About the job

Job summary

The Civil Service embraces equality, diversity, and inclusion. At HSE, your personal qualities are as important as your professional experience. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and all walks of life. Our approach is to recruit “on merit on the basis of fair and open competition”, in line with the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. As such, our thorough selection process ensures that you and every other candidate receive equal and fair treatment.

At HSE, we work with one goal in mind – to help keep Britain’s workforce safe and healthy. Our work touches virtually every sector of Great Britain’s industries. Combining specialists from numerous fields, we strive to keep people and their working environments safe.

We don’t just inspect workplaces and investigate incidents, we campaign for better H&S practice, we craft and review guidance and regulations, we provide specialist products and services both here and overseas, and we produce crucial research and statistics – all towards our goal of helping Great Britain work well.

This exciting opportunity will be based in the Science Division of the HSE at our research laboratory and unique outdoor testing facilities, in Buxton, Derbyshire.

HSE’s Science Division is a world leading provider of health and safety solutions to industry and government. The scope of our work requires a diversity of talented individuals.

Our capabilities encompass a wide range of topics including: fire, explosion, process safety and engineering; occupational and environmental health; risk assessment; work environment; and specialist technical imaging, visual presentation and analysis services.

This breadth of expertise underpins our particular strength in creating multidisciplinary teams to support major incident investigations and policy development, as well as undertaking high quality research.

Job description

We have a vacancy within the Engineering team of our Major Hazards Capability Group for a higher mechanical engineer. This post is an excellent opportunity to use your skills to contribute to innovative work to support HSE incident investigations, and valuable HSE and industry research projects to directly improve the lives of people in their workplaces.

You can expect to contribute to a diverse range of projects within the health and safety sector, especially HSE incident investigation support, but can also expect to be involved in research work for HSE and industrial clients.

You will be part of a team of mechanical, electrical and gas engineers but will also collaborate with technical experts across many other disciplines. You will be expected to work both under your own direction and as part of a project team.

This will include visiting incident sites, collecting evidence, designing and building test rigs, carrying out physical tests, analysing the test data and writing any necessary technical reports. This will involve working with, or for, other engineering colleagues. You will also be expected to contribute to the team’s training offerings to both HSE and external audiences as required.

You will be expected to attend incident sites across Great Britain at short notice, and some overnight stays will be required.

Your technical responsibilities will include:

• Leading and supporting incident investigations, including fatalities, working with other agencies such as the Police and attending incident sites as appropriate. This will involve travel and overnight stays away from home.
• Leading and supporting engineering research and testing work by engaging with potential clients, contributing to the development of work proposals, presenting technical solutions to both technical and non-technical staff and clients, and delivery of successful projects.
• Writing or contributing to technical reports in relation to incident and research projects.
• Producing expert witness statements, and presenting expert evidence in court.
• Contributing to training for HSE and external audiences in relevant engineering topics.

Part time working hours are available for this role. We can accept part time applicants who can commit to working a minimum of 30 hours per week.

Person specification

Essential Skills and Criteria:

We want you to be:

• Able to apply your knowledge and experience of mechanical engineering to delivery of incident and research work in the field of industrial health and safety science and engineering.
• Able to write clear, accurate documents such as technical reports that are suitable to be submitted as evidence if required.
• Able to clearly and concisely present technical information and opinion as an expert witness in court, or to HSE and external audiences in a training setting.

On your application form please provide examples of your relevant personal experience (i.e. things that you have undertaken/achieved) against the required vacancy behaviour and technical skills.

This will include visiting incident sites, collecting evidence, designing and building test rigs, carrying out physical tests, analysing the test data and writing any necessary technical reports. This will involve working with, or for, other engineering colleagues. You will also be expected to contribute to the team’s training offerings to both HSE and external audiences as required.

At HSE, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to work in a hybrid way which combines working from home and the office. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your allocated office will be your contractual place of work. There will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities e.g., collaborative working, supporting and training colleagues. If hybrid working is suitable for you and your role, the arrangements will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. Therefore, we would encourage candidates to consider if the commute from home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. Please note that if you are successful, hybrid working will be discussed prior to taking up the post.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,802, Health and Safety Executive contributes £8,857 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.

Application information

As part of your application, you will be invited to complete a CV outlining your skills, experience and qualifications within the application.  Please note: your CV will not be scored, this is for information purposes only. 

You will also be asked to complete 250 words both on the Behaviour and the three Technical Skills listed in the advert.

On your application form please provide examples of your relevant personal experiences (i.e. things that you have undertaken/achieved) against the required vacancy behaviour and technical skills.

Sift information

At sift you will be assessed against the behaviour and technical skills detailed within the job advert.

The sift will take place from week commencing 8th April.

Interview information

At interview, you will be assessed against the behaviours and technical skills detailed within the job advert.

Interviews will take place from week commencing 15th April.

Please note this dates are subject to change dependent on panel availability.

Successful candidates will then be interviewed at HSE Science Division. The interview will focus on the technical and behavioural requirements of the post as stated in the vacancy advert.

There will also be a problem-solving assessment to the interview. In this you will be required to apply your knowledge to a realistic scenario and demonstrate your ability to formulate solutions and/or suggest and justify options.

AI Tools & Platforms

During the application process candidates are allowed to utilise AI (artificial intelligence) platforms and Tools to support them in writing their Behaviours, CV’s and Personal Statements. However, all information submitted must be factually accurate. This includes presenting the ideas and experience of others, or those generated by artificial intelligence, as your own. All presented information will be assessed at the Interview Stage.

Security Clearance

Due to the nature of security checks undertaken, applicants must have 3 years continuous residency in the UK up to the date of the application and, Home Office approval for indefinite leave to remain within the UK.

Sponsorship

This role is not open to application from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and require sponsorship your application will be rejected, and any provisional offers of employment will be withdrawn.

Further Information

A reserve list will be held for this vacancy for a period of 9 months from which further appointments could be made.

It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful in their application. For a summary of HSE terms and conditions as part of Civil Service Reform, please see the attached document.

Any move to HSE 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 here

If you have a disability and you need an application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please contact: hr.resourcing-team@hse.gov.uk

Please note, if you are a current civil servant and you are currently undergoing any of the following formal actions your application will not be progressed any further; Formal discipline action, any formal action regarding attendance, poor performance or any restriction of duties as a result of disciplinary action.

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

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.