About the job

Job summary

Job Title – CBRN Principal Analyst

Profession- Intelligence Assessment

Directorate – All Hazards Intelligence

Full Time equivalent - 37.5 hours

No of Roles – 1

Contract Type – Permanent, Loan or Secondment

Location – Canary Wharf, London E14 4PH

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) offers hybrid working – this means that whilst the role will be based in one of our offices, there will be opportunities for an element of working from home.

The balance between home and workplace working will be agreed with the line manager, determined primarily by business needs and in line with departmental policy.

*Working Pattern – Full Time  / Flexible Working/ Hybrid Working

Grade & Salary – Grade 7. Inner London - £55,799- £65,089 per annum.

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.

The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

This role is to be appointed under Civil Service Terms & Conditions. Full details on the T&C’s are found https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/.

Are you already a civil servant, or employed by a Civil Service Commission accredited public body? Please state home department on your application form.

Closing Date – 02/01/2024. 23:55pm. Unfortunately, late applications will not be considered

Interview Date – 19th / 26th January 2024. Please note, these dates are subject to change.

 

Introduction

Are you looking to contribute to a vital mission to save lives and improve health outcomes for UK citizens?

 

We are looking for a Grade 7 Principal Analyst within the National Security Division of the All Hazards Intelligence Directorate (AHI) to coordinate assessments of hazards and threats to UK health security and public health with particular responsibility for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN).

 

AHI is part of the Data Analytics and Surveillance Group (DAS), within the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA), whose mission is to provide health security for the nation by protecting from infectious disease and external hazards.

 

This post will require outstanding leadership to coordinate input into CBRN assessments across the National Security community and to work closely with public health subject matter experts.

 

This high-profile role ensures Ministers, Chief Medical Officers (CMO) and senior decision makers are serviced with timely, informative and accurate strategic insights from data and intelligence to enable decision making on key health issues relating to CBRN. 

 

You will join a fast-paced environment with competing priorities and continual opportunities for improvement. Our teams are responsible for reporting across a range of public health issues which requires leading the creation of analysis and coordination and synthesis of analytical outputs from across a wide range of stakeholders within UKHSA and the wider public health family.

Job Overview

This is an exciting time to join a growing capability within the National Security Division of the All Hazards Intelligence (AHI) Directorate in UKHSA.

 

You will bring your credibility, professional assessment experience and subject matter expertise into a small but growing UKHSA all-source assessment cadre. You will have particular responsibility for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) assessment.

 

As the CBRN Principal Analyst, you will be responsible for:

• Leading the development of your work programme, taking decisions on the direction and delivery of your work area, identifying opportunities and anticipating future requirements, and reconciling different priorities.
• Navigating the complex CBRN landscape and diverse stakeholders. You will build productive relationships, working closely with other teams in UKHSA, and developing links with wider government partners to ensure outputs are aligned with UKHSA and government priorities.
• Influencing internal and external stakeholders and representing the organisation on major issues, conveying sometimes deeply complex information in an understandable and convincing way.
• Significant contribution to the development of the broader Directorate’s all-source assessment cadre, including ensuring work meets Professional Head of Intelligence Assessment (PHIA) standards. 

Job description

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading a variety of thematic and risk assessment analytical work on key CBRN threats and their associated public health implications to inform response and policy activity.
• Successfully managing your time, working at pace to progress multiple competing tasks to deliver high quality and timely products for customers and seniors.
• Supervising the capture, collation, and analysis of data on a variety of public health issues, from a range of sources including UKHSA held datasets, NHS data, open-source, and cross Whitehall partners.
• Communicating and clearly presenting key insights, both written and verbal, up to the most senior levels, from a variety of analytical sources.
• Supervising the development of and, where appropriate, delivery of briefings for the UK’s Chief Medical Officers, their Scientific Advisors, Ministers and other senior decision makers. 
• Supporting the Division and Directorate on drafting responses to Parliamentary Questions, FOI requests, or inquiries as required, and the continued development of the Division and Directorate.  

 

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

 

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Knowledge and/or experience of biological and/or chemical warfare issues and/or radiological and/or nuclear (and/or related capabilities, policies, and treaties).

 

• Proven assessment and analytical skills, ensuring analytical outputs (including complex data and analysis) are policy suitable and have clear ‘so what’ implications for decision-making.

 

• Personal resilience, flexible and adaptable to change, with demonstrable experience of working at pace to competing deadlines and priorities across multiple projects in a challenging and complex environment. 

