Senior Policy Advisor, Trade Sanctions
| Posting date: | 29 July 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £55,836 to £66,338 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National: £55,836 - £62,823; London: £59,450 - £66,338 |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 11 August 2025 |
| Location: | Birmingham |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 418634/2 |
Summary
EC&S is a relatively new directorate, established within the Economic Security and Trading Relations (ESTR) Group in DBT.
EC&S has been built from the long-standing Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), run in partnership with MOD and FCDO, and teams coordinating trade sanctions policy and implementation, initially stood up at the start of the Russia/Ukraine war.
Within the EC&S directorate, the Trade Sanctions Policy Team sits at the heart of cross-Government work to design and deliver trade sanctions on the export of goods and ancillary services, targeted at key areas/jurisdictions of concern. We play a central role in trade sanctions strategy, policy and legislation – as well as in efforts to understand and respond to export sanctions circumvention. We do this by building close working relationships across DBT, HM Government, and internationally to deliver policies that balance our growth agenda with national and economic security interests.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the UK and its allies introduced sweeping sanctions to disrupt Russia’s ability to wage war. We continue to develop measures to restrict Russia’s access to critical technology, revenues and expertise. We also lead work on trade sanctions on other key jurisdictions, such as Iran, and stand ready to respond to a rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape and emerging threats to international economic security. We work closely with the Office for Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI), recently established to strengthen the UK’s implementation and enforcement of trade sanctions, which also sits within the EC&S directorate.
Our team is friendly, collaborative, and high performing. We pride ourselves on being a welcoming place to work, where people pitch in and help each other out.
We are recruiting for a permanent Grade 7 Senior Policy Advisor. The role holder will be expected to lead work across the Iran and Russia sanctions regimes as well as the design and delivery of counter-circumvention measures (focused particularly on disrupting Russian efforts to bypass UK and Western sanctions). Given the evolving challenges of sanctions policy, portfolios may shift flexibly in response to business need.
We are seeking an individual with skills and expertise in the following areas:
- Policymaking – you will exercise strong policy judgement to identify and address policy issues relevant to introducing trade sanctions; and provide a link between sanctions policy and wider export control, economic security and national security interests.
- Legislation - you will contribute to the design and delivery of secondary legislation to deliver trade sanctions packages, working closely with legal and Parliamentary teams as well as with Whitehall departments including Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, HM Treasury, Cabinet Office and His Majesty's Revenue & Customs, among others.
- Communication and briefing - you will need to be able to create accurate, insightful briefings at pace, to ensure that senior officials, Ministers and other relevant stakeholders have the necessary information and understanding of policy impacts to effectively support decision making.
- Collaborating and partnering – you will work with teams across DBT, HMG and internationally to deliver trade sanctions policy.
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