Army Capability Safety Team Leader

Army Headquarters, Andover, SP11 8HJ

We are passionate about Smarter Working and believe that a combination of flexible working practices, digital technology and modern workspaces will give you the opportunity to enjoy a healthy work-life balance, while ensuring you deliver your outcomes effectively and efficiently – we expect you to know where to be to have the most impact, balancing your individual needs with that of your team and the organisation. However, recognising the benefits of face-to-face working, especially for new joiners, there is an expectation that you would be in the office at least 60% of the time (3 days a week).

Job Summary

The Ministry of Defence employs over 50,000 Civil Servants, with the Army Top Level Budget (TLB) accounting for around 7,000 of them across more than 300 locations. Our workforce is diverse, encompassing roles such as trainers, human resources, teachers, psychologists, storekeepers, financiers, project and programme managers, and policy secretariat staff. Each function and profession plays a crucial role in delivering key outputs for the Army, making data-driven insights essential for understanding our workforce.

We are committed to delivering exceptional results for our customers while respecting your work-life balance. Our industry-leading flexible working practices provide you with the freedom to balance work and personal life effectively. At Army Headquarters, our people are our greatest asset. We foster an inclusive environment where everyone can be themselves and perform at their best. You will be part of a diverse and supportive community, whether working alongside project teams with a shared vision or participating in employee networks of like-minded individuals. By celebrating different backgrounds and perspectives, we achieve outstanding results together.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job Description

At the Ministry of Defence, you will work within a highly capable team of Safety Officers. We employ talented people who challenge and guide each other. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced safety professional to join the team.

This Capability Safety Team Leader will play a key part within the team where you will be able to make a real contribution to the work of the Army Headquarters. You will be supporting the Head of Army Safety Group, managing a small team of capability safety advisors and enhancing your skills and knowledge within an integral part of the Army’s capability, as you will be a key member in the assurance of Army Capability Safety.

The Capability Safety function, within the Army Safety Group, has been formed to be able to meet the challenge of ensuring equipment coming into service is safe by design and safe to operate. Capability Safety differs from a SHEF role as it is specifically associated with the safety management of the Military’s operating equipment as it is developed. However, a level of expertise covering both SHEF and Capability roles is highly desirable as is equipment engineering experience.

Without their equipment, the Army will not be able to operate and we aim to ensure any new equipment coming into service will not cause harm to the Service personnel operating it or anyone else in the vicinity of where it is being operated.

An SEO Within The Capability Safety Team Will:

• Line manage a small team of Safety Advisers.
• Assurance of army capability safety.
• Act as the focal point for all Safety issues relating to the Capability in programmes and in service equipment.
• Ensure, as far as possible, that safety decisions are informed by the appropriate level of competence, to include input from the user and maintainer community.
• Attend Safety & Environmental Panels where the severity of risk identifies a specific issue.
• Conduct assurance of Army Capability associated with the Safety Team’s portfolio, ensuring legislative, regulatory and policy compliance of Capability Safety management.
• Provide advice on the development of capability ‘safe to operate’ and ‘safely operated’ safety claims.
• Provide support and guidance to Hazard Log development.
• Submit written reports (artefacts) into SharePoint demonstrating work carried out in support of Army capability teams.
• Ability to make clear logical judgements based upon proportionality of detail required and time available to spend on the equipment.
• Maintain own knowledge, skills, experience and behaviours (KSEB) via continuous personal development (CPD).

Person specification

The Successful Candidate Will Need To Have:

• An ability to communicate and influence a wide variety of colleagues, including those at more senior levels.
• The ability to engage and win the cooperation and support of multiple internal and external parties, holding them to account to achieve common goals.
• The ability to deliver at pace against a backdrop of uncertainty. Comfortable making decisions without having the full picture; applying knowledge and experience to reduce ambiguity.

Essential:

• Safety qualification OR role or workplace experience of safety management.
• Previous experience in a safety-related role.
• Ability to lead a team.
• You will be a strong communicator, confident in clearly setting direction and adapting your approach to diverse audiences, breaking down and conveying messages to ensure they are understood.
• You are self-driven and able to work with autonomy, managing and organising a varied workload and able to balance and re-prioritise tasks where necessary, applying an agile way of working.
• You are able to review and evaluate a large amount of information in order to assess and analyse risk successfully. Good judgement is key within this role and you are confident in making sound evidence-based decisions.
• You will have a willingness to learn new skills and be prepared to successfully complete Auditor and System Safety training courses to enable you to be effective in your new role.

