About the job

Job summary

The MOD employs over 50,000 Civil Servants. Within that, the Army Top Level Budget (TLB) employs around 7,000 MOD Civil Servants located over 300 locations.  Ours is a diverse workforce, with roles ranging from trainers, human resources, teachers, and psychologists to storekeepers, financiers, project and programme managers, and policy secretariat staff.

Headquarters Regional Command (HQ RC) is a dynamic Army 2* headquarters based in Montgomery House in Aldershot.  HQ RC delivers 'Real Life Support to the Army' and controls the UK Stations and Garrisons as well as Garrisons in Nepal, Brunei and Germany.  It is also the lead organisation for engaging with the civil community and acts as the proponent for UK Operations.

HQ RC's Infrastructure Branch is responsible for the entirety of the Army's built estate, training and overseas.  The estate is diverse and distributed across the UK and overseas.  There are over 22,000 buildings within 500 sites with 43% of them over 50 years old.  The Branch programmes and assures the delivery of Hard and Soft Facilities Management (FM).  The team positively collaborates with users of the estate, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and our contracted service providers, fulfilling the demanding intelligent customer role.

We are looking for a confident and able communicator who can establish and maintain effective collaborative relationships with multi-disciplinary customers and service providers. The ideal candidate will be able to efficiently analyse and interpret policy and data to aid senior managers in their decision making.

It is an exciting time to join team due to the recent launch of the new Defence Catering Strategy and upcoming contract re-lets of the current FM provisions. You will be able take a pivotal role in enhancing this crucial element of Service personnel's lived experience and improving upon it.

We are passionate about Smarter Working and believe that a combination of flexible working practices, digital technology and modern work spaces will give you the opportunity to enjoy a healthy work-life balance, while ensuing you deliver your outcomes effectively and efficiently – we expect you to know where to be to have the most impact, balancing your individual needs with that of your team and the organisation.  However, recognising the benefits of face to face working, especially for new joiners, there is an expectation that you would be in the office at least 60% of the time(3 days a wee)

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week. 

Job description

As the principal Soft FM officer, you will

• Act as the focal point for DIO, other Ministry of Defence departments and external organisations to manage and address Soft FM enquiries and issues.
• Provide oversight for senior staff regarding the delivery of works and services, whilst supervising and reporting on quality, time and cost parameters.
• Support Soft FM functions across the branch and engage directly with the branch senior leadership and provide subject matter expertise (SME), advice and guidance to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Provide Soft FM advice and guidance to enable effective delivery of emergent urgent Soft FM requirements.
• Recognise, communicate and contribute towards management of Soft FM operational and strategic contractual and delivery risks.
• Influence and/or develop Soft FM requirements, policy and procedures.
• Provide oversight of customer requests for Soft FM contract change and enhancements.
• Provide operational and strategic Soft FM guidance and support to higher/adjacent commands and to RICs/OTIC staff, engaging with DIO at national level and Council of Reserve Forces & Cadet Association (CRFCA) to ensure implementation of the Soft FM Quality Assurance System.
• Develop the demanding intelligent customer role for Soft FM across the Firm Base to shape the provision of future Soft FM.
• Lead on Soft FM Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

Person specification

Person Specification and Desirable Criteria:

A practitioner level of Soft FM activities.

Experience of working within a headquarter (Defence or cooperate).

Able to identify and articulate risk, measure and analyse key performance indicators, and plan at pace.

Able to analyse issues and deliver appropriate solutions.

A fundamental awareness of project management.

This role offers the opportunity to travel around the UK and, occasionally overseas, working directly with the military community, industry partners and DIO staff.  Due to the broad geographical remit of the Army estate, which is not all effectively served by public transport, a driving licence would be advantageous but is not crucial.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,631 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, Ability and Experience.

At Sift CV: Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience. Personal Statement:Candidates will be required to provide a statement of suitability. (750 Word count) At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profiles Behaviour: Changing and Improving. Candidates will be required to complete an online Civil Service Judgement Test. The Civil Service Judgement Test is not bankable and therefore must be taken on every vacancy where it is applied. Should you be invited to complete the online tests, please allow sufficient time to complete the tests and the remainder of the full application form; only candidates who are successful at the test stage will be invited to complete the remainder of the application by clicking ‘Submit Application’. Your application must be completed by 23:55 on the closing date of the vacancy. Late submissions cannot be accepted. The tests are not timed, as they work by giving you harder questions if you answer the previous question correctly, and easier if you get it wrong. You should allow up to an hour for each test, and each test must be completed before you will be invited to complete the second part of your application. Internet access will be required for the duration of the test. Please refer to the attached Candidate Guidance for further information.  CSJT scores cannot be banked as each test is generated from the behaviours required for a specific role which will vary between recruitment campaigns. If you require any particular arrangements (for example due to a disability or health problem) to be made in order for you to complete the online test you MUST contact the DBS Enquiry Centre on 0800 345 7772 BEFORE accessing the online test. Opening  times  Mon -Friday 0800- 1600 hrs. At Interview: Candidates will be accessed against the following behaviours: Changing and Improving. Leadership. Working Together. Managing a Quality Service. 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

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• 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)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

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 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.