Vacancies

Everyone who works with us plays their part in our shared aims: safe food and healthy eating. We employ food safety, food standards and nutrition experts including veterinarians, scientists, front line inspectors, enforcement and policy delivery teams, and administrators.

Current vacancies

Are you passionate about animal welfare, food safety, and healthy eating? Kick-start an amazing career at FSS and join us in making Scotland better. 

Working at Food Standards Scotland

Everyone who works with us plays their part in our shared aims: safe food and healthy eating. We employ food safety, food standards and nutrition experts including veterinarians, scientists, front line inspectors, enforcement and policy delivery teams, and administrators.

We are an Equal Opportunities employer and operate a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for people with disabilities who meet the minimum published criteria. We are a Disability Confident Employer and aim to treat everyone fairly and with respect.

We believe our workforce should reflect the people of Scotland. We treat all staff equally, irrespective of sex, marital status, age, race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief, working pattern, gender identity or caring responsibility. We employ people on the basis of their merit – their skills, aptitudes and attitude.

More information about the Disability Confident employer scheme. 

A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: employment action plan.

The benefits of working for us

From a competitive pension scheme and generous holiday allowance, to childcare vouchers, season-ticket loans for your travel to work and our Employee Assistance programme offering advice on a vast variety of issues, we'll ensure that you're well looked after.

• Competitive pension scheme
• Generous holiday allowance
• Hybrid and flexible working policy
• Equal pay policy
• Training and development

Of course, working with us gives you the chance to make the sort of impact that's rare with any other organisation in Scotland – you can contribute to decisions vital to Scotland, and play a part in developing and influencing the policies that touch all our lives.

Our positive behaviour culture

We are proud to have a ‘Team FSS’ behaviour culture that compliments the Civil Service code and is uniquely ours. Being respectful, supportive, collaborative, proactive, and trusting and empowering our colleagues is very important in how we go about things.

Your application

As part of the Civil Service, Food Standards Scotland recruits staff using a three step process:

1. Initial online application
2. Assessment and Interview 
3. Pre-employment checks and offer 

You can find out more by visiting Work for Scotland application guidance. 

We use an assessment framework called 'Success Profiles' which lists the elements we test and provides detailed descriptions of each. To find out more about how we assess the Success Profile elements you are strongly advised to review the Success profiles candidate guide. 

To apply for a role at FSS you must complete and submit an online application through the Scottish Government jobs website before the closing date. 

The job advert contains important information which will help you to evidence your suitability for a role. Pay close attention to the 'Success Profile' section as this will tell you the specific behaviours, experience and technical expertise needed for the position. 

You should use your CV and Supporting Statement to provide the evidence of how you meet the success profile criteria by including information and examples of your achievements.

You may want to consider using the STARR approach to structure your answer but this is not essential however it can be a useful way to check you have included enough evidence for the criteria.

For more information visit Scottish Government Jobs - Application tips. 

What is the STARR approach?

You must choose examples that describe specific things you did, not what your team did or what your work area did. It is not essential to use this approach however it is a useful way to approach writing competency examples:

• Situation – briefly describe the context and your role.
• Task – the specific challenge, task or job that you faced.
• Action – what you did, how and why you did it.
• Result – what you achieved through your actions.
• Reflection - What did you learn?