About the job

Job summary

Do you want a career where you can make a real difference? Join the Ministry of Defence Guard Service (MGS) to protect Defence from threats such as crime, terrorism, espionage, and sabotage by providing the highest quality of security services through professionalism, excellence, and trust. 

We are looking for a Security Officer to join our Gold Standard security service and provide a crucial role to the business requiring resilience, vigilance, and alertness. Due to the high profile and strategic locations of the sites we guard, it is essential our Security Officers have a strong work ethic, great teamwork, customer service and communication skills and must be willing to go above and beyond to support security operations across the Defence estate. If you can demonstrate this from past or current experiences, we want to hear from you and see this detailed in your CV. 

This is a shift working position at 48 hours per week including breaks. The successful candidate will be expected to work nights, weekends, bank holidays etc, as stipulated by the shift pattern agreed at the Unit and depending on site requirements. This will include being rostered in a flexible manner (termed a flexible week) within the shift roster. During the flexible week, the working days and shifts will routinely be stipulated in advance but may be changed at short notice, (this should be no less than 48 hours). The exact shift pattern will be explained in full during the interview. 

Job description

The Ministry of Defence Guard Service (MGS) provides high quality security services at over 170 MOD sites across the United Kingdom. The MGS has guarded the Defence Estate for over 30 years including high profile locations such as MOD Main Building in London, Whitehall and His Majesty’s Naval Bases at Portsmouth, Devonport, and the Clyde. We provide access control, military working dogs, control room operations and other security services. We play a vital role supporting the Defence Mission and work to protect the Defence estate and personnel from crime, terrorism, espionage, and sabotage threats. 

The MGS has over 2,700 employees and is part of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO). MGS Security Officers are often the first point of contact for employees, visitors and contractors on sites and we pride ourselves on our professional, customer-focused culture. Behind our operational workforce is a range of head office roles which support our security professionals to develop and execute the organisations strategy, managing its budget and resources, leading, and developing our staff, maintaining relationships with stakeholders, monitoring and evaluating our performance and identifying new opportunities. 

All are working towards our Vision to be recognised as an outstanding provider of security services and our five Values underpinning this Vision include: 

1. Integrity – Always do the right thing. Respect yourself and others. Treat people fairly.
2. Vigilance and Preparedness – Keep careful watch for risks and incidents. Be ready to act.
3. Professionalism – Know the job thoroughly. Seek continuous improvement. Maintain high standards.
4. Helpfulness - Always be ready to assist people. Leave a lasting positive impression.
5. Teamwork – Working with colleagues who are collaborative, respectful, open and trustworthy, who are passionate about excellence and protecting Defence. 

There are plenty of opportunities for development, access to funded professional qualifications and specialist training. We are a growing organisation with opportunities to progress your security careers and if you align with our Values, we’d love to hear from you! 

For more information about MGS, please take a look at Defence Infrastructure Organisations YouTube Page using the links below:  

How the Defence Infrastructure Organisation Supports Defence - https://youtu.be/pqbLRsS9SeM 

Being a dog handler in the Ministry of Defence Guard Service - https://youtu.be/Xs8lxbhlRiU 

Working for the Ministry of Defence Guard Service - https://youtu.be/UrLfy2MZXpg 

If you need to contact Defence Business Services (DBS) regarding this vacancy, please indicate that your vacancy is being handled by Resourcing Team 1. If you experience any technical difficulties with the CS Jobs system, please contact the Support Team at candidate@support.oleeo.com

Person specification

Our Security Officer’s main responsibility is to ensure the safety and protection of Defence employees, visitors, and property.  

The key duties are as follows and can vary from site to site: 

• Assume overall responsibility for the safety and security of designated areas. 
• Patrol on foot and in vehicles, designated areas in accordance with outlined security procedures. 

• Identify potential security risks and respond accordingly. 

• Control vehicular and pedestrian access to site ensuring all have the correct credentials, issuing passes and escorting visitors where appropriate. 

• Searching of vehicles, baggage, personnel, buildings, and open areas. 

• Traffic management. 

• Complete incident reports on breaches of security or defects and maintaining daily logs.  

• Respond to emergencies and incidents within designated areas promptly and according to policy. 

• Assist employees and visitors with any concerns they may have.  

• Escalate emergency situations to law enforcement as required. 

• Operating and monitoring security systems; CCTV and alarms. 

• Operating and communicating effectively over the telephone and/or radio.

MGS applicants are required to attend an MGS Security Officer Medical Check.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £30,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £8,100 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 and Experience.

At application stage you will be assessed against the following: 

 Experience: 

• CV including Job History and Previous Skills 

At interview you will be assessed against the following: 

 Behaviours: 

• Working Together  

• Managing a Quality Service 

• Communicating and Influencing 

Application sifting is scheduled to take place on week commencing [Date 19/08/2024]. 

Interviews are due to take place at Northwood HQ Sandy Lane HA6 3HP and will be conducted week commencing [Date 26/08/2024].  

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months. It is also possible that we may offer similar lower graded role/s to reserve candidates or, if no reserves are appointed, candidates that meet the lower grade criteria in merit order.

When choosing your Behaviour examples, please make sure you use real life scenarios that relate to your own experiences. Whilst technology may help to enhance your written submission, presenting the ideas of others or those generated by technology, could result in your application being rejected.

This vacancy will be assessed at Administrative Assistant (AA) grade.

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.

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

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.