Senior Policy Officer (International Trade)

In DHSC, we are proud of our purpose - to enable everyone to live more independent, healthier lives for longer. To achieve this, and create a great place to work, we have four values: we are inclusive, we constantly improve, we challenge, and we are agile. If this sounds like an environment you'd like to work in, we'd love to hear from you.

The EU, Trade and the Union Directorate plays a crucial role in our approach protecting the health of the UK and leads on negotiating and implementing international agreements, including trade and cooperation agreements and the Windsor Framework.

Our vision is to keep people's health safe at home and overseas by building strong relationships with our national and international partners. We deliver post-Brexit health and care reforms on reciprocal healthcare, international trade, NHS cost recovery, medicines and medical devices, retained EU law and lead the Department's relationship with the European Commission.

Our work is pacey and wide-ranging, and provides the opportunity to lead work across DHSC, with other government departments including HM Treasury, Cabinet Office and No 10, DHSC agencies, partner organisations and stakeholders. You will have regular exposure to Ministers and senior officials.

You will be part of a friendly, supportive and diverse team - turning ambiguity into clarity and communicating complex policy issues to senior management, Ministers, Devolved Governments and international partners.

The EU, Trade and the Union Directorate is regularly amongst the highest scorers on staff engagement in the Civil Service People Survey and you will have an opportunity to continue to make DHSC a great place to work in an inclusive, constantly improving, challenging and agile environment., The remit of the International Trade team is to protect and promote our health and care interests within the UK's trade agenda. We do this by leading work to develop DHSC's approach on trade policy, working across government to ensure that our interests are reflected in the UK's wider approach to trade, and ensuring that we work effectively with the relevant internal and external stakeholders in this area to deliver the best outcomes.

Within the team, these SEO roles will focus on supporting trade policy work as part of the negotiation of Free Trade Agreements as well as the development of DHSC's wider trade strategy. These are high-profile aspects of trade policy that play a leading role in protecting the NHS in trade deals as well as maximising trade opportunities for the life sciences sector. The post-holders will play a key role in developing the trade policy that will underpin the UK's negotiating approach, as well as ensuring that we are proactively working to secure the delivery of our objectives through the negotiations.