We are

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is an independent EU agency, established by Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and the Council (Founding Regulation) (1).

The mission of EFSA is to provide scientific advice and support for EU legislation and policies in all fields having a direct or indirect impact on food and feed safety as well as to provide independent information on all matters within these fields and communicate on risks. It contributes to a high level of protection of human life and health, while taking into account animal health and welfare, plant health and the environment, in the context of the operation of the internal market. It collects and analyses data to allow the characterisation and monitoring of risks which have a direct or indirect impact on food and feed safety. Its mission also includes provision of scientific advice on nutrition in relation to Union legislation, on other matters relating to animal health and welfare and plant health and on products other than food and feed relating to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). EFSA provides scientific opinions which serve as the scientific basis for the drafting and adoption of Union measures in the fields falling within its mission.

A description of EFSA’s mission and tasks can be found in its Founding Regulation. According to a decision of Executive Director on the Linguistic Regime of EFSA, English is the working language of the Authority.

Further information, including on EFSA Strategy 2027, can be found on EFSA’s website: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/

We propose

The function of the Executive Director of EFSA.

The Executive Director is the legal representative and public face of EFSA and is accountable to the EFSA Management Board. She/he will lead and manage EFSA and take overall responsibility for its operations ensuring the achievement of EFSA’s objectives. In 2023, EFSA’s budget amounted to approximately EUR 155 million with a total staff of 588.

The Executive Director’s specific responsibilities include:

—	the day-to-day administration of EFSA in line with applicable legislation in force and with the decisions of its Management Board,

—	responsibility for managing EFSA’s staff, fostering team spirit and a good working environment,

—	drawing up a proposal for EFSA’s Strategy and Work Programmes in consultation with the Commission, and reporting on their implementation to the Management Board,

—	ensuring the provision of appropriate scientific, technical and administrative support for the Scientific Committee and the Scientific Panels,

—	ensuring that EFSA carries out its tasks in accordance with the legal requirements and that requests from its users are addressed with services of adequate level and in line with the expected timelines,

—	responsibility for the overall performance of the tasks assigned to EFSA including supervising the quality of its internal control and management systems,

—	preparing and executing EFSA’s budget and ensuring that it is managed efficiently and in accordance with the principle of sound financial management,

—	responsibility for the financial matters of EFSA including, inter alia, final accounts and financing decisions,

—	representing EFSA and engaging with the range of stakeholders and the public in relation to all matters within its mission,

—	ensuring cooperation between EFSA, the Commission, the European Parliament, the EU agencies, the Member States as well as with the relevant actors at international level,

—	managing cooperation with the competent bodies in the Member States carrying out similar tasks to those of EFSA, in particular chairing the Advisory Forum,

—	establishing effective contacts with the stakeholders’ representatives such as consumer representatives, producer representatives, processors, and any other interested parties.

A full description of the responsibilities of the Executive Director is provided in Article 26 of EFSA’s Founding Regulation.

We look for (selection criteria)

The candidates should have:

Management skills:

—	proven capacity to lead an important organisation, both at a strategic and at operational management level;

—	capacity to develop and implement a strategic vision, to set objectives and to lead and motivate a large team in a multicultural, multilingual and multidisciplinary environment;

—	proven capacity for leading organisational change and in particular digital transformation processes;

—	ability to manage, and keep at the state of the art a multidisciplinary, multinational system aiming at delivering scientific advice and communication;

—	strong decision-making skills, including the capacity to take decisions on complex issues;

—	clear vision for promoting EFSA’s mission at EU and international level.

Specialist knowledge:

—	good understanding of the European agencies, institutions and how they operate and interact;

—	sound knowledge of, and/or experience with, EU policies in one or more of the following fields: food and feed safety, animal health and welfare, plant health, GMOs and human nutrition, related international activities and other policies of relevance to the activities of EFSA;

—	good understanding and/or practice of the three interconnected components of risk analysis, i.e. risk assessment, risk management and risk communication;

—	experience in budgetary, financial and human resources management in a national, European and/or international context.

