Role summary
At the Army Safety Group you will work within a highly capable team of Safety Officers; we are formed of talented people who challenge and guide each other. These roles are an exciting opportunity for either an experienced safety professional or for anyone wishing to develop their capability safety credentials.
The Capability Safety function, within the Army Safety Group, was formed to ensure equipment based capabilities coming into service are safe by design, safe to operate, and can be operated safely. Capability Safety management differs from a Safety Health Environment & Fire (SHEF) role as it is associated with the safety management of the Military capability and equipment through life. However, expertise in either a SHEF and or capability management role is highly desirable, as is land equipment engineering experience.
Our Higher Executive Officer (HEO) roles play a key part within Capability Safety, equipment procurement, and equipment support areas of the command. As a key participant in procurement and support activities you will be assisting Head Army Safety dispense his responsibilities, and your work will make a real contribution Army safety.
This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.
Capability Safety HEOs are committed to providing excellent safety support and advice to major Programmes and Systems regarding safety legislation and policy compliance.
These roles will play a visible and active role, not only within Army Headquarters, but more widely across other Services and MOD departments. There will be an element of travel in the role which will include liaising, meeting, and engaging with a wide range of diverse people across the MOD.
Capability Safety HEOs are key in ensuring that safety critical advice and direction is provided to senior programme staff such that the development and operation of Army capability is conducted in a safe, compliant manner. Although not responsible for the generation of Safety Cases these roles will be reviewing and auditing safety artefacts and documentation, raising any issues and providing expert feedback to senior staff. As such, good partner relationship and customer leadership skills will be required, coupled with a personable, proactive, and professional ability to champion for safety and a respectful ability to influence others.
Responsibilities
- Act as a safety Subject Matter Expert on all capability relevant Safety and Environmental Panels (SEPs) / Emergency SEPs (ESEPs) and other forums with National Armaments & Material (NAM), Land Forces & Army, as required.
- Work with relevant representatives & stakeholders to assess and drive In-Service Capability Safety to a known, managed and ultimately As low as reasonably practicable state.
- Champion, and ensure compliance with Army Command Standing Order 1201 and other relevant safety policy documents.
- Refer key equipment safety issues to line management as required, to include the management of Accident and Incident reports.
- Be empowered to be a direct line of authority with National Armaments Directorate (formerly Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) on behalf of the Capability Safety Delivery Team manager for all equipment safety matters.
- Be prepared to assist other Capability Safety Delivery Teams as directed (matrix management).
Person specification
Requirements
- Ability to communicate and influence a wide variety of colleagues, including those at more senior levels.
- Engage and win the cooperation and support of multiple internal and external parties, holding them to account to achieve common goals.
- Ability to deliver at pace against a backdrop of uncertainty. Comfortable making decisions without having the full picture; applying knowledge and experience to reduce ambiguity.
- Excellent interpersonal skills and communication skills as there will be times you will have to liaise with Senior Leaders.
- You will be Microsoft Office literate, able to use Office 365, Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint
- Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, able to quickly build up rapport resulting in trusted working relationships.
- Strong communicator, confident in clearly setting direction and adapting your approach to diverse audiences, breaking down and conveying messages to ensure they are understood.
- Self-driven and able to work with autonomy, managing and organising a varied workload and able to balance and reprioritise tasks where necessary, applying an agile way of working.
- Review and evaluate a large amount of information in order to assess and analyse risk successfully. Good judgement is key within this role and you are confident in making sound evidence-based decisions.
- A willingness to learn new skills and be prepared to successfully complete NEBOSH Health and Safety, Auditor and System Safety training courses to enable you to be effective in your new role.
- Personal Statement - 500 words demonstrating your relevant skills and experience in line with the essential criteria listed on this advert.
- Leadership
Where a large number of applications are received, an initial sift may be conducted against the Personal Statement only. The remaining evidence submitted at the application stage will be assessed only if you are successful at this initial sift.
At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following criteria, listed in priority order
- Making Effective Decisions
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Security
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
- Name: Lt Col Grace Irvine-Thompson
Recruitment team
Further information
Nice to have
- Experience of supporting senior level decisions, perhaps with experience of working within or alongside safety regulators such as the Health and Safety Executive
- Experience of working with Safety Management Systems
- A qualification in an engineering related subject area or interest, experience with engineering.
- A qualification or experience of the project and programme management environment
- A qualification in Health and Safety
- A practiced safety delivery and assurance professional with experience in large scale and sophisticated organisations or with giving impactful advice to leaders and or decision makers.
- Experience of working within a Project orientated environment is essential.
You will be required to complete the system safety suite of training. There are plenty of other learning opportunities found within the Civil Service Learning hub that you may benefit from and other that may interest you.
Behaviours
The Army prides itself on being a supportive employer and where possible encourages flexible working, helping you to maintain a great work/life balance.