 

• Ability to develop strong, positive working relationships with stakeholders – across the Department and wider HMG - quickly and effectively to enable cross-team and cross-organisation working and coordination. 

 

• Strong communication skills (both written and verbal) and ability to communicate with and influence seniors and peers.  

 

• Developed Vetting clearance

 

Desirable Criteria :

• Intelligence Assessment skills and understanding of the Intelligence Community

 

• Experience producing PowerPoint presentations, knowledge of SharePoint, MS Teams and proficient in IT systems.

 

• Qualification or membership of professional analysis bodies. 

 

 

Qualifications required:      

• You will need, as a minimum to meet one of the following qualification standards:
• A generic qualification in a field with relevant quantitative or qualitative analysis competencies, or a specialist qualification in subjects such as:
• Epidemiology: as an MSc or a significant proportion of your degree.
• Economist: A degree at 2.1 (or above) or an MSc in Economics and be able to demonstrate substantial current experience in your career as a professional economist.    
• Statistician: A degree at 2.1 (or above) or an MSc in a subject with substantial statistical content, or equivalent experience, and be able to demonstrate relevant experience in your career as a professional statistician.
• Operational Research: A degree at 2.1 (or above) or an MSc in a highly numerate discipline, or equivalent experience, and be able to demonstrate relevant experience in your career in the relevant profession.
• Social Research: A degree at 2.1 (or above) in a relevant social science discipline or a MSc/MA and will need to have completed the social research knowledge test.
• Intelligence Assessment: Previous successful completion of the New Analyst Programme (NAP), or the Government Intelligence Assessment Training (GIAT), or the Defence Intelligence Assessment Course (DIAC), or the City and Guilds Level 3 in Intelligence Analysis.
• Or equivalent professional experience.

 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £55,799, UK Health Security Agency contributes £15,065 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

Stage 1: Application & Sift

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and we will assess your behaviours and technical experience.

At the sift stage you will be assessed against the essential criteria. You will be required to provide a statement of suitability of at most 1000 words. The system may allow you to submit more than 1000 words but please do not exceed 1000 words as we will not consider words over this limit. Your statement should outline your skills, experience, and achievements, providing evidence of your suitability for the role. You should make particular reference to how you align to the main duties section.

You will also be asked to provide information within the ‘Employer/ Activity history’ section of the application form. This is equivalent to the information you would provide on a CV, setting out your career history. This will be used in the sifting process and will be scored.

Feedback will not be provided at the sift stage.

If you are successful at the sift stage, you will progress to an interview.

Stage 2: Panel Interview

During the interview we will assess you against the civil service behaviours through the Success Profiles, and the technical skills in the Professional Head of Intelligence Assessment (PHIA) development framework.

When assessing strengths, we want to find out whether you and the job role are a good fit. We will look at what you enjoy doing and what you do well and often. By ensuring that the role is the right fit for you, you are more likely to enjoy it and perform well.

We will assess the following behaviours:

• Delivering at Pace
• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions

To assess your technical skills, you will be asked to deliver a 5 minute presentation. The subject of this will be sent to you prior to interview. We will ask additional technical questions based on the PHIA development framework. You can read more about this framework on the Gov.uk website

Reserve List:

Candidates who pass the interview criteria but are not offered a post will be kept on a reserve list for 12 months and may be contacted if similar roles become available.

If you are interviewed for the post and do not meet the required threshold for the specified grade, your application may be assessed against a similar, lower grade role and you may be offered the post should one be available.

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• Range of health and wellbeing support

 

Any move to UKHSA from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at Childcare Choices , 30 Hours Free Childcare, Tax-Free Childcare and More , Help with Costs , GOV.UK

 

DBS - People working with government systems must complete Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks which includes a disclosure and barring security check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed for this role is DV clearance and you should familiarise yourself with the criteria of security clearance.

 

This role is Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants. Appointments to roles within UKHSA will be made in accordance with the Civil Service nationality rules. These can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
• Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
• Certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

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 welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Government baseline personnel security standard

It’s important to note that there are currently exceptions to applications being considered if your conviction relates to any of the following:

• life sentences
• arson
• sexual offences
• hate and terror offences

Some departments will also consider the specific offence against the nature of the business, i.e., a conviction for fraud may rule you out for a finance role

 

Complaint process:

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact UKHSA Public Accountability Unit via email: Complaints1@ukhsa.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website.

 

Contact Details – Sophie.rigney@reed.com

 

 

 

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.