Operations Manager (International Trade Operations)

Can you lead large operational teams, drive performance and deliver high-quality services in a complex and fast-paced environment? Are you passionate about developing high-performing teams, managing change and delivering excellent outcomes for customers and stakeholders? If so, we would love to hear from you!

APHA is a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, because it helps us be more innovative and make better decisions. We are dedicated to being an inclusive employer, offering equitable opportunities for all individuals. Our goal is to build a diverse workforce, and we hope to attract applications from all backgrounds and underrepresented groups.

As Operations Manager, you will lead the operational delivery of EU Transition requirements, providing strategic leadership and effective change management for a large, geographically dispersed workforce of over 100 colleagues. Ensure teams are prepared for and able to adapt to significant policy, process, and operational changes, maintaining service delivery through periods of uncertainty, responding at pace to evolving priorities and high-profile policy decisions, and supporting colleagues through change with clear communication, resilience, and strong people leadership.

You will be accountable for effective resource planning, performance management, and the deployment of people and resources to meet organisational objectives and customer needs. Working collaboratively across the Agency and with Operational Delivery networks, you will drive continuous improvement, share best practice, and contribute to the development of consistent, nationally aligned approaches that reflect policy requirements. You will play a key role in building strong, high-performing teams, fostering effective stakeholder relationships, and ensuring the service remains resilient and responsive in the face of business continuity challenges or disease outbreak incidents. Through strong leadership and a focus on customer outcomes, you will ensure teams consistently deliver against performance targets while supporting the Agency’s wider strategic goals.

Key Duties

• Drive the development and delivery of business area strategy, ensuring operational teams deliver high quality services, providing clear direction, communicating priorities, and ensuring teams are supported, have understanding, and aligned with organisational objectives and change initiatives, communicating impacts, in line with policy standards and performance targets, contributing to wider agency.
• Lead operational teams with visible, proactive leadership, ensuring strong connections between team and senior management, and embedding a positive, high performance, unified team culture across all areas.
• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of HR policies and procedures, ensuring their consistent and effective application across the team and supporting complex people management matters.
• Build leadership resilience and capability by maintaining succession plans, developing and coaching staff, and applying strategic forecasting and modelling to anticipate and meet future resource requirements, while effectively managing performance, attendance, and holding meaningful performance improvement conversations.
• Oversee workforce planning, and resource management to ensure business resilience, manage onboarding, skills maintenance, professional development, and training coordination, monitor work outputs through routine management checks to maintain consistent processes, and oversee the production and quality assurance of management information to ensure accurate reporting; and ensure business continuity and outbreak response plans are in place, maintained, and understood by all staff.
• Lead the production and use of management information and data analysis to monitor performance, support planning, and inform decision making, ensuring internal procedures and guidelines are consistently followed, reviewed and updated to enable effective delivery while driving continuous improvement initiatives to enhance service quality and operational efficiency.
• Build strong, productive relationships with delivery partners, policy colleagues, industry stakeholders, and internal team, horizon scanning and identifying risks, issues and trends and propose or elevate solutions; manage customer and stakeholder expectations, including handling difficult conversations, and ensure clear, timely and effective communication with all partners, particularly during organisational change or incident response.
• Identify opportunities to improve working practices using data, lessons learned, stakeholder and organisation feedback, and lead discussions to develop evidence-based proposals that support agency wide consistency.
• Demonstrate leadership in promoting safe working practices and wellbeing, ensuring team members understand and fulfil their health and safety responsibilities, and undertaking essential training while acting as a role model for high standards.
• Undertake additional duties as required to meet operational priorities, including reasonable tasks assigned by line management supporting critical functions such as disease outbreak responses.

Person specification

You will be able to demonstrate:

• Strong knowledge of international trade operations, including import and export processes, regulatory requirements and policy impacts, with the ability to translate complex requirements into effective operational delivery and compliance.
• Significant experience leading large operational teams, with a strong track record of motivating, developing and engaging managers and colleagues to achieve high performance and excellent customer outcomes.
• Proven experience leading teams through organisational change, successfully implementing new policies, processes or operating models while maintaining service delivery and employee engagement.
• Strong strategic leadership skills, with the ability to translate organisational objectives into clear operational plans and deliver measurable results.
• Experience of workforce planning, resource management and business resilience, including deploying resources effectively to respond to changing demand and operational priorities.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to build effective relationships and collaborate across organisational boundaries to achieve shared goals.
• Experience leading customer-facing operational services, with an understanding of delivering high-quality services in a complex, high-profile and politically sensitive environment.

Alongside your salary of £42,665, Animal and Plant Health Agency contributes £12,360 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Learning and Development

At APHA, we are committed to supporting you to develop your skills, knowledge, and professional capability throughout your career. From day one, you will be welcomed through a structured induction programme, helping you understand the Civil Service, our work, and how we operate. You’ll work closely with your line manager to set clear priorities and develop a performance, learning, and development plan tailored to your role.

We will support you to build and maintain your expertise in information rights and related disciplines, including working towards relevant practitioner qualifications. You’ll also be encouraged to engage with the wider profession through networks, working groups, and professional bodies, helping you stay connected to emerging best practice across KIM and the Civil Service. Alongside formal training, you will have opportunities to apply and develop your knowledge in a practical environment, contributing to continuous improvement and innovation in how we manage information.

Inclusion, support, and the wellbeing of our people are central to what we do.

Civil Service Pension - Defra contributes an average of 28.97% of your salary towards your pension.

A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.

An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities tailored to your role.

Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts from retailers such as Highstreet coffee shops, cinemas, supermarkets, highstreet retailers and many, many more.

Staff bonuses and recognition including appreciation vouchers of up to £200 and larger in-year awards of up to £1000.

Salary sacrifice benefit options and an employee discount scheme such as bike to work, Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme, every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 a year for each child.

Discounted gym membership with Fitness First or Pure Gym.

Special Leave with pay, per year, for volunteering.

Making it work for you - With so many flexible working options, most people can find a work schedule to suit their circumstances. We will consider full time, part time, job share and flexible working.

Closing date 11:55pm on Wednesday 2nd September.