Policy Team Leaders

Job summary

Are you ready to take the next step in your policy career by leading teams and delivering high‑impact outcomes?

Join us at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) as a Policy Team Leader (G7) and play a key role in shaping policies that protect public health and support a safe, sustainable food system across the UK.

The FSA is a non‑ministerial department of over 1,600 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.

In this role, you will provide strong leadership to a policy team, setting direction and delivering through others to achieve clear objectives. You will lead work on high‑profile, complex policy issues, ensuring that your team produces high‑quality, evidence‑based advice to inform strategic decision‑making. You’ll be working closely with senior stakeholders, building effective relationships and influencing across government and with external partners to drive delivery.

These roles are suited to experienced policy professionals who are confident leading teams, working at pace and navigating complex and sensitive environments. You will join a collaborative and inclusive organisation that values learning, flexibility and continuous improvement, with opportunities to further develop your leadership capability.

We offer amazing benefits and flexible working arrangements – take a look in the Candidate Pack and take a peek at our careers page Working for the Food Standards Agency , Civil Service Careers to find out more.

Job description

As a Policy Team Leader, you will lead a team to deliver policy and strategy that support the FSA’s key priorities. You will set clear direction, overseeing delivery through others to ensure high‑quality outputs and successful outcomes.

You will be responsible for ensuring your team brings together evidence from a range of sources and translates complex information into clear, well‑reasoned advice and options for senior leaders, the FSA Board and Ministers. This will support strategic decision‑making and ensure policies are proportionate, evidence‑based and effective in practice.

You will work closely with colleagues across the FSA and with external partners, including devolved administrations, other government departments, industry and consumer stakeholders, building strong relationships and influencing at senior levels to drive delivery.

Depending on the role, you may lead work on incident response, domestic or international policy priorities, or legislative reform. All roles require flexibility to respond to emerging priorities and business needs, alongside responsibility for supporting and managing team members to maintain performance and delivery.

If this sounds like the role for you, we’d love to receive your application.

You can find out more about working in policy in the Civil Service here About us - Policy Profession - GOV.UK

Working pattern guidance

Applicants who wish to work compressed hours are welcome to apply - however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this before accepting an offer of employment.

If applying as a job share partnership you should both complete separate application forms on Civil Service Jobs but should make it clear that you are applying as job sharers. Further details on job sharing can be found here JSF – What is the recruitment process for job sharers? , Civil Service Careers (civil-service-careers.gov.uk)

Please read before applying

A small number of these vacancies may be permanent posts.

The majority are temporary Fixed Term/Loan appointments of varying durations, available due to limited funding for project work. There may be the possibility, but no guarantee, of extension or permanency. Posts will be offered in strict merit order as they become available.

Candidates that are already established Civil Servants or from non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will come to the FSA on a Loan basis and must have permission from their Home Department for the Loan prior to applying for this job.

Successful candidates must be able to commence employment within 6 weeks of conditional verbal offer.

Note for FSA employees

You must seek approval from your substantive manager before applying for any non-permanent vacancy - please refer to the ‘Temporary internal appointments framework’ on the FSA intranet for more details. Please note that if applying for a temporary post within the FSA or elsewhere on promotion, successful appointment will not automatically result in a permanent promotion - you will revert to your current substantive grade at the end of the Fixed Term or Loan period (unless funding has been approved to make the post permanent).

Person specification

Please read the attached Candidate Pack to discover further details about the role, 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.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,279, Food Standards Agency contributes £16,883 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Please take a look at the Working for the Food Standards Agency , Civil Service Careers to find out about the benefits the FSA has to offer

Please also refer to the Terms and Conditions statement attached to this advert.

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 can be found 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.

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: Demonstrable experience of leading policy or regulatory work in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment, balancing competing interests to deliver workable outcomes.

• Demonstrable experience of building and influencing relationships with senior stakeholders both inside and outside your organisation to reach agreement or achieve a shared outcome

• Excellent experience of producing clear written and oral advice, including evidence-based policy recommendations, that informs decisions and responds to strategic objectives or priorities.

• Demonstrable experience of analysing and weighing competing evidence from multiple sources to reach and defend sound policy, strategy or operational decisions.

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 whichwe will assess you against the following Experience requirements of the role and Civil Service Behaviours.

Experience

• Experience of leading policy or regulatory work in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment, balancing competing interests to deliver workable outcomes.

• Experience of building and influencing relationships with senior stakeholders both inside and outside your organisation to reach agreement or achieve a shared outcome

• Excellent experience of producing clear written and oral advice, including evidence-based policy recommendations, that informs decisions and responds to strategic objectives or priorities.

• Experience of analysing and weighing competing evidence from multiple sources to reach and defend sound policy, strategy or operational decisions.

Behaviours

• Seeing the Big Picture (Assessed via Seen Presentation)

Assessment exercise

As part of the interview process, you will be asked to prepare a seen presentation. Further information will be provided to you on the invitation to interview email.

Note: Criteria are listed in order of priority to help distinguish merit order of joint scoring candidates at both sift and interview.

Expected Timeline

Advert closes: 21 June 2026 (23:55)

Sift: Expected to take place during week commencing 22 June 2026

Final panel interview: Expected to take place during week commencing 6 July 2026

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. We expect further vacancies to arise – and will look to draw from the Reserve list as positions become available in our teams. Posts will be offered in strict merit order.

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

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 Team
• Email : hr.recruitment.campaigns@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

Terms and Conditions as at April 2020 Opens in new window (pdf, 42kB)v1.0 Candidate Pack-Policy Team Leaders (G7) Bulk Campaign Jun 26 Opens in new window (pdf, 927kB)