About the job

Job summary

As a Technical Operations Manager, you will lead a small specialist team providing dedicated and flexible operational technical support to Senior Investigating officers and key partners through the deployment of covert technical surveillance assets to archive operational outcomes, and produce intelligence in support of serious and organised crime investigations.

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Team leaders in Technical Operations with the NCA.

You will be working as part of the COMEX and PTOM teams using your skills and experience to deliver tactical outcomes against some of the UK's most serious operations. Working closely with partners across the Technical Operations unit, intelligence teams, investigating officers, and others, this is an opportunity to use your specialist skills and initiative to ensure the success of some of the UK's most serious operations. 

You will be required to have a practical and flexible approach and attitude as well as a willingness to lead on operations at short notice and join an on-call rota to provide 24/7 support. You will also be required to work protracted hours in challenging situations across the UK and potentially abroad. in pursuance of providing electronic and communications technical surveillance supporting covert policing activities.

You will be required to travel for business purposes across the UK. Therefore, the successful candidate will require a full UK driving licence.

You will be asked to demonstrate flexibility regarding working hours in line with operational demand and occasionally this may require working away from home.

The overall purpose of the role is to provide dedicated and flexible specialist operational support to Senior Investigating Officers and others, through the development and deployment of covert technical surveillance assets to achieve operational objectives and produce intelligence in complex or serious and organised crime investigations. 

You will be expected to: 

1. Create plans and risk assessments to deploy Targeted Equipment Interference (TEI) and other technical capabilities, briefing SIOs and other officers/staff as required.
2. Analyse and assess all authorities received to verify the correct level of endorsement and ensure all work is carried out within the requirements of the legal and professional frameworks. Liaise with the Authorities Bureaus to ensure compliance with current legislation. 
3. Manage the deployments, using covert methodologies, TEI and other capabilities as dictated by operational demands, often at unsociable hours with short notice. Responding dynamically to any changes in operational circumstances whilst ensuring full compliance with all authorities and technical safety standards. Maintain accurate activity records. 
4. Analysis, interpretation and dissemination of technical data sets derived from TEI and other capabilities to inform and enhance ongoing operations. Manage product and associated processes in line with the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act (CPIA),  and local/national Review, Retain, Delete (RRD) requirements. 
5. Work within a stringent safety and legislative regime and take responsibility for ensuring staff compliance. 
6. Manage the Resolution of problems and technical issues as they arise to ensure continued operational effectiveness. 
7. Develop collaborative working relationships with Regional, National and International partners. 
8. Support Investigations effectively by working both with the team as directed by the Senior Technical Manager, and also be capable of working with limited supervision, planning and prioritising own workload and that of your staff. 

**To be considered, you will need to successfully complete SC Enhanced clearance before commencing the role and achieve DV STRAP clearance within the first 12 months in post. Applicants must be willing to undergo DV clearance and STRAP induction and be full UK Nationals or Dual Nationals, of whom one component is British may be considered on a case by case basis.**

Person specification

Responsibilities:

The Principal Technical Operations Manager on a day to day basis is:

1. Expected to develop and deliver technical strategies and lead on identifying opportunities for COMEX deployments against agreed strategic objectives through interaction with the NCA tasking process and development of relationships with NCA operational managers opportunities. 
2. Be the subject matter expert in COMEX capabilities reporting to the Senior leadership team within the Intelligence directorate. 
3. To represent the Technical operations department nationally and internationally at agency and inter-agency meetings, technical conferences and specialist law enforcement forums. 
4. Develop  and maintain effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders in order to foster productive working relationships and collaborative working. 
5. Conduct health and safety management including risk assessments, in line with operational policy and procedures. Ensure all team members are aware of health and safety requirements and are compliant. 
6. Have in depth knowledge of the legal warranty process required to deliver technical operational activity.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £50,697, National Crime Agency contributes £13,688 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.

If you wish to apply for this vacancy, you must submit your application by 23:55 on Sunday 2nd June 2024.

You will be asked to complete a CV as part of the application process. Your CV should set out your career history including training and qualifications, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure that each entry of your career history also has a few sentences outlining a description and the key elements of that role, and that you provide reasons for any gaps within the last two years. Please ensure the dates of any accreditations you are relying on are entered onto the CV. Experience criteria can also be assessed from CV.

• CV – The CV will be used for reference only, and will not be scored as part of the recruitment process
• 3x Technical / Experience skills via a 250 word Statement of Suitability per criteria, as outlined in the Person Specification above. 

For further application guidance please visit https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/careers/applying-and-onboarding

Once submitted your application will be acknowledged by the Government Recruitment Service.

Please note depending on the volume of applications a Longlist at sift may be conducted on following criteria:

• Operational experience in deploying on technical intrusive operations including risk management.

Candidates must pass this criteria for their application to be progressed.

A panel will then assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the criteria set out in the Entry Criteria section.

Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application.

Sift results are expected to be released w/c Monday 17th June 2024.

