About the job

Job summary

In the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), we harness science and technology to protect our nation – bringing together the best people, with the best ideas, and applying them in unexpected ways. We provide specialist research, analysis and advice to UK government.

Dstl’s Counter Terrorism and Security division (CTS) is looking for leading, versatile, senior modellers and/or mathematicians who want to work collaboratively to contribute to projects that will save lives.

CTS Division primarily delivers science and technology to support the UK government in the fight against crime and terrorism. The Division’s work includes supporting the military, security services and emergency services on the front line, delivering engineering solutions to urgent problems, and investing in new technology and capabilities for future and emerging threats.

Dstl recognises the importance of diversity and inclusion as people from diverse backgrounds bring fresh ideas. We are committed to building an inclusive working environment in which each employee fulfils their potential and maximises their contribution.

We particularly welcome female and ethnic minority applicants and those from the LGBTQI community, as they are under-represented within Dstl at these levels.

Job description

In this role you will:

• Work with our customers to understand their requirements and develop solutions, typically working on 1-2 projects at a time.
• Provide in-depth specialist/professional contribution and/or manage a small unit, facility, or study or project team with an awareness of the interdependencies between different technical and functional areas. Striving to achieve and maintain highest levels of delivery in a cost effective manner. 
• Lead and influence a team, providing professional advice in complex situations and interpreting guidelines or precedents for the use of others.
• Identifying and shaping requirements, writing clearly and unambiguously, providing a contribution to other teams and helping others to identify gaps in their knowledge and identify and shape CPD.
• Set objectives and deliver through delegation, taking ownership for decisions to be communicated and consult on technical plans.
• Adapt your approach in order to tailor solutions to customer requirements and needs.
• Be responsible for designing and developing the analytical approach/method for your work, incorporating new and innovative approaches where possible.
• Be responsible for providing guidance and direction on the development, acceptance and use of simulation models to junior analysts including collection of input data, model run cases, analysis and visualisation of model outputs/data.
• Provide technical advice and direction to industrial and academic partners and suppliers, as required.
• Explore and visualise data to present its story in a meaningful way to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Provide timely, impartial, evidence-based advice to customers to enable them to make informed decisions on future policy or procurement.

Full job description can be found at the bottom of the page, including the Pen Picture for a level 5 role in Dstl, this outlines the standard for this pay grade.

Important Information

Our work in defence, security and intelligence requires our employees to be UK Nationals who are able to gain a high level of security clearance to undertake the projects we are involved in to protect us from security threats. For this reason, only UK Nationals will be able to apply for this role. If you are an international or dual-national candidate, and you think you have the skills we need, please consider applying to any of our government, security or defence partners.

This role will require full UK security clearance and you should have resided in the UK for the past 5 years. For some roles Developed Vetting will also be required, in this case you should have resided in the UK for the past 10 years.

Person specification

We are looking for people with skills and experience in the following areas: 

• Working on complex and non-routine problems, including design and development (though within a framework of accepted practice and procedure).
• Identifying milestones and managing resources, making connections between technical or functional areas and overseeing the technical and safety aspects of projects and standards of work.
• Assessing and mitigating risk on major projects, contributing to budget planning and monitoring financial performance.
• Setting objectives and giving constructive and timely feedback.
• Leadership of modelling and analysis projects, delivering evidence based advice to customers and/or academics.
• Development and use of analytical models and computer simulations to analyse the impact of making changes to a system.
• The ability to understand and analyse the performance of a system or a capability, and how that could be measured.
• Data science and quantitative analytical techniques to help understand, process and analyse raw data and outputs from simulations.
• Data visualisation techniques to help present and communicate data and information to senior decision makers or in academic journals.

Full details can be found on the attached job profiles

There are 2 teams within CTS who have roles available:

The Maths Hub - based at Porton Down, Salisbury 

The Maths Hub sits within the Emerging Concept Technology Group and is looking for someone to join its team of highly skilled mathematicians, statisticians, data scientists and analysts.

It is a very collaborative team, sharing ideas and working together to deliver projects but also supporting each other and discussing techniques to solve individual problems.

Comprising of strands of Statistics and Data Analysis, Modelling and Simulation, AI and ML and Decision and Network Analysis, members can work across the strands or specialise in one theme.

The aim of the Maths Hub is to communicate best practice, drive innovation and perpetuate mathematical excellence in CTS and across Dstl.

Homeland Security and Technical Analysis Team - based at Portsdown West, Fareham 

The Homeland Security and Technical Analysis team provides evidence-based analytical advice across Government to inform decision making on the security screening processes in place on the UK’s Transport System and at Critical National Infrastructure to combat the threat from terrorism.

You will be the lead analyst responsible for using modelling, simulation and analysis techniques to provide advice to customers to inform policy decisions, development of new technology and responses to emerging threats. In particular, you will lead on the use of simulation models to analyse the impact of changes to security screening systems in use on the transport network and large venues. You will be responsible for providing guidance and direction on the development, acceptance and use of simulation models to junior analysts including collection of input data, model run cases, analysis and visualisation of model outputs/data.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,970, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory contributes £9,711 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.

We want you to have your best chance of success in our recruitment process, so if at any stage of the application process you would like help or assistance please contact the Dstl Recruitment Team dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk and we will do all we can to support you.

Sifting will take place week commencing the 15th January 2024 with interviews to be arranged from the 29th January 2024. (Interviews will require a 10 min presentation - title to be shared if successful to interview stage).

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

Open to UK nationals only.

This job is not open to candidates who hold a dual nationality.

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.