Senior Policy Advisor

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 234767**Salary**:

- £34,425 - £44,033- National Salary: £34,425 - £40,300 & London Salary: £38,158 - £44,033**Grade**:

- Senior Executive Officer**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- DIT - Trade Negotiations: Trade Policy A**Type of role**:

- Policy**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time**Number of posts**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Darlington, LondonAbout the job

**Summary**:
The Department for International Trade negotiates trade agreements for the UK, and promotes UK Trade and Investment around the world. Within the Department, the Regulatory Environment Team is responsible for developing policy positions that break down regulatory barriers to trade, helping businesses to succeed.

The ‘Technical Barriers to Trade’ (TBT) sits within the wider Regulatory Environment Team and focuses particularly on breaking down technical barriers through various means including market access work, trade negotiations and multilateral engagement. Our team is vibrant, hard-working and collaborative. We pay particular attention to providing training and support needed to allow individuals to achieve and excel. Hence, we will encourage you to develop your skills and trade knowledge.

In the TBT team, the WTO & Strategy team represents the UK at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) particularly in the TBT Committee Meetings. The team leads and develops our TBT multilateral policy and approach and advises other teams inside the department but also other government departments on meeting our obligations at the WTO and engaging member states in achieving our policy objectives.

We are seeking enthusiastic and diligent people with an interest in trade policy and working on WTO issues. This is a stretching role in a varied policy area with a high level of independent work and high exposure to the international fora and industry. You will need to able to build strong working relationships with a variety of stakeholders, advise them and government officials and able to balance competing priorities.

Ideally, we would like to fill this role with someone who already has experience or knowledge technical barrier to trade issues or the WTO, but we are open to considering people with other relevant experience. In that case, with the support of your team, you would be expected to become an expert on TBT issues quickly.

The role involves international travel, including regularly attending WTO TBT Committee meetings in Geneva.

We will keep a reserve list for future roles both within this team and elsewhere within Trade Policy Group.

**Job description**:

- The post holder will:_
- Represent the UK, further and defend UK policy positions at the WTO (e.g. speaking on behalf of the UK at the TBT Committee) and in bilateral engagements with member states
- Work with colleagues across Government and beyond (e.g., post, industry representatives) to progress complex trade investigations into concerns raised by UK businesses with other countries regulations
- Advise government departments on how to ensure regulations they are developing comply with the UK WTO obligations
- Build collaborative relationships and influence others, working with a wide range of stakeholders inside and outside Government (e.g., industry)
- Work with other teams to develop wider policy positions, approaches and strategies relating to TBT key issues and areas of interest (e.g., international standards, priority interests)
- Lead on coordination and coherence between WTO engagement and wider market access

**Hybrid Working**

Please be aware that this role can only be worked from within the UK and not overseas.

Informal hybrid working arrangements will be available as agreed with the vacancy manager and in line with the requirements of the role.

Most DIT employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending 2-3 days a week (pro rata) in an office, on average. If your office location is London, you will be eligible to receive London weighting.

**Responsibilities**:
**Essential Criteria**
- The ability to analyse information from a wide variety of sources and balance multiple priorities
- Excellent communication skills, with an ability to set out direction and express complex processes in a manner that is easy for non-experts
- An ability to build collaborative relationships and influence others, working with multiple stakeholders.
- Successful applicants will need to be willing to go through security clearance to ‘SC’ level

**Desirable Criteria**
- Knowledge relating to technical barriers to trade or regulatory environment
- Knowledge of the WTO committees or processes

**Personal Attributes & Skills**
- Be strategic and draw on the bigger picture to make effective decisions as well as prioritise effectively to meet competing demands and support colleagues when needed
- Have the analytical skills to get int