About the job

Job summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Driven by government’s aim for clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas, MMO’s purpose is to protect and enhance our precious marine environment and support UK economic growth by enabling sustainable marine activities and development.

We are the independent regulator for England’s seas, professionally delivering service-focussed outcomes for our customers. 

We are a team of around 400 people and combine our Newcastle upon Tyne and London operations with a local presence around the English coastline in Brixham, Beverley, Harwich, Hastings, Lowestoft, North Shields, Hayle, Plymouth, Poole, Portsmouth, Preston, Scarborough, Shoreham, Whitehaven.

We also have colleagues based in Defra offices, including Bristol, Cambridge and York where we share office space.

More information about our work is on the GOV.UK website 

We also have colleagues based in Defra offices, including Bristol, Cambridge and York where we share office space.

More information about our work is on the

e  Management Organisation (

Driven by government’s aim for clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas, MMO’s purpose is to protect and enhance our precious marine environment and support UK economic growth by enabling sustainable marine activities and development.

We are the independent regulator for England’s seas, professionally delivering service-focussed outcomes for our customers.

We are a team of around 400 people and combine our Newcastle upon Tyne and London operations with a local presence around the English coastline in Brixham, Beverley, Harwich, Hastings, Lowestoft, North Shieldsmouth Poo, Portsmouth, Preston, Scarborough, Shoreham, Whitehaven.

Job description 1  

This role is a critical role within MMO and the post holder will be responsible for leading on some of the fastest moving and highest profile areas of MMO work.  The diverse nature of the remit of this role requires the post holder to have strong technical and IT skills together with an understanding of conservation and control and enforcement issues.  Due to the fast pace of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) and Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) work areas good communication skills will be critical to ensure that senior managers and policy teams have a good understanding of current issues and future challenges

Changing and Improving

The post holder will be responsible for technical input to ensure the new VMS Hub contract is fit for purpose and meets MMO’s requirements given the additional burden of Inshore VMS (I-VMS) which is currently being rolled out.  MPA enforcement will be a fast-developing area for MMO and the post holder will be responsible for developing new approaches to ensure the effective management of MPAs within English Waters

Leading and Communicating

This role is a leadership position and the post holder will be responsible for leading the Offshore Monitoring Team and establishing ways of working within a newly formed team.  I-VMS and MPA management will be a fast-moving and challenging area of work and excellent team management skills will be required to ensure delivery of the team’s objectives.  This role will involve close working with the MMO Offshore Operations Manager and close communication between the two teams within FMC Operations will be essential to the effective operation of the team.  The post holder will be responsible for providing Subject Matter Expert advice on VMS and Marine Protected Area enforcement to Senior Leaders in MMO and Defra to inform future policy development and delivery.  Due to the technical nature of this area the post holder will be relied upon to explain complex issues clearly to escalate any issues.

Managing a Quality Service

This position will be vital in ensuring that a quality service is provided to the MMO by external service providers and that contractual commitments are met.   This will include monitoring performance and promptly raising any instances of under-performance. The Offshore Monitoring team will also be responsible for providing a quality service to teams across MMO.  This includes responding promptly to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and supporting enforcement operations with quality VMS data, intelligence and information on MPA and other spatial incursions at pace and to tight deadlines.

Collaborating and Partnering

This role will involve extensive working between MMO teams including the Offshore Operations Team, the Marine Conservation Team (MCT), Defra policy teams and external providers of VMS devices and the VMS hub.  This may include having challenging conversations to address performance issues with service providers and providing input to influence future policy developments in MPA and spatial management.

Main Activities

• Overall management of the Offshore Monitoring Team
• Line management of 3 x HEO
• Direction of MPA and spatial offences enforcement strategy (working with Offshore Operations Manager)
• Provision of SME advice to Defra / MCT to support development of MPA / spatial policies.
• Act as the Overview MMO Product Owner on the VMS+ device contract, dependant on UKFA’s decision on next steps.
• Act as the Overview MMO Product Owner on the VMS Hub Replacement Project.
• Conduct user acceptance testing and evaluation in support of the MMO CCP group to ensure successful selection of a new VMS platform within 2024/2025 financial year
• Act as manager of the MMO VMS platforms (Currently THEMIS), act as technical expert at UK level meetings.
• Review monthly performance reports provided by to identify KPI breaches and identify improvement plans.
• Review and process polling and invoices.
• Oversee the VMS Manager to triage operational issues and escalate using the agreed process and communication channels to IT suppliers

Knowledge and Skills

Description of the knowledge and skills required for the role, including:

Essential

• Excellent IT skills and ability to rapidly get up to speed with new IT systems
• An understanding of the systems used in remote monitoring of fishing activity including VMS, I-VMS and AIS.
• Good communication skills and an ability to clearly communicate complex ideas to a range of audiences
• An ability to mange own time and prioritise issues.
• Experience of managing a team

Desirable

• Good knowledge of UK and EU fisheries legislation
• Good knowledge of the English Marine Protected Area programme
• Experience of contract management
• Higher National Diploma in computing or demonstrable equivalent vocational qualifications

FAILURE TO USE THE MMO CV TEMPLATE ATTACHED WILL RESULT IN YOUR APPLICATION NOT BEING SIFTED.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,730, Marine Management Organisation contributes £10,495 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

Please refer to Job Description

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

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.