About the job

Job summary

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to help deliver a major recapitalisation programme to redress a material state decline, allow optimisation of support for incoming warship classes and ensure modernisation of His Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Portsmouth to suit the needs of the Royal Navy in the 21st century and to regenerate and enable our Armed Forces to protect, defend and support everyday life?

His Majesty’s Naval Base Portsmouth is a maintenance and operational support base for two thirds of the Royal Navy’s Surface Fleet, including the aircraft carriers His Majesty’s Ship (HMS) Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. Its primary purpose is to deliver support to the personnel and ships of the Portsmouth Flotilla, together with visiting RN and foreign vessels. It also provides support to over 150 tri-service lodger units, from military bands to experimental vessels, and civilian organisations. As one of three UK naval bases, it enables the Royal Navy’s and the nation’s defence strategy; it is a Defence Critical National Infrastructure Asset.

Structurally, the base comprises of over 900 buildings, 380 acres of land, 55 square miles of sea and 6 miles of waterfront. Its electrical, heat and gas networks are amongst the largest in the UK outside the national framework. And, having been founded in 1194, it hosts a unique set of heritage maritime assets, many of which are maintained in daily use.

It encompasses HMNB Portsmouth, HMS Nelson, HMS Temeraire and Clarence Field sports ground, and provides infrastructure support to other local units, such as the Oil Fuel Deport and Defence Munitions, HMS Excellent and Portsmouth located Navy, Army, and Air Force Reserve units.

The base is a major employer within the city and, as part of Navy Command, provides an open, flexible and supportive work environment where Civil Servants, Contractors and Armed Forces personnel work together in a wealth of interesting and challenging jobs. It is a unique employment opportunity to support the Nation’s maritime forces today and ensure we are ready for tomorrow whatever the future holds.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

The primary purpose of the Infrastructure Superintendent is to lead and manage a diverse team and large budget to deliver all aspect of Hard FM within HMNB Portsmouth on behalf of the Naval Base Commander, working with other teams, such as Defence Infrastructure Organisation, to ensure safety, security and operations are not compromised.

As part of and working alongside the HMNB Management Board the Infrastructure Superintendent’s role is responsible to the Naval Base Commander Portsmouth (NBC(P)), as Head of Establishment, to ensure all infrastructure across the naval base is maintained in a Safe-to-Operate status within the overall base design boundary. The role also ensures the estate is optimised to enable the Force Generation Plan for ships based in Portsmouth, Personnel Support facilities and agreed Lodger Unit outputs. To achieve this, the role is the Estates Duty Holder, including Design Authority, and is in charge of a large military, civilian and industrial partner team (KBS Maritime) to deliver the Hard Facilities Management (Hard FM). The role is the principal customer for KBS Maritime, the infrastructure industrial partner for HMNB(P), thus the accountable owner for this element of the base’s support contract, Future Maritime Support Programme (FMSP).

Recently HMNB(P) is planning to deliver a major programme of reinvestment in all facilities across the site, Project Bentham, which will meet the needs of the Royal Navy well into the middle of the 21st Century. A dedicated MoD team is being generated to deliver this significant change and the co-ordination and cohesion of that team with the Superintendent’s team will be fundamental to this role.

As detailed in the Terms of Reference, other important aspects of the role are to:

• Maintain material state control to ensure the Safe-to-Operate design boundary is maintained and understood by site users.
• Leads the Strategic Estate Management team at Portsmouth NB.
• Be an HMNB(P) Management Board member, working with fellow board members, as Infrastructure sponsors, supporting the strategic direction, control and optimisation of the site.
• Ensure Naval Base assets are prioritised and risk managed to meet the Force Generation Programme.
• Lead Service Delivery and Relationship management with Infrastructure teams within Team Portsmouth and associated supply chains across the Naval Base footprint.
• Lead Project Bentham Strategic Study and Sustainable Workforce work strands until a dedicated team is stood up.
• Be the FMSP Lot 5 (Portsmouth Hard FM) Contract Accountable Owner, assuring all service delivery contract deliverables.
• Establish the strategic development headmark for Portsmouth Naval Base infrastructure to meet Defence and Navy Command future needs.
• Assure the delivery of the Type 31 Frigate Infrastructure.

Person specification

This is a fast paced and exciting role and we are looking for an experienced Infrastructure specialist with an ability to think across the Hard FM spectrum, from tactical repairs to strategic positioning, to achieve a safe and secure site that achieves its operational outputs.

The person must also be experienced in leading, managing and communicating across different functions, teams and organisations, in a ‘Wholeforce’ environment to deliver ‘best-for-base’ outcomes.

It would be desirable for candidates to have:

• A proved track record in Hard FM, particularly within Defence
• Experience in managing projects through the MoD Approvals process, be they Category A, B, C or D.
• Knowledge of contracts and setting contractual requirements,
• Knowledge of management tools such as Risk Management, Performance Indicators and Requirement setting.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £67,820, Ministry of Defence contributes £18,311 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.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign.  Each element will be scored accordingly.

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include: job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience.

At the sift, you will be assessed against your CV and the following behaviours and competences:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service.
• 3 – Property portfolio management (estates competences)
• P3M02 – Team Management (P3 management competences)
• H&S1.1 – Fundamentals (H&S competences)

At interview, you will be assessed against the following behaviour and competences: 

• Leadership
• 3 – Property portfolio management (estates competences)
• P3M02 – Team Management (P3 management competences)
• H&S1.1 – Fundamentals (H&S competences)

Interviews will be held face to face. Details and dates will be confirmed to those applicants called for interview.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk  

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. 

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.