Head of Vehicle Emission Standards

Posting date:	02 May 2025
Salary:	£54,857 per year
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	18 May 2025
Location:	Birmingham
Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	402965/1

Summary

We recognise the challenges that people with protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Do you have an understanding of the automotive industry, in particular regulatory frameworks and vehicle approval processes?

Can you manage a team and set clear objectives?

Are you able to work effectively with a wide range of different stakeholders, whilst building and maintaining strong relationships?

If so, we would love to hear from you!

This is an exciting opportunity to play a leading role in shaping the future of emission standards for road vehicles in the UK. Air quality remains the largest environmental harm to human health in the UK. Whilst the transition to zero emission vehicles is anticipated to bring significant benefits for air quality, new and emerging challenges remain in ensuring road transport emissions continue to reduce and contribute towards achieving future air quality targets.

Within this role, you will be responsible for overseeing and delivering future emission standards for new road vehicles being placed on the UK market. This will involve working closely with teams across the department, including analyst and lawyers to ensure the delivery of evidenced and robust new regulations to achieve future air quality goals.

Achieving this will require working with international partners, research organisations, NGOs and vehicle manufacturers within the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, to deliver these standards wherever possible through internationally harmonised regulation. Consequently, there will be some need for international travel.

Whilst driving forward air quality improvements is the primary aim of this role, emission standards have a key role to play in achieving and unlocking the benefits of the UK’s transition to zero emission vehicles. You will therefore be required to work closely with other policy teams across the Department for Transport, including the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, to ensure that the UK’s emission standards are complementary in achieving the decarbonisation of road transport.

Responsibilities include, but not limited to:

The primary responsibilities of the post are:

• Overseeing and delivering a programme of regulation to implement new emission standards in the UK.
• Leading UK engagement at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) working party on vehicle pollution and energy.
• Overseeing and steering procurement of research to provide the necessary evidence base to support policy development and influence international negotiations.
• Line managing two SEO and one HEO science and engineering professionals.
• Building productive working relationships with other relevant policy teams within the Department, our executive agencies, other Government Departments, representatives of other Governments and with stakeholders from the wider automotive sector.

The post-holder will oversee DfT’s technical work on the following areas:

• Air pollutant emission standards for all road vehicles and off-road machinery.
• Non-exhaust emissions – e.g. particulate emissions from tyres and brakes.
• Electric range, fuel/energy consumption and electric vehicle battery durability.
• Fuel quality standards for mainstream road vehicles and off-highway fuels.

For further information, please see the attached Role Profile

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

About Disability Confident

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.