About the job

Job summary

ONR is not a Civil Service department, however, we are an arms length body of Department of Work and Pensions.

Job description

Background

The Office for Nuclear Regulation is the UK’s independent nuclear regulator, with the legal authority to regulate nuclear safety, security, safeguards at 35 licensed nuclear sites in Great Britain (GB). ONR also regulates the transport of nuclear and radioactive materials by road, rail, and inland waterways.

Our work is critical to the protection of society at large so it is important that we do it with rigour, diligence and with an appropriate level of assurance.

As part of its 2025 strategy ONR is committed to being a modern and transparent regulator, delivering trusted outcomes and value. We are making substantial investments in new digital technologies and skills to enhance our regulatory processes and management of information.

About the Role

 

Job Purpose

SIMRS (Safeguards Information Management and Reporting System) is a critical component of the UK State System of Accounting for and Control (SSAC) of nuclear material that underpins the provision of our monthly cycle of statutory reporting to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and other international partner states in meeting UK’s international safeguards obligations. It is also fundamental in allowing ONR to regulate the UK nuclear industry against domestic safeguards regulations through the provision of an accountancy function.

Working alongside Safeguards Specialists and ONR’s IT Directorate you will play a pivotal role in management of the quality assurance and change process across multiple environments to enable continuous development whist helping to coordinate the release schedule to ensure improvements do not impede BAU activities.

Principal responsibilities

• Support requirements capture and management from a technology perspective. 
• Provide quality assurance required by ONR as the UK Safeguards regulator including: 

• Variances against quality and operational performance/functional standards 
• Proposed quality improvement targets. 
• Ensure there is a robust quality impact assessment process to mitigate any adverse impact of any changes or reconfiguration. 

• Change control - reducing effort required from safeguards specialists in the process of SIMRS change. 
• Support development of transition for the provision of SIMRS as an ONR corporate service including: 

• Technology roadmap 
• Data management (Architecture, Retention, Quality and Governance) 
• Information Governance policies 
• Ensure that the technology risks associated with SIMRS are captured and managed effectively.
• Facilitate the ONR safeguards accountancy team in maintaining acceptance test processes, plans and materials and the execution of User Acceptance Testing. 
• Management and development of the test strategy and QA for all test phases. 
• Define and manage standards for change and Incident management aligned with suppliers, the ONR IT Service Management/Managed Service provider and our Regulatory Directorate.

Line Management Responsibilities

None currently, however, at this level there could be an expectation to manage staff in the future.

Location / Travel

This post may be undertaken from a base at any one of ONR’s office locations (Bootle, Cheltenham, or London).

ONR operates hybrid working (working in the office and or at home) as part of our flexible working policy. There is an expectation that everyone will spend time in the office on a regular basis, recognising that some work is better done face to face. Managers will work with their teams on what works best to meet individual, team, business and organisational needs to enable collaboration, as well as balancing personal choice and wellbeing.

Security Clearance

The successful applicant will be required to obtain security clearance to SC level prior to taking up appointment.

Person specification

Person Specification

ONR is committed to being an inclusive employer and we welcome and encourage applications from all applicants. We will make reasonable adjustments and adaptations to ensure the recruitment process is inclusive and barrier-free. For example, providing job descriptions in alternative formats, and providing communication support and accessible venues. If you would like to discuss how we can support you, please contact (ONR.Human-Resources@onr.gov.uk/ or 0203 028 0133 / 0203 028 0120) who will be able to provide further information and discuss any reasonable adjustments you may need during the recruitment process. We will offer an interview to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the role. Applicants also have the choice to opt into our Guaranteed Interview Scheme when completing their application where we will offer an interview to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the role.

ONR recognises it has a role to play in helping those leaving the Armed Forces (veterans) and have introduced a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for veterans. This is part of a government initiative known as the ‘Great Place to Work for veterans. Veterans are officially defined as anyone who has served for at least one day in His Majesty’s Armed Forces (Regular or Reserve). All veterans who meet the minimum criteria for a role will be invited to interview and they have the choice to opt into this scheme when completing their application. To be eligible to apply for roles under the initiative, veterans must meet certain eligibility criteria below.

• have served for at least one year in His Majesty's Armed Forces (as a Regular or Reserve)
• be in transition from, or ceased to be a member of, His Majesty’s Armed Forces; and
• not already be employed by ONR.

Essential Qualifications

Applicants would normally be expected to have an appropriate recognised qualification such as a computer science/IT degree with relevant certification e.g., International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ITSQB) or similar or be able to demonstrate performance and/or experience at an equivalent professional level.

Essential Skills/Job Related Experience

• Knowledge and experience of working with: 
• Service Orientated Architecture 
• Dot NET 
• Structured Query Language (SQL) 
• Extensible Markup Language (XML) 
• Demonstrable experience in managing users/subject matter experts/suppliers needs for: 
• Incident management 
• Problem management 
• Change management. 
• Release management 
• Service Desk function 
• Strong User, Senior Stakeholder and Supplier Management skills.
• Behaviours
  • Proven effective judgement and decision-making skills, applying logical reasoning, understanding strategic impact, and making effective and proportionate risk-based recommendations.
  • Proven experience of balancing challenging and conflicting priorities, with resilience to flex in order to meet business needs.
  • Good team working and communication skills to help us achieve our objectives.

Desirable

• Ideally highly regulated sector experience such has nuclear or banking. 
• Knowledge and application of Government Digital Service requirements within HMG and Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs).

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,524, Office for Nuclear Regulation contributes £27 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

Please submit your application through the recruitment portal on the ONR website directly by clicking onto the link above apply at advertisers site where you can also download full job description.

For Further Information

For more information about this vacancy please contact Mahtab Khan, ONR Safeguards Deliver Lead.

mahtab.khan@onr.gov.uk

How to Apply

Please submit your application through the recruitment portal.

The closing date for receipt of applications is 31 January 2024 at 11:45pm

Your application should include:

• CV to include a full record of your education and professional qualifications and a full employment history.
• A suitability statement (maximum of 800 words) highlighting how you meet the ‘essential skills and experience” required for the role, which will be used at shortlisting in conjunction with your CV.
• Where applicable highlight if you have any experience under ‘desirable skills and experience’ within the application form.

Throughout our shortlisting process, we will make decisions about your capability to do the job, based on evidence you provide against the essential criteria (and the desirable if applicable).

Important guidance when providing CV’s – please upload text-based CVs with no graphics or pictures to ensure the anonymisation function works correctly.

Please note -  if whilst completing your application, you use special characters such as (‘ ; “ - _ * ) within your examples, Hireserve will convert these characters into symbols.  We are currently unable to change this. 

Whilst these examples will appear on your application, this will not prevent it from being reviewed at the shortlisting stage.

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 counter-terrorist 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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission. 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.