Head of Resourcing and Deployment

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are seeking a skilled and strategic Head of Resourcing and Deployment to play a pivotal role in aligning people strategies with operational success.
If you thrive in dynamic environments and have a passion for maximising talent potential, driving innovative workforce solutions and ensuring seamless deployment of talent, then this is the perfect opportunity to make a meaningful impact.
The Head of Resourcing and Deployment role is a senior professional HR role leading a geographically dispersed, multi-disciplinary team. The role operates at both strategic and operational levels. You will play a pivotal role implementing and embedding the APHA Sustainable Futures Strategy which sets out its vision for the future. A key part of this vision is for APHA to show how we value our people, providing them with the right tools and continuously improving to make APHA an enjoyable and rewarding place to work.
APHA is a pivotal executive agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and is dedicated to safeguarding the UK's animal and plant health. With a team of over 3,000 professionals operating across all sites including laboratories, offices, and field depots, we are committed to advancing research and regulatory practices that protect both the environment and economy. Our role is critical in maintaining the UK’s biosecurity standards alongside facilitating trade worth billions to the UK economy., + Working collaboratively with APHA leadership teams and Defra HR Business Partners to develop strategic and operational workforce plans to ensure the agency has the capacity and capability to meet current and future demands, including emergency responses and outbreaks.
+ As part of the Senior Leadership Group, you will drive APHA’s vision, embedding cultural change, and fostering a diverse and high-performing team.
+ You will oversee the APHA Resourcing Team, delivering end-to-end resourcing services, forecasting needs, and implementing flexible workforce models.
+ You will be required to undertake strategic leadership in workforce planning, improving processes and embedding best practices to enhance performance and efficiency.
+ Stakeholder engagement is crucial, requiring strong relationships with internal and external partners, contributing to APHA's people initiatives, and supporting cross-agency collaboration.
+ You will manage team performance, resources, and budgets (ensuring governance) and drive continuous improvement in alignment with APHA’s strategic objectives.
For a more details, please see full Job Description attached., We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
+ Leadership
+ Seeing the Big Picture
+ Changing and Improving
+ Working Together
We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:
+ Leadership, You will also be asked to provide a 250 word statement 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 either 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:
+ Leadership
+ Seeing the Big Picture
+ Changing and Improving
+ Working Together
During the interview, Experience will be assessed through a presentation or exercise. Details of which will be provided with the interview invite.
Your interview will be face to face (not remotely) at an APHA office location. You will be notified of the location if you are selected for interview.
Location
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 Group's location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.
Successful applicants currently employed by the hiring organisation for this post may choose to remain in their current contractual location or may choose to change contractual location to one of those listed above. This should be discussed and agreed 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 organisational locations 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.
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 Group includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.
Out of hours work will be required in the event of an incident. This can include travel to support outbreak response.
Travel will be required to attend a variety of APHA locations including some overnight stays. 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.
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., + 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 the Civil 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).
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+ Experience of working in an HR or recruitment role where you have led multi-disciplinary and dispersed teams.
+ Experience in managing, developing and working collaboratively with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
+ Experience of leading change in an HR environment.
+ Experience of building, motivating, developing, and retaining high-performing teams.
+ Experience of working in complex customer driven operations providing a quality service to customers.
+ Experience of communicating complex people matters to senior leaders clearly and concisely.
Essential Skills and Ability:
+ Leadership skills with the ability to set clear direction, convey a persuasive future vision and build, lead, coach and develop a high performing team.
+ Strategic thinking skills, including the ability to spot trends and identify opportunities that deliver against wider organisational goals.
+ Strong budget and performance management skills with the confidence to make timely and sometimes tough decisions.
+ Ability to confidently analyse and interpret technical information and data to produce logical, evidence-based solutions to complex problems.
+ Ability to build alliances and develop collaborative working across organisational boundaries to enhance consistency, coherence and optimise outcomes.
+ Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, with the ability to confidently explain and present complex issues in a clear, structured, objective and personable manner to a range of audiences.
+ Excellent interpersonal skills with a track record of influencing, managing and developing relationships with senior leaders.
+ Excellent organisational skills, including team level business planning, prioritisation, delegation and delivery to time and quality standards.
+ Ability to work under pressure and prioritise competing demands in a fast-paced and complex environment., Chartered CIPD – qualification Level 7 and/or equivalent experience, or willing to work towards within 6-12 months., Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Alongside your salary of £65,430, Animal and Plant Health Agency contributes £18,955 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%, New entrants are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.
Visa Sponsorship Statement
Please take note that Defra does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and is unable to sponsor any individuals requiring Skilled Worker Sponsorship.
Criminal Record Check
If successful and transferring from another Government Department, a criminal record check may be carried out.