Prevention Systems and Engagement Lead

Job summary

Do you have experience of leading and influencing across complex stakeholder environments?

Are you able to build effective relationships across organisational boundaries?

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

This is a high-profile, outward facing role at the heart of transforming how incidents are managed across the UK food system, shifting the focus from response to prevention. Working with partners across industry, government and international organisations, you will play a key role in helping deliver ‘food we can trust’ by strengthening resilience and reducing risks before they materialise.

You will lead engagement and collaboration across a diverse network of stakeholders, helping organisations learn from incidents and near misses to drive meaningful, system-wide improvements. This is an exciting opportunity to influence behaviours, embed a prevention-first culture and contribute to strategic priorities that protect consumers and build confidence in the food system.

Job description

In this role you will support the delivery of prevention activity across incident management and resilience functions, working closely with internal teams and external partners to reduce risks and improve outcomes. You will lead collaborative work across industry, local authorities and government bodies, shaping approaches that enhance interoperability, strengthen capability and support coordinated readiness across the system.

You will drive continuous improvement by embedding Root Cause Analysis as a core capability, ensuring insights from incidents are translated into practical actions that reduce repeat risks. The role also includes developing and implementing prevention policy, leading workstreams, contributing to communications and risk planning, and representing UK approaches internationally while learning from global best practice to strengthen resilience and preparedness.

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:

• Changing and Improving

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 (opens in a new window).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, Strengths 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 and desirable criteria. (Desirable criteria will only be assessed in the event of a tie between candidates).

Essential criteria

Experience

·Lead criteria: Demonstrable experience of leading and influencing across complex stakeholder environments, including senior leaders across government, industry and partner organisations, to drive system-wide improvement and deliver measurable outcomes

· System leadership, interoperability and partnership working – Demonstrate experience of working across organisational boundaries to improve how organisations, systems and processes connect, including building effective partnerships, supporting the adoption of consistent approaches, and delivering improvements that strengthen system resilience and prevention outcomes

·Learning, root cause and continuous improvement – Demonstrable experience of identifying learning from incidents or system insight and translating this into practical improvements that reduce repeat risk and strengthen prevention outcomes

·Relevant operational/sector expertise– Experience of working in incident management, system resilience, public health, food or feed regulation, or a related operational environment, with an understanding of UK food legislation or regulatory frameworks

Desirable criteria (Desirable criteria will only be assessed in the event of a tie between candidates).

Experience

· An understanding of current UK government frameworks, and its role in system resilience

· Previous experience undertaking or overseeing use of Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

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, and Strengths requirements of the role and Civil Service Behaviours.

Behaviours

· Changing and Improving

Experience

· Demonstrable experience of leading and influencing across complex stakeholder environments, including senior leaders across government, industry and partner organisations, to drive system-wide improvement and deliver measurable outcomes

·System leadership, interoperability and partnership working– Demonstrate experience of working across organisational boundaries to improve how organisations, systems and processes connect, including building effective partnerships, supporting the adoption of consistent approaches, and delivering improvements that strengthen system resilience and prevention outcomes

· Relevant operational/sector expertise – Experience of working in incident management, system resilience, public health, food or feed regulation, or a related operational environment, with an understanding of UK food legislation or regulatory frameworks

Strengths

We will also assess you against a number of Civil Service Strengths – these are not disclosed prior to interview.

Expected Timeline

Advert closes: 15/07/26

Sift: Expected to take place from 16/07/26

Final panel interview: Expected to take place w/c 27/07/26

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

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 : Tina Potter
• Email : Tina.Potter@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

Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 1020kB)Terms and Conditions as at April 2020 Opens in new window (pdf, 42kB)