Chief Executive Officer

The CEO will lead one of the most prestigious and critical organisations in the protection of the United Kingdom. More than ever the health of our environment, plants and animals matters. If you join us, you will be part of the safeguarding of animal, plant and bee health for the benefit of everyone in society, the environment and the economy. Everyone who works in APHA is passionate about achieving this mission.
As the CEO, you are accountable for the leadership of APHA and delivery of its objectives. You are also a critical leader within Defra, working alongside other senior leaders and chief executives to deliver collectively across the entirety of the Department.
Leadership and management
+ Work with Defra and the APHA Steering Board to define and deliver the organisation’s strategy, aims and objectives.
+ Ensure that the organisation has the resources, skills and capability to enable it to deliver its aims and objectives.
+ Lead, manage and motivate the Executive Team in their delivery of performance.
+ Be an inspirational and inclusive role model to staff, exhibiting the behaviours we expect of all our people.
+ Provide visible and credible leadership in a science and veterinary environment and in technical meetings, connecting with and inspiring different professions.
Delivery
+ Ensure the effective delivery of APHA's key goals, across England, Scotland and Wales, including delivering on statutory and legal obligations.
+ Plan, lead and manage APHA’s response to disease outbreaks, ensuring visible leadership and organisational resilience.
+ Act as the Senior User in the multi-year, multi-billion pound development of the National Science Centre for Animal Health property and laboratories, including overall leadership of the associated business transformation.
+ Maintain and develop best practice, value for money and continued business improvement to the highest ethical and professional standards.
+ Drive organisation-wide commitment to customer service excellence, transparency and value for money. This includes transforming live services, and digitally-enabled business change to significantly reform and improve business practices, outcomes for customers and cheaper services.
Finance and Governance
+ Take personal responsibility as the CEO for financial probity and regularity and value for money on APHA expenditure and internal governance.
Stakeholder Engagement and Relationships
+ Work collaboratively across the Defra Group and with the devolved administrations of Scotland and Wales, including with the Chief Vet of the UK, and also the Chief Vets of Scotland and Wales.
+ Work together with Defra and partners to ensure the policy – operational policy - delivery pathway works effectively for customers.
+ Represent the organisation to a complex and varied stakeholder group and promote a wide understanding of the work that APHA does and the role that it plays., A CV (maximum two sides of A4 paper) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years
A Statement of Suitability, (no longer than two sides of A4 paper) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.
A Diversity Monitoring Form. All applicants are invited to complete this information to assist the Civil Service with monitoring its recruitment process. All data is reported in an anonymous and aggregate format and will not be seen by anyone assessing your application. This form is available here.
Please ensure that your CV and your supporting statement both contain your full name.
If you do not submit both a CV and Statement of Suitability, it will mean the panel only has limited information on which to assess your application against the essential criteria in the person specification.
As part of the online application process, you will be asked several diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'.
Candidates who are unfamiliar with the requirements of a Statement of Suitability, or who would like a confidential discussion about the role, are advised to contact our recruitment advisors, Russell Reynolds Associates at the application email address detailed above.
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)

Demonstrable track record of experience in an operational leadership role in a large, complex, multidisciplinary body with evidence of success in:
+ Inspiring a diverse and dispersed workforce through a period of organisational and digital transformational change.
+ Delivering services and capabilities, ideally but not necessarily within a science-based environment, with excellent management of business performance.
+ Senior level crisis management, leading with visibility and resilience.
+ Demonstrable ability to set the strategic direction for an organisation whilst considering, communicating and mitigating significant operational policy and delivery risk.
+ Highly effective communication and influencing skills, with the personal credibility to gain the trust of a diverse range of senior stakeholders across multiple sectors within government and outside it.
+ A track record of working in genuine partnership across organisational boundaries and the ability to work effectively with a range of global partners to deliver mutual objectives.
+ Significant experience of managing and delivering against a substantial and complex budget and the personal resilience to operate in a high profile and highly scrutinised environment.
+ A successful record of building and leading high performing, collaborative teams within a geographically dispersed organisation with effective delegation and empowerment of colleagues.

Animal and Plant Health Agency plays a crucial role in protecting the UK’s biosecurity. It delivers functions that are critical to animal and plant health, and which in turn secure human health and confidence in the food supply chain. The regulatory underpinning provided by the Agency is also integral to our ability to be a successful food trading nation.
We are one of the most prestigious and critical organisations in the protection of the United Kingdom. More than ever the health of our environment, plants and animals matters. If you join us, you will be part of the safeguarding of animal, plant and bee health for the benefit of everyone in society, the environment and the economy. Everyone who works in APHA is passionate about achieving this mission.
You will find APHA staff at the border, on farms, and in world-leading laboratories. All of them are delivering on our mission to safeguard animal and plant health for the benefit of everyone in society, the environment and the economy.
APHA is a world-leading Agency, respected around the world and at the farm gate. It is on a transformation journey, modernising and digitising its operations to continue to rise to the challenges of biosecurity risks in a global world, and the opportunities of developments in science and technology.
To lead APHA you will need to bring vision, inspirational leadership and a track record of successful operational delivery in a complex environment to make sure the Agency continues to deliver its pivotal role to the UK’s biosecurity. You will be comfortable leading in a crisis.
Across Government and externally too, you will need to be able to carry the confidence of a broad variety of stakeholders.
You don't need to be a scientist or a vet, but you do need to share our commitment to the critical role APHA plays in delivering world-class services for the benefit of society, the environment and the economy.

Alongside your salary of £98,000, Animal and Plant Health Agency contributes £28,390 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
+ 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%
We offer an attractive and competitive benefits package. We have strong and proactive staff networks, special leave policies for hospital appointments, reasonable adjustments put in place for those who need them, and diversity talent programmes to help everyone irrespective of background, to achieve their potential.
Pension: Your pension is a valuable part of your total reward package. A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire