JOB SUMMARY

This role sits within the Office of Trade Sanctions of Implementation (OTSI) in the Department for Business and Trade.
It is an exciting time to join the Department to work on trade sanctions. The Department established OTSI in 2024 to strengthen the implementation and enforcement of trade sanctions. OTSI’s priorities include supporting businesses with trade sanctions compliance, raising awareness of trade sanctions, issuing licences, and detecting and responding to suspected breaches. OTSI works closely with businesses, international partners, and other government organisations to deliver these priorities.
Sanctions are a vital foreign policy and national security tool. The UK deploys sanctions to isolate, restrict or change the behaviour of the actors targeted and to send a wider message. Trade sanctions in particular aim to restrict access to UK goods and expertise and limit revenue generation. DBT has a greater role to play in sanctions than ever before, to ensure that our voice is heard on sanctions decisions which impact UK growth and business, and to ensure that OTSI’s capabilities are fully utilised in the service of UK foreign policy and national security.
We are therefore looking for a talented and motivated HEO to join OTSI. The role offers an excellent introduction to trade, foreign and security policy issues - increasingly high-profile policy areas which attract ministerial and parliamentary interest.

JOB DESCRIPTION

OTSI’s policy team is responsible for creating, maintaining, and amending policies for OTSI. The team also leads on legislation that relates to OTSI’s implementation of trade sanctions and contributes to the development of new sanctions measures. Responsibilities of this role include:

• Owning the development of policies from the point of inception to the point of conclusion, including collecting and analysing evidence, working with policy, analyst, and legal officials, and providing clear advice to senior civil servants and ministers.
• Effectively working on multiple policies simultaneously to deliver ministerial priorities and strengthen UK sanctions implementation.
• Working on UK sanctions legislation, where necessary to give effect to trade sanctions implementation policy, and where other teams are developing new sanctions measures.
• Contributing to team priorities, including responding to correspondence on policy questions and drafting guidance for the public.

In this role, you will need to develop a good understanding of UK trade sanctions legislation.

VETTING REQUIREMENTS

SC - The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5-years. Failure to meeting the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.
For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

OTSI’s policy team is responsible for creating, maintaining, and amending policies for OTSI. The team also leads on legislation that relates to OTSI’s implementation of trade sanctions and contributes to the development of new sanctions measures. Responsibilities of this role include:

• Owning the development of policies from the point of inception to the point of conclusion, including collecting and analysing evidence, working with policy, analyst, and legal officials, and providing clear advice to senior civil servants and ministers.
• Effectively working on multiple policies simultaneously to deliver ministerial priorities and strengthen UK sanctions implementation.
• Working on UK sanctions legislation, where necessary to give effect to trade sanctions implementation policy, and where other teams are developing new sanctions measures.
• Contributing to team priorities, including responding to correspondence on policy questions and drafting guidance for the public