Deputy Director responsible for Environment and Production, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency

Deputy Director responsible for Environment and Production

Do you have the leadership strength to create direction, momentum and results in a large and complex authority? Can you lead strong professional environmental teams and translate political priorities and high professional standards into safe operations and concrete results, even when tasks are complex, stakeholders are many and the framework changes? Then you may be our new Deputy Director.

The Danish Environmental Protection Agency (Miljøstyrelsen) is seeking a deputy director who will become part of the agency's management board and will have a significant responsibility for the overall leadership and development of Miljøstyrelsen.

You will as a starting point have the overall management responsibility for the area Environment and Production, which among other things handles regulatory tasks in relation to some of Denmark's largest and environmentally most complex companies. In addition, you will take responsibility for other areas and cross-cutting tasks in Miljøstyrelsen. The final portfolio will be determined as part of the overall task distribution in the management board and with regard to the new deputy director's profile and competences.

We are in the process of realising the strategy Hands-on Miljøstyrelse – one coherent authority. This means, among other things, that we must be able to set clear direction, prioritise across functions, create stable operations and momentum and systematically follow up on goals, quality and results. As deputy director you will play a central role in this task.

You must deliver results through clear leadership and safe operations

As deputy director you will be responsible for ensuring that your areas deliver on their goals and tasks with high professional quality, timeliness and efficient use of resources.

You will lead through department heads and, together with them, ensure a strong leadership chain where strategic goals are translated into clear priorities, concrete actions and results. You must have a view for both long-term development and daily operations and be able to prioritise and create momentum when results, quality or deliveries require it.

You will, among other things

• Set clear direction and translate political and strategic goals into priorities, action and results.
• Ensure stable and efficient operations with a focus on goals, quality, productivity, capacity, economy and progress.
• Systematically follow up on results and actively use data and management information in leadership.
• Create transparency about tasks and resources and make clear prioritisations when demands and capacity do not match.
• Ensure that decisions are taken in a timely manner, and follow up to ensure they are implemented and create the desired effect.
• Develop the organisation, working methods and processes so that we continuously improve both quality and efficiency.
• Lead safely through change while maintaining stability and deliveries in operations.
• Develop strong leadership teams and support the department heads in their responsibility for their own areas.

Environment and Production – a central governmental task

One of your central areas of responsibility will be Environment and Production, which has great political, societal and business significance.

Miljøstyrelsen is the environmental authority for approximately 400 of Denmark's largest and most environmentally complex companies. The area is responsible for environmental permits, environmental assessments and environmental inspections and primarily operates within the Environmental Protection Act and related legislation.

The area also bears responsibility for the EU rules and Danish regulations that govern companies' environmental permits and environmental inspections. The experiences from concrete agency execution are actively brought into the development of rules and solutions in collaboration with Miljøstyrelsen's other areas, and we contribute to servicing the political level in close cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment's Department.

The area houses strong and specialized professional environmental teams. As deputy director you must be able to set direction for the professional competence without yourself being a specialist in all areas. You must be able to challenge, prioritise and create the framework for turning complex professional knowledge into robust decision bases, safe authority exercise and concrete results.

The tasks place high demands on both expertise, administrative safety and timeliness. A significant part of your leadership role will therefore be to ensure alignment between strong professional knowledge and the ability to deliver.

You must also strengthen the interplay between the agency's framework-setting and implementing tasks: between the development of professional solutions, regulation and decision basis on the one hand and the concrete exercise of authority and implementation on the other. The strong interaction between the two is a central part of Miljøstyrelsen's strategy.

You will be part of Miljøstyrelsen's overall leadership

As deputy director you will be responsible for your own portfolio and at the same time be part of a management board that together has responsibility for the entire Miljøstyrelsen and the agency's results, operations, economy, development and organisation.

We work as one management. This means that we have different areas of responsibility, but a shared responsibility for the whole. We set a common direction, prioritise across functions and make decisions with a view to what is, overall, best for Miljøstyrelsen and our task execution.

You must therefore be able to lead strongly down into your own organisation, across the agency and into the overall group. You should bring your own professional knowledge and judgement clearly into play, and at the same time be curious about other perspectives and able to change direction when the whole requires it.

Who are you?

We envisage that you have significant leadership experience from a ministry, a government agency, a municipality or another large politically led organisation. It is essential that you have experience in leading other leaders and with responsibility for an organisation or a larger organisational area with complex operations and development tasks.

You have strong generalist and administrative competencies, political understanding and a relevant advanced education.

You must have the ability and interest to quickly grasp complex professional issues and be able to lead organisations with high specialist expertise. Knowledge of the environmental area, regulation or exercise of authority will be an advantage, but the decisive factor is your ability to translate strong professional knowledge into direction, decisions and results.

We place particular emphasis on the fact that you

• Are an experienced leader of leaders who can set a clear direction and create followers around it.
• Have strong operational management and execution power and persistently follow up on goals, deliveries, quality and results.
• Can create an overview of a large and complex portfolio of tasks and make clear prioritisations of tasks and resources.
• Can lead strong professional environments and ensure that specialist knowledge is constructively used in decisions, prioritisations and the exercise of authority.
• Respond to lack of progress and can translate problems and uncertainty into decisions and action.
• Can unite high professional and administrative quality with timeliness and have the judgement to assess when we know enough to act.
• Can lead complex and politically prioritised tasks with many stakeholders and different considerations.
• Have an eye for economy, capacity and efficient resource use and can achieve results within the given framework.
• Takes responsibility for the whole and naturally leads and prioritises across organisational and professional boundaries.
• Can drive change without losing focus on stable operations and the organisation's ability to deliver.
• Communicates clearly and credibly and builds strong relations both internally and externally.

You must be prepared for a close, binding and engaged collaboration with the rest of the management board. Our ambition is to be a unified leadership for one coherent Miljøstyrelse, where we share knowledge, challenge each other, prioritise across boundaries and take joint responsibility for the results.

Salary and employment terms

The appointment is on a 6-year fixed term in accordance with the “Framework Agreement on the Appointment of Executives in the State” with a base salary according to group 2 of 783,775.00 DKK. In addition to the base salary, there are individual allowances, a fixed-term allowance, pension arrangements and a one-time settlement based on effort and results.

If you are already a civil servant, appointment as a civil servant may take place in LR 38 after a concrete and individual assessment.

The area of employment for contract managers is the Ministry of the Environment and its associated institutions. If you are appointed as a civil servant, the area of employment is Miljøstyrelsen.

If you are already a civil servant, the application should be addressed to the King.

The place of employment is the Ministry of the Environment, Lerchesgade 35, 5000 Odense C.

Applicants must be able to obtain the necessary security clearance and maintain it throughout the employment relationship.

The position is intended to be filled on 1 January 2027 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Want to know more?

If you want to know more about the position, you are welcome to contact Director Jakob Møller Nielsen at tel. 41 72 16 07 or partner at Genitor, Hanne Kristensen, at tel. 25 11 71 37.

How to apply for the position

You apply for the position online by sending your application, CV, educational certificates etc. no later than 31 October 2026.

We will conduct tests in the period 3/11 – 12/11 2026.

The first interview is expected to be held on 3/11/2026 and the second interview on 13/11 2026.

Apply