About the job

Job summary

The Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA) is a part of the Ministry of Defence responsible for the procurement, in-service support, and disposal of the UK’s nuclear submarines. Our work is of unparalleled strategic importance nationally and internationally, ensuring the security of the UK’s continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent, and delivering some of the most technically complex programmes in defence.

Here you’ll find a community to belong to – whether that’s alongside project teams with a shared vision or as part of an employee network of like-minded individuals. We believe that, by celebrating different backgrounds and perspectives, together we’ll achieve the extraordinary.

Discover more about our work:

We offer 25+ days’ holiday, flexible and hybrid working, enhanced parental leave schemes, shopping discounts, and an exceptional employer pension contribution of around 27%, to help work work for you.

Nationality, visas and vetting: For security reasons this role is open to Sole UK nationals only. A ‘sole UK national’ refers to an individual who holds citizenship solely in the UK, without dual citizenship or nationality from another country. We’re unable to offer visa sponsorship.

This role requires you to have lived in the UK for the last 5 years and obtain Security Check (SC) security clearance. Clearance must be obtained without any caveats that prevent you from carrying out the role you have been recruited for. If it isn’t obtained, or is obtained but with caveats that prevent you from carrying out the role, any conditional offer made to you will be withdrawn. Obtaining SC security clearance can be a lengthy process, and we reserve the right to withdraw any conditional offer made if the necessary security clearance isn’t obtained within 12 months.

Job description

Working for the Principal Naval Overseers (PNO) you will join a team of predominantly 50 engineers who provide independent assurance to their project team clients, including Dreadnought Alliance and Submarine Production – Astute Class, ensuring that submarine build activities meet the necessary requirements of the contract.

The PNO undertake risk-based surveillance of vessels during build and provide waterfront and build support and advice to delivery teams; ensuring correct standards are maintained by promoting the Governance, Assurance, and Improvement (GAI) of acquisition, engineering and logistics support activities.

As an Engineering Overseer working within the Tactical Weapons Section, you will be working alongside other specialists consisting of both civilians and Royal Navy personnel in a varied and interesting role. You will be providing approval, evaluation and acceptance of documentation pertaining to the manufacture, testing and commissioning of Submarine Combat systems. As an Engineering Overseer you will undertake verification and validation of the Submarine Design and Build against our customers requirements and contribute to the production of Surveillance plans. You will also undertake build surveillance to gather independent assurance for a variety of sub-systems such as Command and/or Control systems, Mission systems, Optronics, Navigation systems, Sonar systems, Communications systems and Technology, Electronic Warfare systems and Weapons Systems and Effectors.

We are keen to support our staff that are motivated and driven to progress their careers and will support you to upskill and develop your knowledge of the systems and the build and commissioning of Nuclear Submarines.

Please be aware that there is a requirement to be able to climb ladders as you need to access the boats to be able to fulfil your role.

At the SDA, we champion flexible ways of working, as this is an overseer role there is an expectation to be on site full time to be able to fulfil this. Regular in-person attendance is required to promote the benefits of face-to-face collaboration alongside flexibility of hours to support work-life balance. External and internal candidates may be entitled to relocation expenses for this position. This will depend on the outcome of an eligibility check by Defence Business Services (DBS).

What you’ll be doing

• Supporting the Equipment System Owner representative to provide approval, evaluation and acceptance of documentation pertaining to the manufacture, testing and commissioning of a variety of submarine systems.
• Conducting and managing the delivery of surveillance in support of risk management, supplier oversight/assurance, verification, validation and acceptance for submarine build programmes.
• Undertaking verification and validation of the Submarine Design and Build against the contracted requirements.
• Develop Surveillance Plans and undertake build surveillance to gather independent assurance over product build quality and contractual conformance - ladder access will be required in the majority of areas when undertaking surveillance onboard submarines.
• Providing advice and guidance to delivery teams concerning technical and supplier risk.

Person specification

To be successful with your application, you'll need to show that you meet the following essential criteria:

• Professionally Registered status as Associate Member or Engineering Technician, or working towards achieving this in 2024
• Experience of providing technical advice and delivery of successful engineering outcomes
• Technical experienced in your discipline or specialist area in a variety of contexts

In addition to the responsibilities above, the following technical competences and behaviours will be assessed at interview:

• EFCF 3 Technical Requirements, Evaluation & Acceptance – Supervised Practitioner
• EFCF 4 Technical Decision Making – Supervised Practitioner
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Bigger Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £36,100, Ministry of Defence contributes £9,747 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

Your application will go through the following stages of assessment:

1. Pre-sift - We will check that you meet any essential or eligibility criteria that are listed in the Person Specification section of this advert. On your CV, please clearly show how you meet the essential criteria.
2. Sift - Your CV will be assessed against the following categories, using a simple numerical scoring system: Key Achievements; Relevant Experience; Applied Knowledge and Skills

Please follow our guidance on CV writing for best chance of success.

1. Interview - If you're invited to interview, you'll be assessed against the Sift categories listed above, as well as the Technical Competences and Behaviours listed in the Person Specification section of this advert.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

Offering at a lower level
If you’re not successful at interview, we may offer you a role at a lower level if this is a match for your skills and experience. If this applies to your application, you’ll be scored against criteria for the lower-level role and offers will be made in merit order. If you accept this position, you’ll be able to take advantage of opportunities to develop your career as part of our team.

Security

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.