About the job

Job summary

If you would like to work within a small, multi-disciplinary team, conducting varied and valued Occupational Hygiene work, then this post could be for you.  The vacancy is within the Environmental and Industrial Hazards Support Group, a small team providing the Royal Navy and wider Ministry of Defence (MOD) with occupational hygiene support and environmental protection advice. 

Recent projects include workplace surveys of air stations, warships, landing craft and Royal Marine operations, as well as advice regarding regulations and safety, for example adherence to the REACH regulations.  The job also entails assurance of atmosphere monitoring onboard RN submarines and emergency support to incidents requiring advice on hazardous materials and environmental protection. The post would suit someone seeking to apply their occupational hygiene expertise in challenging but exciting work environment.   

The Institute of Naval Medicine (INM) is the Royal Navy's Centre of Excellence, bringing together scientists and medical professionals to improve the health of the UK Armed Forces. The unique opportunities offered within are varied, challenging and exciting and support Navy Command's role to generate and operate forces for today and to ensure we are ready for tomorrow by developing and delivering the Navy of the future.

In Navy Command, our civil servants work alongside their military colleagues in jobs that matter; jobs which often have a direct impact on the quality of the operational capabilities we deliver.  Roles can offer great job satisfaction and there are many opportunities to develop and progress both within the Department and across the wider Civil Service.  Navy Command provides an open, flexible, and inclusive work environment where civil servants and Armed Forces personnel work together in a wealth of interesting and challenging jobs in areas ranging from: finance; legal services; personnel and HR; project planning and managing contracts, to media and communications.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week. 

Job description

The primary purpose of the role is to assurance safe systems of work through surveys, trials, advice, data analysis and the provision of reports, briefs and presentations. 

The secondary purpose is to deliver the roles of: Hazardous materials & Environmental Protection Officer (HEPO); and Submarine Atmosphere Trials Officer (SATO) and be a member of the Submarine Atmosphere team.

The main tasks include: 

• Engaging with military customers to establish and deliver consultancy advice in accordance with statutory and MoD regulations
• Leading surveys and trials to establish safe systems of work
• Managing a small team of occupational hygienists
• Management of a Quantitative Fitness Testing Service run within the OH team
• On call response to incidents regarding hazardous materials
• At sea and alongside support to RN submarines to ensure safe control of the atmosphere monitoring systems
• Training of military teams in occupational safety and hygiene

Responsibilities:

• Provision of expert advice in accordance with statutory law and MoD regulations
• Management of two Occupational Hygiene staff within the team.
• On call duties within the secondary roles for submarine atmosphere monitoring and hazardous materials response teams.
• Development and training of occupational hygiene within the wider Naval Service to environmental and medical personnel.
• Membership of MoD Committees.

Person specification

The successful candidate will be able to provide expert professional advice in occupational hygiene to assure the safety and health of Defence personnel.  They will be experienced with a good regulatory knowledge and able to communicate effectively at all levels of the organisation.  They should also be willing to apply their knowledge and expertise through their secondary role as a member of small response team, responding to environmental incidents and conducting trials onboard submarines.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,631 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.

This vacancy assesses candidates through Success Profiles, the recruitment framework used within the Civil Service. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. 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. We welcome applications from everyone irrespective of gender and ethnic group. Appointment will be based on merit alone.

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

At sift and interview, you will be assessed against the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing 
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical Skills 

• Regulatory knowledge
• Providing and handling evidence

The Technical Skills - Framework link is listed below:

Government Science and Engineering Career Framework

Experience will be assessed from the applicant’s career history. In the event of a high volume of applicants, an initial sift will be conducted on Applicants’ experience and professional registration. 

Applicants successful in the full sift will be invited to a face-to-face interview or interview by Teams video-link. The interview will take place at the Institute of Naval Medicine, Crescent Road, Gosport, PO12 2DL. The interview panel will base their questions on the behaviours and technical skills requested in the application form. 

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

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.