Veterinary Lead of The Wildlife Expert Group in The

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

- 290715**Salary**:

- £49,403 - £61,392- National: £49,403 - £55,823, London: £54,328 - £61,392 Pro-rata salary for job share.**Job grade**:

- Grade 7**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- Surveillance Laboratory Services Department/Surveillance Intelligence Unit**Type of role**:

- Science
- Veterinary Services**Working pattern**:

- Full-time, Job share**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Bury St Edmunds, Carmarthen, Exeter, Lasswade, Penrith, Shrewsbury, Thirsk, WeybridgeAbout the job

**Job summary**:
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and works on behalf of the Scottish Government and Welsh Government. Our diverse teams of over 2,000 skilled and committed professionals come together to provide research, advice and support to UK Government for safeguarding animal, public and plant health for benefit of the environment and economy.

We are recruiting a Veterinary Lead for the Wildlife Expert Group (WEG), a group which brings together a network of expertise to enable identification and characterisation of disease threats relating to wildlife. This post works closely with wildlife groups, Government policy teams, and is part of a network of scientific experts within APHA.

**Job description**:

- Leadership of the Wildlife Expert Group (WEG) to deliver the WEG terms of reference and provide inspirational leadership to enable WEG to act as a virtual centre of expertise for surveillance intelligence gathering, analysis and dissemination of the findings. The Veterinary Lead for the WEG also chairs the GB Wildlife Health Partnership, which includes Government-funded wildlife partners.
- Chairing regular meetings and continual communication with internal and external veterinary, science, industry and policy partners to ensure effective outcomes for the WEG.
- Functional management of APHA WEG members; ensuring membership meets the needs of the group; utilising expertise in the group, establishing links outside the group as necessary.
- Coordination of evaluation and investigation of potential new and re-emerging threats and make decisions on further actions including characterisation, mitigation, communication and escalation to Government Risk Assessment groups (including the Veterinary Risk Group and the Human Animal Infections and Risk Surveillance group) as appropriate.
- Cooperation with multi-disciplinary experts from across APHA and other contributing organisations, providing high quality, evidence-based advice to policy, integrating with key stakeholders, coordinating intelligence gathering and awareness of potential and actual wildlife disease threats, publishing key outputs around those threats.
- Management of the wildlife disease surveillance budget, mainly covering free-living wild vertebrate populations, and external contracts, including appropriate allocation of budget to ensure good value for money and improved outcomes.
- Leadership of production of regular reports by agreed dates such as Quarterly Emerging Threats Reports, Veterinary Record monthly surveillance reports, and other ad hoc communications when needed.
- Provision of evidence-based veterinary and scientific advice to policy, APHA colleagues, wildlife stakeholders and others.
- Work closely with APHA’s Heads of Departments, Lead Scientists, Disease Consultants and Discipline Champions to maintain and develop capabilities in the field of wildlife diseases.
- Provide support to the strategic development of scanning surveillance, working closely with the Head of SIU and other members of SIU.
- Engagement with stakeholders relevant to wildlife diseases.
- Contribute to continuing professional development for wildlife disease investigations.
- All veterinary members of SIU are expected to provide support during, and in preparation for, notifiable or reportable disease outbreaks, in line with APHA’s commitment to controlling these diseases.

**Person specification**:

- Excellent and inspirational people leadership skills and visionary project leadership.
- Ability to develop and maintain effective networks and relationships.
- A strategic thinker with analytical and creative problem-solving abilities and well-developed decision-making skills.
- Evidence of collaborative working across different scientific disciplines and/or organisations to achieve successful outcomes.
- Proven ability to develop high performance in teams and individuals, and support a learning culture with a strong focus on continuous development and building capability in others.
- Evidence of impartiality and objectivity for scientific evidence and advice.
- Highly motivated, with high inner resilience and calm under pressure.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills. The post holder will need to be comfortable communicating with peo