Sanctions Licensing Manager

Trade sanctions is a high-profile area which sits at the heart of DBT’s business and trade agenda and across DBT’s domestic and international interests. DBT works with UK businesses and with domestic and international partners to support the UK’s global sanctions and economic deterrence objectives. Sanctions is a key priority for Ministers across several Government departments, with whom we work in close partnership on shared policy and implementation objectives.

In the aftermath of the illegal attack on Ukraine by the Russian government, Ministers announced the creation of a new unit in DBT, called the Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI). OTSI’s objective is to enhance the impact of the UK’s trade sanctions regimes by helping businesses to understand and comply with trade sanctions and it will have a new civil enforcement toolkit to help it take agile and proportionate action against sanctions breaches, including issuing civil monetary penalties.

OTSI is located in the Trade Defence Directorate. We are a small but growing team, currently in the set-up phase and expect it to become operational in the first half of 2024, subject to the necessary legislation.

As part of a newly forming team, you will have the opportunity to help shape its remit and culture, ensuring that the team delivers on this high-profile area of trade policy.

This is an exciting time to join OTSI, you will be helping to set up and run a team responsible for delivering trade Sanctions Licensing.

• The initial phase of the role will involve leading on project set up tasks, which will include implementing documentation and processes and establish best.
• The role will also involve developing a very good understanding of UK trade sanctions legislation combined with practical problem solving.
• You will manage, supervise, support and develop a small team of two HEO Licensing caseworkers and one EO Licensing officer.
• You will be responsible for managing your team’s performance to ensure that processing of and decisions on casework are accurate, consistent, and timely.This includes making decisions on complex cases escalated to you and determining whether further escalation is required and making recommendations to senior decision makers. You will require good attention to detail and be able to analyse information quickly and efficiently.
• You will lead on the most novel and complex casework issues, working with the Head of the Licensing Team.
• You will work closely with teams across the department including Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), as well as with multiple government departments to seek advice to inform timely licence application decisions.
• You will help develop new intelligence and information flows for your team, and own and deliver projects that assist in developing the team’s capability to enable it to support OTSI licensing objectives.
• You will need to communicate effectively with a variety of stakeholders in different ways depending on the situation including handling difficult or sensitive situations. You will need excellent and accurate written skills.