Interview Details 

You will then be asked to attend an interview in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence. 

There will be one round of interviews which will assess the following;

• 2 x Behaviours as listed above
• 3 x Technical skills as listed above

Interviews will take place throughout June and July 2024 - locations to be confirmed. Please be advised that the type of interview (eg. virtual/face-to-face) may be subject to change and successful candidates will be notified of this prior to attending. However the interview is conducted, the interview criteria will remain as detailed within this advert.

The above sift and interview dates are an indicative timeline.

Should you be successful at sift but cannot attend on the interview date(s) listed the recruitment team cannot guarantee an alternative date. Please contact the recruitment team.

Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates.

Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Any instances of plagiarism including copying of examples/answers from internet sources will result in a withdrawal of your application. Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving internal candidates. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants.

Interview Outcome 

Candidates will be alerted of the outcome of their interview via their CS Jobs Portal.  We will be retaining a candidate pool of successful applicants to draw from as vacancies arise for up to 12 months.

If your application is successful and we are unable to offer you a post immediately, you will be invited to join our reserve list. If over the next 12 months we are able to offer you a position, we will contact you as soon as possible. 

Once we make you an offer you will then go through our vetting and pre-employment checks processes.

All Appointments will be made in location merit order. 

The NCA is a law enforcement agency & as such we are part of the Criminal Justice System. Therefore if you are going into an operational role we need to be aware if any of our officers have, either before they join us or afterwards, any of the following:

• Any criminal conviction (including by Court Martial), or caution or fixed penalty notice for disorder or theft;
• Any adverse judicial findings;
• Any charges or summonses where the proceedings are not complete;
• Any misconduct or gross misconduct findings or where proceedings are not complete.

You will be asked to complete a declaration form covering the above if offered a role with the NCA. 

Each case will be considered on its merits and a positive declaration does not automatically mean that your application will not be progressed. However, should you fail to disclose a relevant matter then your application or employment will be adversely affected. If in doubt, please declare it at this stage.

Multi-Location

Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be appointed in merit order for each location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application.

Please be aware that you can be posted to any location that you put in your preferences. If you would only like to be posted to one location, please confirm one location only. If you are posted to a location that you have requested and you do not accept that location, you may not be offered another role.

Please note, only advertised location can be offered. Notes populated in a free text box will not be taken into consideration.

Near Miss

If you are not found appointable at the advertised grade you may be offered the lower grade role if you are considered to meet the skills, experience and behaviours for the lower level. The benchmark for appointing to the lower grade is set at the start of each campaign. All offers will be made in merit.

If you are found appointable at the higher grade but there are no positions available you may be offered an appointment at the lower grade.

Hybrid Working

Here at the NCA we have a hybrid working arrangement in place enabling officers to work a proportion of their role remotely. Eligibility and the degree of home working will vary depending on the requirements of the role. Further details can be discussed at offer stage.

Reasonable Adjustment

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. As part of our application process you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process that you may need. If you have a disability or long-term condition (a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long term effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should: Contact Government Recruitment Service via ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Inclusion and Accessibility

We are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we are committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process. For details of the available group please visit https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/careers/benefits-and-support

In order to monitor the effectiveness of the National Crime Agency’s Diversity & Inclusion strategy, the NCA require certain personal details about you on submission of your application. Please note that this will be treated in confidence and will not impact your application. You will be asked to complete an E-consent survey asking for permission to share this data with the NCA to be used for statistical/monitoring purposes only, refusal of consent to share the information will not impact your application.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Additional Information 

• The NCA is a 24/7 organisation, and working patterns must support business requirements. Some roles may require you to respond at short notice or outside of core hours.
• Individuals will be required to undertake and pass a substance misuse test as part of pre-employment checks.
• Successful candidates may be required to undertake a medical. If required, the medical will take place in either London or Warrington. Unfortunately, travel costs will not be reimbursed.
• If you are an internal candidate who has passed interview but is undergoing an internal investigation or have a written warning in place preventing a post move you may not be able to be posted until this investigation is concluded or restriction lifted. You will remain on the reserve list for a max of 12 months.

VETTING REQUIREMENTS SC

All security clearances require you to provide evidence of your UK footprint where you have been physically present in the UK.

The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.

Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.

If you require SC clearance you will need to provide evidence of the below requirements.

Checks will be made against:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services records

VETTING REQUIREMENTS - DV 

All security clearances require you to provide evidence of your UK footprint where you have been physically present in the UK.

The requirement for DV is to have been present in the UK for at least 7 of the last 10 years.

Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.

If you require DV clearance you will need to provide evidence of the below requirements.

Checks will be made against:

• successful completion of the BPSS
• UK criminal record and identity checks
• credit reference checks
• relevant personnel and medical checks (if required)

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

We encourage all candidates to visit the NCA careers page for further information please visit https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/careers

If you have any specific queries about the role that are not covered by the candidate pack, please contact:

ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

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

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.