About the role
At Cambridgeshire Trading Standards we play an important role in upholding public safety through our work on product safety, and we are looking to appoint a Product Safety Lead to give this area of work the resource and impetus it needs. We’ve seen our economy change rapidly in recent years, with an influx of products coming to the UK from overseas and a growth in online selling platforms.
You will join us as our subject matter expert in this field, helping to shape the future direction of our Product Safety work, ensuring we respond effectively to emerging risks, and helping the team increase their product safety knowledge and experience.
We are a small, highly skilled, and dynamic team with 10 operational officers covering the county. The team is incredibly hard working and knowledgeable, with a positive work ethic, demonstrating great flexibility, tenacity and support for one another. It has a proven track record of both working closely with business to support compliance and taking swift and effective enforcement action where appropriate to stop illegal and unsafe activity.
Hybrid working is the norm, with a mix of working from home, working out in the field, and office-based working.
Please read the Job Description and Person Specification carefully before applying. This role requires relevant qualifications and significant professional experience, as you will act as the Authority's lead specialist for Product Safety.
If you think this might be the job for you but would like an informal chat before applying, please email peter.gell@cambridgeshire.gov.uk, Head of Service for the team or Catherine Pawson, Principal Trading Standards Officer at catherineM.pawson@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Interviews will take place 11th - 13th November and will be in person at New Shire Hall in Alconbury.
What will you be doing?
As our Product Safety Lead, you will take ownership of the service's product safety work, dealing with complex complaints and referrals from partner agencies, conducting investigations and taking appropriate enforcement action where necessary. You will also design and deliver proactive, intelligence-led projects aimed at identifying unsafe products, improving business compliance and protecting consumers.
As the team's subject matter expert, you will provide advice and guidance to colleagues dealing with product safety issues and support the development of less experienced officers and trainees. You will play a key role in building product safety capability across the service through mentoring, coaching and contributing to training plans.
You will keep abreast of legislative and regulatory developments, assessing their impact on the service and advising colleagues on emerging risks, opportunities and required actions.
The role requires confidence in conducting both online and physical investigations and surveillance activity, ensuring compliance with law of evidence gathering requirements. You will have a proven track record of using a wide range of regulatory and enforcement tools, including prosecution, to secure compliance and protect the public.
As part of a flexible Trading Standards team, you will also contribute to work programmes in other subject areas where you have relevant skills and experience. Our officers are multi-skilled and typically work across at least two areas of enforcement, providing essential resilience and flexibility. Around 40% of your time may therefore be spent supporting work outside your core product safety responsibilities.
About you
You will be confident in dealing professionally, calmly and firmly with challenging individuals, while also building constructive relationships with businesses and providing clear, practical advice to support compliance.
You will have extensive legal, technical and procedural knowledge of Product Safety legislation and a strong understanding of the risks and challenges facing consumers, businesses and regulators in this field. As a recognised specialist, you will be confident in providing advice and guidance to colleagues and supporting the service in responding to emerging issues and legislative change.
You will have substantial experience of using a wide range of regulatory and enforcement tools and sanctions, understanding when and how to apply them proportionately and effectively. You will also have a proven track record of conducting complex investigations and securing successful enforcement outcomes, including prosecutions.
You will be meticulous in your record keeping, methodical in your approach and able to identify opportunities to improve systems, processes and ways of working.
Above all, you will be approachable, supportive and committed to developing others, using your knowledge and experience to mentor colleagues and help build Product Safety capability across the team.
Our benefits
We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…
- A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
- Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
- Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
- Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
- Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
- Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
- Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
- Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
- An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes
Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.
About us
Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.
Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.
We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.
Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.
Attached documents
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