Personal qualities and skills:

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ability to behave with integrity and communicate efficiently and fluently at all levels, in a transparent and open manner, with stakeholders, general public, European, international, national and local public authorities, international organisations, the press, and to represent the agency in international fora;

—	interpersonal, organisational and negotiating skills and the ability to build trusted working relationships with stakeholders: e.g. with the European Union’s institutions, the EU agencies, the Member States;

—	very good understanding and adherence to EFSA’s guiding principles of openness, transparency, independence and scientific excellence.

Candidates must (eligibility requirements)

Candidates will only be considered for the selection phase on the basis of the following formal requirements to be fulfilled by the deadline for applications:

—	Nationality: candidates must be a citizen of one of the Member States of the European Union.

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University degree or diploma: candidates must have: — either a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma when the normal period of university education is 4 years or more; — or a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma and appropriate professional experience of at least 1 year when the normal period of university education is at least 3 years (this one year’s professional experience cannot be included in the postgraduate professional experience required below).

—	Professional experience: candidates must have at least 15 years postgraduate professional experience (2) at a level to which the qualifications referred to above give admission. At least 5 years of that professional experience must be of similar nature as the type of activities carried out by EFSA.

—	Management experience: at least 5 years of the post-graduate professional experience must have been gained in a high–level management function (3) in a field relevant for this position.

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Languages: candidates must have a thorough knowledge of one of the official languages of the European Union (4) and a satisfactory knowledge of another of these official languages. Selection panels will verify during the interview(s) whether candidates comply with the requirement of a satisfactory knowledge of another official EU language. This may include (part of) the interview being conducted in this other language.

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Age limit: candidates must be able to complete, at the deadline for application, the full mandate of five years before reaching the retirement age. For temporary staff of the European Union, the retirement age is defined as being the end of the month in which the person reaches the age of 66 years (see Article 47 of the Conditions of Employment of other Servants of the European Union (5)).

Selection and appointment

The Executive Director will be appointed by the Management Board of EFSA on the basis of a shortlist provided by the European Commission.

To establish this shortlist, the European Commission organises a selection in accordance with its selection and recruitment procedures (see the Document on Senior Officials Policy (6)).

As part of this selection procedure, the European Commission sets up a pre-selection panel. This panel analyses all applications, proceeds with a first eligibility verification and identifies candidates having the best profile in view of the selection criteria mentioned above, and who may be invited for an interview with the pre-selection panel.

Following these interviews, the pre-selection panel draws up its conclusions and proposes a list of candidates for further interviews with the European Commission’s Consultative Committee on Appointments (CCA). The CCA, taking into consideration the conclusions of the pre-selection panel, will decide on the candidates to be invited for an interview.

Candidates who are called for an interview with the CCA participate in a full-day management assessment centre run by external recruitment consultants. Taking account of the results of the interview and the report of the assessment centre, the CCA establishes a shortlist of candidates it considers suitable to exercise the function of Executive Director of EFSA.

Candidates on the CCA shortlist will be interviewed by the Member(s) of the Commission responsible for the Directorate-General in charge of the relations with EFSA.

Following these interviews, the European Commission adopts a shortlist of the most suitable candidates, which will be communicated to the Management Board of EFSA. Inclusion on this shortlist does not guarantee appointment. The Management Board of EFSA will interview these candidates and appoint a candidate. Before appointment by the Management Board, the candidate shall be invited without delay to make a statement before the relevant committee(s) of the European Parliament and answer questions put by members of this institution.

Candidates may be required to undergo further interviews and/or tests in addition to those indicated above.

Equal Opportunities

The Commission and EFSA pursue a strategic objective of achieving gender equality at all management levels by the end of its current mandate and apply a policy of equal opportunities and non-discrimination accordance with Article 1d of the Staff Regulations (7) encouraging applications that could contribute towards more diversity, gender equality and overall geographical balance.

Conditions of employment

The salaries and conditions of employment are laid down in the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union.

The successful candidate will be engaged by the Management Board of EFSA as a Temporary Agent at grade AD 14 (8). She/he will be classified depending on the length of her/his previous professional experience in step 1 or step 2 within that grade.

She/he will be appointed for an initial mandate of five years, with a possible prolongation for a maximum five years according to Regulation establishing EFSA as applicable at the time of appointment.

