The Danish Environmental Protection Agency seeks a deputy director with responsibility 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 environments and translate political priorities and high professionalism into safe operations and concrete results, even when tasks are complex, stakeholders many and the framework changing? Then you might be our new deputy director.

The Danish Environmental Protection Agency is seeking a deputy director who will become part of the agency's executive leadership and will take on substantial responsibility for the overall management and development of the agency.

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

We are in the process of realising the strategy Hands-on Environmental Protection Agency – one coherent authority. This means, among other things, that we must be able to set a clear direction, prioritise across the organisation, ensure stable operation 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 are responsible for ensuring that your areas deliver on their goals and tasks with high professional quality, timeliness and efficient use of resources.

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

You will among other things

• Set a clear direction and translate political and strategic goals into priorities, actions and results.
• Ensure stable and efficient operations with focus on goals, quality, productivity, capacity, economy and momentum.
• 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 made in good time, and follow up that they are implemented and create the desired effect.
• Develop the organisation, working methods and processes so that we continually improve both quality and efficiency.
• Lead change safely while maintaining stability and deliverables in operations.
• Develop strong leadership teams and support the office heads in their responsibility for their own areas.

Environment and Production – a central government task

One of your central areas of responsibility will be Environment and Production, which has significant political, societal and commercial importance.

The Environmental Protection Agency is the environmental authority for about 400 of Denmark's largest and most environmentally complex companies. The area has, among other things, responsibility for environmental permits, environmental assessments and environmental inspections and primarily works within the Environmental Protection Act and related legislation.

The area also has responsibility for the European Union rules and Danish executive orders that regulate companies' environmental permits and environmental inspections. The experiences from the concrete authority's exercise are actively brought into the development of rules and solutions in collaboration with the agency's other areas, and we contribute to servicing the political level in close cooperation with the Ministry of Environment's Department.

The area contains strong and specialised professional environmental teams. As deputy director you must be able to set direction for the professional discipline without yourself being a specialist in all areas. You must be able to challenge, prioritise and create the framework for converting complex professional knowledge into robust decision bases, safe enforcement and concrete results.

The tasks place high demands on both professionalism, administrative safety and timeliness. A significant part of your management task will therefore be to ensure coherence between strong professionalism and the ability to deliver.

You must also strengthen the interaction between the agency's framework-setting and realising tasks: between the development of professional solutions, regulation and decision basis on the one hand and the concrete enforcement and implementation on the other. The strong interaction between the two is a central part of the Environmental Protection Agency's strategy.

You will become part of the overall management of the Environmental Protection Agency

As deputy director you will be responsible for your own portfolio and at the same time be part of a management team that together has responsibility for the entire Environmental Protection Agency 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 common responsibility for the whole. We set common direction, prioritise across, and make decisions with a view to what, overall, is best for the Environmental Protection Agency 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 must bring your own professionalism and judgment 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 imagine that you have significant leadership experience from a ministry, an agency, a municipality or another large politically led organisation. It is essential that you have experience in leading leaders and with responsibility for an organisation or a larger organisational area with complex operational and development tasks.

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

You must have the ability and interest to quickly immerse yourself in complex professional issues and be able to lead organisations with high specialist expertise. Knowledge of the environmental field, regulation or enforcement will be an advantage, but what is decisive is your ability to translate strong professionalism into direction, decisions and results.

We particularly emphasise 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, deliverables, quality and results.
• Can gain an overview of a large and complex task portfolio 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 enforcement.
• Respond to lack of momentum and can translate problems and uncertainty into decisions and actions.
• 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 deliver results within the given framework.
• Take responsibility for the whole and naturally lead and prioritise across organisational and professional boundaries.
• Can drive change without losing focus on stable operations and the organisation's ability to deliver.
• Communicate clearly and credibly and build strong relationships both internally and externally.

You must be prepared for close, binding and engaged collaboration with the rest of the executive leadership. Our ambition is to be a single leadership for one coherent Environmental Protection Agency, where we share knowledge, challenge each other, prioritise across and take joint responsibility for the results.

Salary and employment terms

The appointment is for a six-year term under the ”Framework for appointments of managers in the State” with a base salary according to group 2 of 783,775.00 DKK. In addition to base salary, there will be an individual allowance, a tenure allowance, a pension scheme and a one-off allowance 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 appointment area for contract managers is the Ministry of the Environment with the associated institutions. If you are appointed as a civil servant, the appointment area is the Environmental Protection Agency.

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

The workplace 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 period.

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 Genitor partner, Hanne Kristensen, at tel. 25 11 71 37.

How to apply for the position

You apply online by sending your application, CV, diplomas 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.