Policy Officer (x2 posts)

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and is responsible for ensuring the safety, quality, and efficacy of veterinary medicines in the UK.

We have a vacancy for two Policy Officers in the Policy Development and Delivery Team.

This exciting and interesting job puts you at the heart of the VMD’s work as the regulatory and policy lead for issues concerning the authorisation, use, and manufacture of veterinary medicines in the UK.

As a Policy officer, you will be responsible for contributing to the development and implementation of policy and legislation on veterinary medicines including medicated feeds, specified feed additives, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and residues. This includes work on fees and charges. Veterinary medicines regulation has undergone a period of significant change due to the introduction of new legislation in Great Britain. The regulation of veterinary medicines operates slightly differently in Northern Ireland, and this adds to the complexity of the work dealt with by the VMD.

The emphasis for this role is on demonstratable policy experience with a focus on making and enacting legislation.

We are looking for you to have experience of / in:

• end-to-end policy making;
• creating secondary legislation from beginning to end; covering the full range of better regulation activities including post-implementation review and post
• legislative scrutiny;
• working in a project environment/project management; developing strong working relationships with others.

We’re looking for someone that:

• is confident in the analysis and interpretation of information, including making robust conclusions and recommendations from a wide range of sources.
• can manage a varied workload in a high-pressure, fast paced environment.
• has good leadership skills and line management experience.
• has the ability to quickly develop a sound working knowledge of a subject and / or complex issues.
• can present complex information confidently and in an engaging manner to large groups of people.
• is proficient in the use of Microsoft Office 365 packages, particularly Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, and can learn in-house packages quickly.

The closing date for applications is 19 January 2026.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate is an Equal Opportunity employer.

No Recruitment Agency, Newspaper or Publication calls please.

Advert information