Chief Executive Officer - The Guardian : Job Details

Job Summary

The Chief Executive Officer provides leadership, management and accountability for Safefood, managing internal and external relationships and encouraging close and effective cooperation with other relevant agencies and a range of professionals involved in food safety, healthy eating and nutrition across the island of Ireland.

Main Duties of the job

The Chief Executive Officer will be accountable to the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) for the cost-effective delivery of all the Board’s functions. In particular, the post-holder will be expected to:

• Take responsibility for the preparation of Safefood’s strategic and business plans, in line with any guidance on this issued by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (DPER) in Ireland and the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland, for agreement by the NSMC;
• Ensure effective and efficient implementation of these plans, once agreed;
• Allocate the resources necessary for this, including personnel, accommodation, finance and IT;
• Maintain effective communications with the sponsor Departments in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The ideal candidate will have:

A proven track record in developing and implementing strategic direction and possess experience of exercising sound judgement in relation to policy and operational matters in addition to excellent communication skills and experience of interacting with a diverse range of stakeholders.

The successful candidate should demonstrate evidence of having: 

• A minimum of five years senior management experience in an organisation of similar or greater size and complexity, as CEO, or a member of the organisation’s Senior Management Team (SMT), working directly and accountable to the CEO or equivalent;
• A proven track record of achievement in posts at senior management level within the public, private, voluntary or community sectors, or in professional practice;
• Experience of managing budgets of a significant scale.

Information about the Organisation

Safefood is responsible for promoting awareness and knowledge of food safety and nutritional issues among the public, professionals with an interest in, or responsibility for, food safety, and the food industry. Safefood’s key and priority function is to bring about general acceptance that responsibility for the provision of safe food is shared among producers, processors, distributors at all levels, caterers and the general public.

Selection Process Details

Further information on this significant opportunity including a full list of essential and desirable requirements and details on how to apply, is available on our website via the button below.

The closing date for receipt of completed applications is 3pm on Thursday 4th September 2025.

If you feel you would benefit from a confidential discussion about this opportunity, please contact Eimear O’Connor at  [email protected]

We are committed to a policy of equal opportunity and encourage applications under all nine grounds of the Employment Equality Act.