Operations Manager (International Trade Operations)

Job summary

Can you lead large operational teams, drive performance and deliver high-quality services in a complex and fast-paced environment?
Are you passionate about developing high-performing teams, managing change and delivering excellent outcomes for customers and stakeholders?

If so, we would love to hear from you!

APHA is a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, because it helps us be more innovative and make better decisions.

We are dedicated to being an inclusive employer, offering equitable opportunities for all individuals. Our goal is to build a diverse workforce, and we hope to attract applications from all backgrounds and underrepresented groups.

Job description

As Operations Manager, you will lead the operational delivery of EU Transition requirements, providing strategic leadership and effective change management for a large, geographically dispersed workforce of over 100 colleagues. Ensure teams are prepared for and able to adapt to significant policy, process, and operational changes, maintaining service delivery through periods of uncertainty, responding at pace to evolving priorities and high-profile policy decisions, and supporting colleagues through change with clear communication, resilience, and strong people leadership.

You will be accountable for effective resource planning, performance management, and the deployment of people and resources to meet organisational objectives and customer needs. Working collaboratively across the Agency and with Operational Delivery networks, you will drive continuous improvement, share best practice, and contribute to the development of consistent, nationally aligned approaches that reflect policy requirements. You will play a key role in building strong, high-performing teams, fostering effective stakeholder relationships, and ensuring the service remains resilient and responsive in the face of business continuity challenges or disease outbreak incidents. Through strong leadership and a focus on customer outcomes, you will ensure teams consistently deliver against performance targets while supporting the Agency’s wider strategic goals.

Key Duties

• Drive the development and delivery of business area strategy, ensuring operational teams deliver high quality services, providing clear direction, communicating priorities, and ensuring teams are supported, have understanding, and aligned with organisational objectives and change initiatives, communicating impacts, in line with policy standards and performance targets, contributing to wider agency
• Lead operational teams with visible, proactive leadership, ensuring strong connections between team and senior management, and embedding a positive, high performance, unified team culture across all areas

• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of HR policies and procedures, ensuring their consistent and effective application across the team and supporting complex people management matters

• Build leadership resilience and capability by maintaining succession plans, developing and coaching staff, and applying strategic forecasting and modelling to anticipate and meet future resource requirements, while effectively managing performance, attendance, and holding meaningful performance improvement conversations

• Oversee workforce planning, and resource management to ensure business resilience, mange onboarding, skills maintenance, professional development, and training coordination, monitor work outputs through routine management checks to maintain consistent processes, and oversee the production and quality assurance of management information to ensure accurate reporting; and ensure business continuity and outbreak response plans are in place, maintained, and understood by all staff

• Lead the production and use of management information and data analysis to monitor performance, support planning, and inform decision making, ensuring internal procedures and guidelines are consistently follow, reviewed and updated to enable effective delivery while driving continuous improvement initiatives to enhance service quality and operational efficiency

• Build strong, productive relationships with delivery partners, policy colleagues, industry stakeholders, and internal team, horizon scanning and identifying risks, issues and trends and propose or escalate solutions; manage customer and stakeholder expectations, including handling difficult conversations, and ensure clear, timely and effective communication with all partners, particularly during organisational change or incident response

• Identify opportunities to improve working practices using data, lessons learned, stakeholder and organisation feedback, and lead discussions to develop evidence-based proposal that support agency wide consistency

• Demonstrate leadership in promoting safe working practices and wellbeing, ensuring team members understand and fulfil their health and safety responsibilities, and undertaking essential training while acting as a role model for high standards

• Undertake additional duties as required to meet operational priorities, including reasonable task assigned by line management supporting critical functions such as disease outbreak responses

Person specification

You will be able to demonstrate:

• Strong knowledge of international trade operations, including import and export processes, regulatory requirements and policy impacts, with the ability to translate complex requirements into effective operational delivery and compliance

• Significant experience leading large operational teams, with a strong track record of motivating, developing and engaging managers and colleagues to achieve high performance and excellent customer outcomes

• Proven experience leading teams through organisational change, successfully implementing new policies, processes or operating models while maintaining service delivery and employee engagement

• Strong strategic leadership skills, with the ability to translate organisational objectives into clear operational plans and deliver measurable results

• Experience of workforce planning, resource management and business resilience, including deploying resources effectively to respond to changing demand and operational priorities

• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to build effective relationships and collaborate across organisational boundaries to achieve shared goals

• Experience leading customer-facing operational services, with an understanding of delivering high-quality services in a complex, high-profile and politically sensitive environment

Behaviours

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

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

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Leadership

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,665, Animal and Plant Health Agency contributes £12,360 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

At APHA, we are committed to supporting you to develop your skills, knowledge, and professional capability throughout your career.

