Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
UK Chief Plant Health Officer and Deputy Director Plant and Bee Health, Plant Varieties and Seeds
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Bristol, London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York
Job Summary
- Head of the UK National Plant Protection Organisation (NPPO) and International leadership of UK plant health at the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and European Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO).
- Head of Profession for the UK Plant Health Service.
- Deputy Director for policy on plants, trees, bees, and plant varieties and seeds.
- Lead the assessment of new and emerging risks to plant, tree, and bee health and coordinate and lead the government’s central response to major incursions and outbreaks.
- Lead and commission a research, evidence, and analysis portfolio.
- External lead and spokesperson on plant, tree, and honeybee issues and a wider advisory role to UK government and other stakeholder organisations.
- Lead policy, science, and analysts of approximately 73 people and a delegated budget of approximately £27m.
Job Description
- Ownership and improvement of a publicly available Plant Health Portal.
- Ownership and improvement of a publicly available plant health risk register to achieve better risk prioritisation and management.
- Prioritising items identified by the monthly Plant Health Risk Group (PHRG) for presentation and discussion at the Monthly Biosecurity Meeting with Ministers, alerting Ministers to high profile pests for action.
- Chair consultation meetings with stakeholders: Tree Health Policy Group and Plant Health Advisory Forum.
- Chair UK NPPO group with Devolved Governments and UK Coordination Group with Crown Dependencies.
- International leadership as Head of UK NPPO with EU, EPPO, and IPPC.
- Develop, maintain, and test the plant health Contingency plans to ensure a rapid and effective response to pest outbreaks.
- Leading emergency response to new or changing pest threats; evidence of new pest outbreak response. Oversee development of pest specific contingency plans via the PHRG.
- Lead spokesperson for plant and bee health matters for media interviews.
- Implementing the Plant Biosecurity Strategy and SRO for Plant Health Programme Boards.
- Policy customer oversight of APHA and Fera delivery of plant health inspection, surveillance, and diagnostic activities.
- Implementation of the tree health resilience strategy as part of 25 year environment plan.
- Leadership of the Plant Variety and Seeds function through facilitating the breeding of varieties for UK conditions and maintaining the quality of marketed reproductive material, including improved disease resistance and reduced pesticides, and boost UK productivity.
- Leadership of honey bee health policy and SRO for the Healthy Bees Plan as part of the National Pollinator strategy.
- Written and verbal communication at events, conferences, webinars.
Other Corporate Roles:
- Defra lead scientist for plants; lead for plant and tree initiatives across Government and with external stakeholders.
- SRO for Fera SSCS contract.
- Member of APHA Steering Board.
- Member of Forest Research Board.
- Member of the BBSRC the Food and Animal & Plant Health Programme Board.
Person Specification
- A relevant qualification in a plant related discipline such as, plant pathology, entomology, mycology, or a related discipline with clear evidence of professional expertise.
- Policy Leadership. Experience of policy leadership and sound judgment in a political environment. You will demonstrate clear ability to assimilate a wide range of information, analyse complex problems, identify how best to reconcile the conflicting priorities of different stakeholders, and make propositions to ministers.
- Leading People. Outstanding people leadership skills, with a track record of leading, motivating, and developing large, high performing teams and building a diverse and inclusive culture, while leading people through change and re-prioritisation.
- Negotiating and Influencing. Strong proven experience of successfully working collaboratively with and influencing a broad range of Board-level and more senior stakeholders internally and externally, and ideally, in international negotiations and wider representative roles.
- Excellent communication skills at all levels with demonstrable experience of communicating clearly and succinctly in all forms (written and oral) to a broad range of stakeholders, adapting the style for the appropriate audience, ensuring that complex issues are set out in a simple and accessible way that is influential and authoritative.
- Incident Response. The ability to work at a strategic level in a high-stakes incident or crisis and the flexibility and personal resilience to adapt to rapidly changing and high-risk circumstances.
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
Desirable Criteria:
- Be a member of/join the Register of Plant Health Professionals.
- Media trained or experienced in speaking to the media.
Compensation
- 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).
Benefits
- 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%.
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
As part of the application process, candidates are asked to complete a CV and Personal Statement (no more than 1250 words) on how your relevant skills and experience meet the essential criteria. Completed applications must be submitted no later than the closing date of 23:55, Sunday 2nd August 2026.
A sift will be conducted against the key criteria in the essential criteria and will assess your experience. Applications will be assessed by the selection panel and shortlisted. (Please note: feedback is not given at the shortlist stage)
This assessment will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, it is designed to support the panel’s decision-making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.
You will be asked to attend a panel interview, in order 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 may ask you to prepare and present a short presentation or undertake a practical desktop exercise. This will be confirmed in the interview invitation. We will also ask some strengths-based questions.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
Interviews will be held face to face in London.
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 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
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills
Location