About the job

Job summary

Ofgem works on behalf of energy consumers to ensure that every household and business in the UK can rely on a safe, affordable and environmentally sustainable energy supply. We are playing a vital part in accelerating the transition to Net Zero and a carbon neutral energy system – a goal that everyone wants to achieve.

The energy system is also coming out of a challenging time, following the wholesale price volatility and high energy prices of the last few years. This means Ofgem’s role is more important than ever in moving the energy system towards Net Zero at least cost to consumers. 

These challenging times require bold action. We are looking for people to meet the challenges we face head-on, and help us deliver a greener, fairer energy system.

You will be someone who:

• Has a proven background of delivering positive change for consumers, communities, or society in a role across: regulation and enforcement, compliance, risk management, strategy, operational delivery or policy development.
• Enjoys developing new skills, capabilities and expertise and being engaged across a broad range of diverse activities, including stakeholder engagement, analysis, policy development and project management.
• Is interested in the energy sector in the broad sense, passionate about ensuring good outcomes for current and future consumers, protecting consumers, and eager to help drive Ofgem’s contribution to delivering Net Zero.
• Champions our culture of inclusion and encourages, supports, and celebrates the diverse voices and experiences of our colleagues, fuelling our innovation and ensuring we best represent the consumers and the communities we serve.
• Has a knack for building capacity and expertise in a team through continuous improvement, culture change and sound process design.

Job description

Team Purpose and role 

Successful candidates will either be deployed to the Retail Compliance team within the Retail Directorate or the Enforcement Team that protects consumer interests through investigations and the use of Ofgem’s formal powers, including financial penalties. After the initial deployment, you will be expected to work flexibly across Ofgem as a member of the Compliance & Enforcement Profession, working on cross-Ofgem projects, and/or in teams where you have in-demand specialist skills or expertise. 

Retail Compliance 

Our Retail Compliance team leads on regulatory and compliance issues covering the retail energy market and consumers. Your focus will be on ensuring that suppliers are well and efficiently run and deliver good outcomes for consumers, putting things right where they have gone wrong. In addition to our teams looking after the main consumer protections, we also have specialist compliance teams focused on suppliers’ financial health and resilience and the delivery of smart meters.   

Enforcement 

In the Enforcement Team we investigate and enforce energy companies’ compliance with the terms of their licence, energy regulations, competition Law and consumer protection law, following procedures laid out in our published enforcement guidelines. We also work closely with legal and policy colleagues on the development of proposed new licence conditions and regulations, to ensure they are enforceable. Working closely with compliance teams, we prioritise cases based on issues where we see the greatest scope for consumer harm; and have current cases across a range of high-profile areas - consumer vulnerability, decarbonisation (smart metering), cyber security and financial resilience and controls. 

Compliance and Enforcement Profession 

Ofgem has recently launched a Professions framework and a successful candidate will be a member of the Compliance and Enforcement Profession. Through the Profession you shall get the support and development you need to excel. It will give you exposure to the full range of compliance and enforcement activity across Ofgem, from deterring fraud on energy efficiency schemes to monitoring the wholesale market, and everything in between.  

This role provides an exciting opportunity to support Ofgem, as we work to protect energy consumers, especially vulnerable people, by ensuring they are treated fairly and benefit from a cleaner, greener environment. 

 

 

Person specification

Key Responsibilities and Outputs

Specific responsibilities will vary depending on the role and team but are likely to include:

Investigation and Case Management

• Leading or contributing to compliance or enforcement activity in relation to energy suppliers, scheme participants and other regulated companies, producing high quality, timely, and robust analysis of potential issues.
• Making evidence-based recommendations: identifying & escalating key issues as well as assisting in the management of risk.
• Leading, organising and project managing significant pieces of project work, coordinating closely with colleagues across the directorate to understand the impact of your work in terms of resource and output.
• Engaging with internal and external stakeholders to gather and document intelligence on compliance to inform casework, including engaging with whistle-blowers when relevant.
• Build capability in the team by driving continuous improvement of our processes and practices, identifying, and embracing opportunities for change, and championing these across the team.

Stakeholder Management

• Effectively communicating the benefits, challenges, and trade-offs of potential compliance or enforcement actions to senior colleagues​.
• Working collaboratively across team boundaries and engaging with key Ofgem functions, developing close links to manage risks and issues​.
• Representing Ofgem externally and building constructive stakeholder relationships to ensure challenges and issues are identified and resolved in consumers’ interests.
• Ensuring that guidance given to external stakeholders including suppliers is accurate, legally robust and reflective of the relevant legislation or licence conditions.

Key Stakeholder Relationships

Internal

• Colleagues in the Compliance and Enforcement Profession
• Legal
• Communications
• Enforcement Oversight Board and Enforcement Decision Panel

External

• Energy companies
• Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
• Consumer groups

In the event of receiving a large number of applications an initial sift may take place on the identified lead criteria indicated below.

Essential

• Experience of collecting, investigating and analysing qualitative and quantitative data and evidence to arrive at conclusions and recommendations [Lead criteria].
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills that effectively communicate complex issues to non-expert audiences.
• Ability to proactively prioritise and plan your work and deliver quality outputs in a dynamic environment.
• Ability to build effective relationships and successfully influence challenging external stakeholders.
• Attention to detail at case/project level whilst seeing the bigger picture of risk, policy, and sectoral factors. 

Desirable

• Experience of working in a regulated sector either through consultancy, government, policy, regulatory or energy sector projects.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £30,950, OFGEM contributes £8,357 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.

When you press the ‘Apply now’ button, you will be asked to complete personal details (not seen by the sift panel), your career history and qualifications.

You will then be asked to provide a 1250 word ‘personal statement’ evidencing how you meet the essential and desirable skills and capabilities listed in the role profile. Please ensure you demonstrate clearly, within your supporting statement, how you meet each of the essential and desirable skills and capabilities.

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. 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.