Head of Environmental Research & Policy

Requirements of the role

We are the UK’s aviation and aerospace regulator and recognised as a world leader in its field. Our activities are diverse, enabling the aviation industry to meet the highest safety standards, and we pride ourselves on our ability to adapt to the constantly evolving aviation environment.

The Role

As aviation faces increasing scrutiny over its environmental impacts, the CAA must ground its regulatory and policy advice in robust, forward-looking evidence. The Head of Environmental Research and Policy will develop and deliver a cross CAA’s environmental research strategy covering key areas including noise, emissions, and air quality. You will lead a team of technical and policy experts, ensuring research programmes support the CAA’s wider sustainability objectives and inform meaningful regulatory and policy outcomes.

This role leads the CAA’s future-facing environmental research capability, requiring an experienced leader with a strong research background and a deep understanding of environmental research, policy development, and public sector engagement. You will be responsible for helping build the evidence base that will shape aviation environmental policy and the CAA’s work over the next decade.

Core Accountabilities

• Strategic Research Leadership: Set the long-term strategic vision for the CAA’s environmental research agenda, working closely with teams across the CAA (including FS&I, Airspace, Resilience etc) and aligning with the CAA’s Sustainability Strategy, our environmental performance reporting needs and UK Government policy. Identify gaps in the UK’s aviation environmental knowledge base and, where needed, applying or developing new interdisciplinary research methods and programmes to fill these gaps. Coordinate closely with internal policy leads to ensure research programmes are anticipatory and responsive to future sustainability challenges.
• Policy Development and Integration: Develop new frameworks and tools that enable evidence from complex, interdisciplinary research to inform policy development and strategic regulatory decision-making across the CAA and within Government.
• Translate research findings into evidence-based policy proposals, working across CAA teams to inform regulatory practice and strategic positioning.
• External Collaboration and Funding: Forge and maintain new partnerships and funding opportunities through the wider research ecosystem, including academic institutions, research councils, and government departments (e.g. DfT, Defra etc).
• Thought Leadership and Impact: Promote the CAA’s role as a leader in evidence-based environmental aviation policy. Working closely with the international team, Chief Technical Noise Adviser and ERCD, be ready to represent the CAA in international environmental research consortia and regulatory science groups (e.g. ICAO, EASA, EU ACARE), ensuring UK perspectives shape global standards and the UK benefits from international best practices.
• Team and Programme Management: Build and lead a high-performing, multidisciplinary team of subject matter experts and policy advisors. Embed a culture of collaboration, creativity transparency, and policy-readiness within the team’s outputs working alongside the rest of the sustainability team.

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