Desirable:

• You will be an experienced capability safety adviser to minimum intermediate level.
• Experience of supporting senior level decisions, perhaps with experience of working within or alongside safety regulators such as the Health and Safety Executive.
• Experience of working with Safety Management Systems.
• A practised safety delivery and assurance professional with experience in large scale and sophisticated organisations or with giving impactful advice to leaders and or decision makers.
• You will be Microsoft Office literate, able to use Office 365, Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.
• A level of expertise covering both SHEF and Capability roles.
• Equipment engineering experience.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service
• Seeing the Big Picture.

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions.

Alongside your salary of £44,590, Ministry of Defence contributes £12,917 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Army prides itself on being a supportive employer and where possible encourages flexible working, helping you to maintain a great work/life balance.

Other Benefits For Army Civil Servants Include:

• 25 days paid annual leave rising (1 day per year) to 30 days upon completion of 5 years’ service.
• Highly competitive pension scheme.
• Personal and professional development of skills.
• Alternative working patterns for many roles.
• Access to the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), a free service that assists you with achieving a productive, healthy environment that is conducive to a healthy lifestyle.
• Enhanced parental and adoption leave.
• 6 days special leave per year which can be used for volunteering activities.
• Learning and Development.

We believe that everyone has the potential to make a difference and you will be supported to help you learn and advance in your career. This includes working towards membership of a professional body and/or undertaking a modern apprenticeship as part of your role.

A modern apprenticeship is a combined package of work and training. Through the schemes available you will gain a professional qualification, practical experience, and the broader skills required to develop in your current role and pave the way for your future career.

The post does not offer relocation expenses.

External recruits who join the MOD who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

Please Note: Expenses incurred for travel to interviews will not be reimbursed.

Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for its staff which includes educating them on the benefits of not smoking, protecting them from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke and supporting those who want to give up smoking. Under the Smoke-Free Working Environment policy, Smoking and the use of all tobacco products (including combustible and chewing tobacco products) will not be permitted anywhere in the Defence working environment however some exemptions are in place, please refer to local guidance. The policy is Whole Force and includes all Defence personnel, contractors, visitors and other non-MOD personnel. All applicants seeking, considering, or accepting employment with the Ministry of Defence should be aware of this policy and that it is already in place at a number of Defence Establishments.

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – We may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Policy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

At application you will be asked to provide a CV including your job history and qualifications, and a personal statement of no more than 750 words outlining your safety experience and instances where you have successfully led a team.

You Will Also Be Assessed Against The Following Behaviours:

• Leadership (lead behaviour)
• Making Effective Decisions.

Applications will be sifted using all elements listed above, but in the event of a high number of applications, a sift will be conducted on the lead behaviour: Leadership.

At interview you will be assessed against the following behaviours:

• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service
• Seeing Big Picture.

Application sifting will be scheduled to take place within 7 days of the application closing date. Interviews will be conducted in person.

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 in to 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. This role does not meet that category and we will not sponsor a visa. It 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.

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

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. See our vetting charter.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard 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).
• 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.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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. 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.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact :

• Name : Nicholas Anderson
• Email : Nic.Anderson698@mod.gov.uk.

Recruitment team

• Email : DBSCivPers-ResourcingTeam3@mod.gov.uk.

Further information

Please ensure you read the attached candidate information document prior to completing your application. If you are dissatisfied with the service you have received from DBS, or believe that DBS has failed to follow the recruitment process in line with the Civil Service Commission principles of selection for appointment on merit on the basis of Fair and Open competition, you can raise a formal complaint by writing to DBS at the following address: Defence Business Services, Scanning Hub, Room 6124, Tomlinson House, Norcross Lane, Blackpool, FY5 3WP. If after raising your complaint with DBS you remain dissatisfied you can complain directly to the Civil Service Commission at the following address: Civil Service commission, Room G/8, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ Or by email: info@csc.gov.uk.