About the job

Job summary

The Defence Safety Authority (DSA) empowered by Charter from the Secretary of State for Defence as an independent regulator, assurer and investigator for Health, Safety and Environmental Protection. The DSA’s scope covers the entirety of Defence and encompasses all armed forces personnel, civil servants, and contractors, whether in the UK or abroad.

The Head of Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator provides essential leadership in advising, regulating, assuring and enforcing the nuclear and radiological aspects of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise. If you are passionate about improving the safety of personnel in Defence, enhancing capability, and reducing our environmental impact, you will be very welcome in our organisation, and we welcome the positive influence you could have on our future.

Job description

The rapidly expanding Defence Nuclear programme presents an exciting and challenging regulatory opportunity for the Head of Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator. The primary role of the Head of Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator is to regulate the nuclear and radiological safety and environmental protection of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) as a trusted independent regulator within Defence.

Operating under the DSA Charter with direct authority taken from Second Permanent Under Secretary through the Director General DSA, and line-managed by the Deputy Director General DSA, this role is absolutely key in protecting Defence personnel and operational capability through effective and independent regulation, assurance, and enforcement. It provides the third, and final, line of defence for nuclear safety and environmental protection across Defence.

The role has a particularly wide stakeholder group across the Defence Nuclear Enterprise including the Royal Navy, Atomic Weapons Establishment, Submarine Delivery Agency, Defence Director of Safety, Babcock, BAE Systems and Rolls Royce. Engagement with other parts of government include the statutory regulators such as Office for Nuclear Regulation, Environment Agency and Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Person specification

Essential criteria:

• Strong leadership with high levels of integrity to uphold regulatory standards irrespective of level of authority.
• Subject matter expert in nuclear safety and safety risk management, ideally with extensive experience of working across safety policy or regulation, and/or development and delivery of safety management systems.
• The ability to effectively lead, develop and sustain a highly professional, motivated and skilled workforce during significant change.
• Ability to analyse complex data in a timely manner to make decisions, taking accountability for quality outcomes.
• A good level of knowledge or experience of either management of the naval nuclear propulsion programme, or nuclear weapon programme. Experience of emergency planning and response activity within a high hazard environment.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, and influencing skills, with a demonstrable experience of managing and influencing relationships and an ability to build effective working relationships internationally.
• The ability to support technology development aimed at reducing risk and improving safety.

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a strong field of candidates when there is a need to distinguish between candidates. This will be as a second sift, after the essential criteria has been considered:

• Hold an honours degree in an appropriate engineering or scientific subject.

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%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process accessed via the advertisement listed for this role. This should be completed no later than 23:55 Sunday 31st March 2024 and will involve providing the two documents outlined below via the Civil Service Jobs portal:

• A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
• A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role. 

Both documents are weighted equally in their scoring so it's important to consider this when uploading your application. Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification. 

For further information about the role and full application process, please refer to the candidate pack attached below. If you wish to receive any material in a different format for accessibility, then please contact People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (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.