From day one, you will be welcomed through a structured induction programme, helping you understand the Civil Service, our work, and how we operate. You’ll work closely with your line manager to set clear priorities and develop a performance, learning, and development plan tailored to your role.

We will support you to build and maintain your expertise in information rights and related disciplines, including working towards relevant practitioner qualifications. You’ll also be encouraged to engage with the wider profession through networks, working groups, and professional bodies, helping you stay connected to emerging best practice across KIM and the Civil Service.

Alongside formal training, you will have opportunities to apply and develop your knowledge in a practical environment, contributing to continuous improvement and innovation in how we manage information.

Inclusion, support, and the wellbeing of our people are central to what we do, ensuring everyone at APHA can thrive both professionally and personally.

Benefits

• Civil Service Pension - Defra contributes an average of 28.97% of your salary towards your pension
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities tailored to your role.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts from retailers such as Highstreet coffee shops, Cinema’s, supermarkets, Highstreet retailers and many, many more.
• Staff bonuses and recognition including appreciate vouchers of up to £200 and larger in year awards of up to £1000,
• Salary sacrifice benefit options and an employee discount scheme such as bike to work, Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme, every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 a year for each child.
• Discounted gym membership with Fitness First or Pure Gym.
• Special Leave with pay, per year, for volunteering.
• Making it work for you - With so many flexible working options, most people can find a work schedule to suit their circumstances.

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, Strengths and Experience.

Application Process

As part of the application process you will be asked to provide a CV and complete a 1000-word Personal Statement detailing your suitability for the role based on the 'Essential Experience' bullet points within the Person Specification section of the advertisement above.

CV Guidance

Your CV should consist of your career history, including any key achievements and your main responsibilities in each role and be no longer than 2 pages. Your CV will be used to provide further context on your Personal Statement and scored against the essential criteria.

Personal Statement Guidance

When completing your Personal Statement, please read and understand the Person Specification thoroughly, as this is what your written evidence will be assessed against. Please ensure you evidence the key personal qualities and experiences that align with the criteria. Consider the Job Description and look to demonstrate how your previous experience may align with the expectations and be applicable to the role. The written evidence you provide must relate to your own experiences. Your layout is entirely your preference; you may choose narrative, bullets, etc.

You will also be asked to provide 250-word statements demonstrating how you meet the following Behaviour:

• Leadership

Further details around what this will entail can be found on the application form.

Sift

Should a large number of applications be received, there will be an initial sift assessing the Personal Statement. Those who pass the initial sift will be progressed either to a full sift or straight to interview.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Interview

If successful at application stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be assessed on Behaviour, Experience and Strength questions.

The Behaviours are as follows:.

Behaviours

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

The Behaviour, Communicating and Influencing, will be assessed by presentation. Details of the presentation will be sent to you prior to the interview.

During the interview, Experience will be assessed through a question.

It is intended that the interview will take place face-to-face in York.

After the interview

Once all the interviews have been conducted, candidates will be notified of the outcome by email. If you are successful at the interview stage, we will be in touch to offer you a role. Offers will be made in merit order.

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

Eligibility

Please take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. We understand mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days (Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we will not be able to reopen your application for you. If you do make a mistake, please contact us via: recruitment.sdd@apha.gov.uk using the subject line to insert appropriate wording for example – ‘Please re-open my application – [insert vacancy ref] & vacancy closing date [insert date]’

Location

Please be aware that this role(s) will be contractually based in a Defra group workplace/office. The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location (excluding Northern Ireland) and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

For most candidates your hours of work will be a blend of working from an APHA workplace (specific to the team location) with working at home.

As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s).

Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

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 organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisation allocations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations. Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies.

Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee. The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

Defra includes the Core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Near Miss

Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be considered for other positions within Defra Group which may be at a lower grade but have a potential skills match.

Merit Lists

Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be posted in merit order by location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application.

Salary

New entrants are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.

Criminal Record Check

If successful and transferring from another Government Department, a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government

Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Internal Fraud Database Check

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
• Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to Defra from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Visa Sponsorship Statement

Please take note that Defra does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

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

Job contact :

• Name : Recruitment Hub Team
• Email : recruitment.sdd@apha.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact Government Recruitment Services via email: defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: here

Attachments

APHA Information Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 3098kB)