Applicants should note the requirement under the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union for all new staff to complete successfully a nine-month probationary period.

The place of employment is Parma (Italy), where EFSA is based.

Important information for candidates

Candidates are reminded that the work of the selection panels is confidential. It is forbidden for candidates to make direct or indirect contact with their individual members or for anybody to do so on their behalf. Any query has to be addressed to the secretariat of the respective panel.

Protection of personal data

The Commission will ensure that candidates’ personal data are processed as required by Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council (9). This applies in particular to the confidentiality and security of such data.

Independence and declaration of interests

Before taking up their duties, the Executive Director will be required to make a declaration of commitment to act independently in the public interest and to make a declaration of any interests which might be considered prejudicial to his/her independence.

Application procedure

Before submitting your application, you should carefully check whether you meet all eligibility requirements (‘Candidates must’), particularly concerning the types of diploma, high-level professional experience as well as linguistic capacity required. Failure to meet any of the eligibility requirements means an automatic exclusion from the selection procedure.

If you want to apply, you must register via the internet on the following website and follow the instructions concerning the various stages of the procedure:

https://ec.europa.eu/dgs/human-resources/seniormanagementvacancies/

You must have a valid email address. This will be used to confirm your registration as well as to remain in contact with you during the different stages of the procedure. Therefore, please keep the European Commission informed about any change in your email address.

To complete your application, you need to upload a CV in PDF format, preferably using the Europass CV format (10), and to fill out, online, a letter of motivation (maximum 8 000 characters). Your CV and your letter of motivation may be submitted in any of the official languages of the European Union.

It is in your interest to ensure that your application is accurate, thorough and truthful.

Once you have finished your online registration, you will receive an electronic mail confirming that your application has been registered. If you do not receive a confirmation mail, your application has not been registered!

Please note that it is not possible to monitor the progress of your application on-line. You will be contacted directly by the European Commission regarding the status of your application.

Applications sent by email will not be accepted. If you require more information and/or encounter technical problems, please send an email to:

HR-MANAGEMENT-ONLINE@ec.europa.eu

It is your responsibility to complete your online registration in time. We strongly advise you not to wait until the last few days before applying, since heavy internet traffic or a fault with your internet connection could lead to the online registration being terminated before you complete it, thereby obliging you to repeat the whole process. Once the deadline for the submission of registrations has passed, you will no longer be able to introduce any data. Late registrations will not be accepted.

Closing date

The closing date for registration is 27 September 2024, 12.00 noon Brussels time, following which registration is no longer possible.

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(1)   Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety, ( OJ L 31, 1.2.2002, p. 1

(2)  Professional experience is only taken into consideration if it represents an actual work relationship defined as real, genuine work, on a paid basis and as employee (any type of contract) or provider of a service. Professional activities pursued part-time shall be calculated pro rata, on the basis of the certified percentage of full-time hours worked. Maternity leave / parental leave / leave for adoption is taken into consideration if it is in the framework of a work contract. PhDs are assimilated to professional experience, even when unpaid, but for a duration of three years maximum, provided that the PhD has been successfully completed. A given period may be counted only once.

(3)  In their curriculum vitae, candidates should clearly indicate for all years during which management experience has been acquired: (1) title and role of management positions held; (2) numbers of staff overseen in these positions; (3) the size of budgets managed; (4) numbers of hierarchical layers above and below; and (5) number of peers.

(4)   https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A01958R0001-20130701.

(5)   OJ 45, 14.6.1962, p. 1385/62, consolidated text: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A01962R0031-20240101.

(6)   https://commission.europa.eu/jobs-european-commission/job-opportunities/managers-european-commission_en#vacancies (document only exists in English).

(7)   OJ 45, 14.6.1962, p. 1385/62, consolidated text: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A01962R0031-20240101.

(8)  The correction coefficient applicable to the remuneration and pensions of officials and other servants of the European Union for Italy is set at 94,7 % as from 1 July 2022. This coefficient is subject to an annual revision.

(9)   Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC ( OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 39

(10)  You can find information on how to create your Europass CV online at: https://europa.eu/europass/en/create-europass-cv.