asked to complete a CV and Personal Statement (no more than 1200 words) on how your relevant skills and experience meet the essential criteria.

Inspiring leadership, with the ability to articulate a compelling long-term vision for a multidisciplinary team, providing a clear sense of direction in times of uncertainty, anticipating strategic changes and adapting to new priorities, and developing the team capability and capacity needed to deliver both current analytical demands and anticipated future evidence needs.
Strong technical analytical skills, with substantial experience of setting and leading the strategic direction for complex analytical programmes, clearly linked to policy or delivery outcomes, whilst maintaining clear long-term strategies in delivering cross-Government objectives.
The ability to persuade and influence others, whilst creating and maintaining strong relationships with colleagues across as well as the wider Civil Service and with external stakeholders, even when goals or views may diverge.
The ability to communicate complex evidence issues clearly, succinctly, and with credibility to a non-technical audience including ministers, senior officials and external stakeholders to provide clear policy recommendations, taking into account the caveats and degree of confidence in the analysis.

* It would be helpful to have knowledge of trade issues – but not essential.

Membership

The postholder needs to be a member of (or have the relevant eligibility requirements and be prepared to join) one of the analytical professions below: please indicate in your personal statement, which analytical profession you belong to / would look to join:

The Government Statistical Service (GSS),
The Government Economics Service (GES),
Government Operational Research Service (GORS),
Government Social Research (GSR),
Government Geography Profession (GGP)
The Government Data and Digital (GDaD) profession – data scientist.

Benefits

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 (opens in a new window).

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%

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

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 23:55pm, Sunday 20th September 2026.

Informal conversations with hiring manager

Prior to the closing date informal conversations (not assessed) can be arranged with the vacancy holder, Sophie Brice, Director EU and International Trade. If you would like to arrange to speak with Sophie please contact David Lancaster via email David.Lancaster@defra.gov.uk

Sift

A sift will be conducted against the key criteria in the person specification. Applications will be assessed by the selection panel and shortlisted.

Staff Engagement Exercise (SEE)

These assessments will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, they are designed to support the panel’s decision-making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.

Full details of the assessment process will be provided to shortlisted
candidates at the earliest opportunity. For further information regarding the assessments please visit -
https://scs-assessments.co.uk/

Interviews

You will be asked to attend a panel interview in London at 2 Marsham street, 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 will ask you to prepare a short presentation. This will be confirmed in the interview invitation.

Interviews will be held face to face in London at 2 Marsham Street.

Other Information

Please let us know what adjustments we can put in place to help you through the recruitment process if you are disabled. To discuss your requirements in more detail, please contact: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk in the first instance.

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, or 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 basic (or equivalent) 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.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

Salary range

£86,000 per year