The third in our series of films featuring Christ Church Women is on Samantha Job, who read Modern History, and matriculated in 1988.
Samantha became the Director for Defence and International Security at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) in March 2019.
Samantha has been a career foreign service officer since 1992. She has worked on geographical issues from South East Asia to the Middle East and thematic issues from war crimes to how to use social media in foreign policy. A theme of her career has been security policy, where she has led policy formulation on counter-proliferation, EU Security and Defence Policy and counter terrorism. Her work has taken her to Thailand and the UK’s mission to the UN in New York, where she was the counter terrorism and counter proliferation specialist.
From 2013 to 2015, Samantha was the joint Head of the North Africa Department in the FCO in London. From 2016 to early 2019, Samantha was the Foreign and Security Policy Counsellor at the British Embassy, Washington, engaging with the US government across all aspects of national security policy. Having worked part-time and job-shared during her career, Samantha is an FCO champion for flexible working.
In the film, Samantha discusses how her upbringing, schooling, and university career at the House prepared her for the challenges of the FCO.
