Science Specialist: Food Authenticity in London

In the Defra group, we deal with a vast range of issues that profoundly impact on people’s lives. We are responsible for England’s environment, our countryside and rural economy, the food and farming sectors and have lead responsibility for protection from a wide range of natural threats and hazards. Your role will be critically important to Defra’s purpose to make our air purer, our water cleaner, our land greener and our food more sustainable.

This challenging and influential specialist role sits within the Agri‑Food Science team, a multi‑disciplinary, friendly and supportive team embedded within the Agri‑Food Chain Directorate, which leads on a diverse and exciting range of food and farming policy. The team works flexibly, sharing skills and expertise to develop evidence to support science‑driven policy that contributes to government’s outcomes to create a healthier, more affordable, sustainable and resilient agri‑food system.

This Higher Scientific Officer role involves a unique, exciting opportunity to lead evidence development across a portfolio of research under Defra’s Food Authenticity R&D programme in response to evolving policy priorities. The programme develops analytical tools for food testing to authenticate food composition, quality and standards to support enforcement of food labelling rules and to ensure these are taken up and used by laboratories. This helps build capability in responding to food fraud incidents and supporting consumer confidence in food quality, composition and provenance.

You will be responsible for designing, commissioning, and managing research projects, providing quality assurance (QA) of evidence and analysis, interpreting data and statistical outputs, and translating evidence into advice for non‑specialists to meet policy needs. You will also act as a subject matter expert, providing science advice on areas related to your technical background.

The role offers candidates the opportunity to work closely with policy customers, academia, other evidence specialists across Defra and other Government Departments to shape evidence and policy making. Using your scientific skills and expertise you will provide science leadership, policy‑focused evidence development and technical science advice to support policy on ensuring consumer confidence in food and supporting a secure, productive and resilient food chain.

As a Higher Scientific Officer, you will provide specialist scientific expertise to support the design, development, and delivery of Defra’s evidence‑based agri‑food policy and regulation. You will lead and manage research and evidence projects, translate complex scientific evidence for non‑technical audiences, and work closely with policy teams and external experts to ensure decisions are underpinned by robust, proportionate evidence.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Working with policy leads, internal analysts, external academic and industry experts (including two independent expert advisory groups on food authenticity) to identify emerging evidence needs, undertake horizon scanning and define new R&D proposals to address evidence gaps and strategic research needs.
• Leading a portfolio of research under the food authenticity programme – developing, procuring, managing, evaluating and communicating outcomes of R&D projects and supporting other project officers in the team.
• Ensuring that research in your portfolio area is high quality, consistent, and in alignment with policy objectives, and wider Defra strategic priorities.
• Providing scientific support flexibly across the wider team as required to support cross‑cutting and high‑profile Defra policy issues relating to agriculture and food.
• Leading on provision of technical/evidence‑based advice including briefing Ministers and senior officials.