About the job

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity to join a small multi-disciplinary team of physiologists, clinicians and data scientists working in Exertional Heat Illness Prevention at the Institute of Naval Medicine (INM). The group is part of the Environmental Medicine and Science (EMS) Division and provides the Royal Navy (RN) and wider Ministry of Defence (MOD) with scientific support, applied research and evidence-based advice and guidance in work/ exercise science, physiology and nutrition.  

This position will largely support the Heat Illness Prevention programme (Programme SALAMANDER) but will include additional tasks including: monitoring physical training load; the physical / physiological demands of military roles; occupational fitness tests / standards, and the physiological implications of survival or personal protective equipment (PPE).  

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week. 

Job description

The primary purpose of the role is to provide guidance on the prevention and mitigation of exertional heat illness, working with colleagues to provide scientifically defensible and legally compliant solutions for military operations and training. 

The post holder will be expected to field queries and provide thermal physiology subject matter advice to RN and MOD customers, with the support of the wider team for specialist areas of expertise. The post holder will support the members of the team in determining the requirement for new work to be undertaken in response to queries, within INM’s current tasking process. 

The successful candidate will be expected to undertake the management of scientific and technical aspects of Prg SALAMANDER. Critical scrutiny and technical assurance of reports and other outputs from the programme will be expected of the post holder. 

The post holder will provide support to the EMS Division by providing training and education delivery of military personnel in specific areas of expertise such as heat illness risk and physical training. 

The post holder will assist in trials and surveys within the EMS Division as requested and  support the acquisition, analysis and reporting of physiological data for audit and research purposes as approved.  

The post holder will be expected to provide supervisory support and oversight to seconded staff or students working within the Division. 

The successful candidate will be expected to maintain links and relationships with existing RN, RM and MOD customers and to establish new relationships to encourage and promote the capability of the Institute of Naval Medicine. They will collaborate and maintain links with other centres of academic excellence where such centres conduct research or training of relevance to the primary purpose.  

To maintain or work towards professional competency (e.g the requirements of the Science Council’s Registered Scientist scheme).  

The successful candidate will be expected to undertake line management responsibility for 1 EO (D Grade) applied physiologist. 

Depending on the needs of the task, the post holder will at times work independently and at other times collaboratively with team members or colleagues in other departments.  The post holder will be required to engage with customers and stakeholders at all levels, including senior military and civilian personnel.  The post requires occasional travel within the UK and sometimes overseas, each of which may include overnight stays on land and possibly at sea. 

The Institute of Naval Medicine is the Naval Service’s Centre of Excellence, bringing together scientists and medical professionals to improve the health of the UK Armed Forces.  The unique opportunities offered within are varied, challenging and exciting and support Navy Command’s role to generate and operate forces for today and to ensure we are ready for tomorrow by developing and delivering the Navy of the future.  

In Navy Command, our civil servants work alongside their military colleagues in jobs that matter; jobs which often have a direct impact on the quality of the operational capabilities we deliver.  

Roles can offer great job satisfaction and there are many opportunities to develop and progress both within the Department and across the wider Civil Service. 

Navy Command provides an open, flexible, and inclusive work environment where civil servants and Armed Forces personnel work together in a wealth of interesting and challenging jobs in areas ranging from: finance; legal services; personnel and HR; project planning and managing contracts, to media and communications. 

Person specification

The successful candidate will be focused and dedicated to producing a high quality of work. You must be able to work independently with minimum supervision, making decisions regarding your own work and priorities, and be a considerate team worker, offering or providing help to other team members when required. The successful candidate will be able to provide expert professional advice in Applied Physiology to ensure the safety and health of Defence personnel and will be able to communicate effectively at all levels of the organisation. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,290, Ministry of Defence contributes £9,528 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills. 

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience.  

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign, each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit. 

Experience/qualification or willingness to learn Matlab, SQL database language and/ or R or Python Statistical Programming. Membership of a suitable professional body such as the Physiological Society or Royal Society of Biology is desirable, as is Registered Scientist status.

We welcome applications from everyone irrespective of gender and ethnic group.  

Behaviours 

At sift, you will be assessed against the following Behaviours:

• Working Together 
• Communicating and Influencing 
• Making Effective Decisions 

Technical skills 

We will assess you against these technical skills during the selection process: 

• Applying scientific knowledge  

Disseminating science effectively  

At interview  

At interview, you will be assessed against the following Behaviours:

• Working Together 
• Communicating and Influencing 
• Making Effective Decisions 

You will be asked to give a short presentation during the interview process and undertake a short role-related exercise. Details of requirements for this will be provided to candidates attending the interview at least one week in advance of the interview. 

Candidates will be required to provide a CV including job history, full details of education and qualifications and previous relevant experiences and skills. 

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk  

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.  

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn. 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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

Open to UK nationals only.

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 embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. 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.