Army Technical Safety Manager

Job summary

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 opportunity for an experienced safety professional from within capability in development 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 Safety Health Environment & Fire (SHEF) role as it is specifically associated to 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.

These Higher Executive Officer roles will play a key part within the Capability Safety team where you will be able to make a real contribution to the work of the team! You will be supporting Head Safety Army 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 – without their equipment, they won’t be able to operate.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

You will be committed to providing excellent safety support and advise major Programmes and Systems on safety legislation and policy compliance.

You will play a visible and active role, not only within the Army Headquarters, but more widely across other Services. There will be elements of travel in the role which will see you meeting a wide range and diverse people across the Army.

You will be responsible for ensuring that safety activity critical to the development and operation of Army capability is conducted. Providing specialist advice to the Army regarding the safety of their platforms and equipment and provide assurance to Army of their safety cases as they develop. You are not responsible for writing the safety cases themselves. We would like you to possess good partner relationship and customer leadership skills. We require you to be personable, proactive and professional with the ability to be a champion for safety and possess a respectful ability to influence others.

Responsibilities Include:

• Act as a safety Subject Matter Expert on all capability relevant Safety and Environmental Panels (SEPs) / Emergency SEPs (ESEPs) and other forums with National Armaments & Material (NAM), Land Forces & Army, as required.
• Work with relevant representatives & stakeholders to assess and drive In-Service Capability Safety to a known, managed and ultimately As low as reasonably practicable state.
• Champion, and ensure compliance with Army Command Standing Order 1201 and other relevant safety policy documents.
• Refer key equipment safety issues to line management as required, to include the management of Accident and Incident reports.
• Be empowered to be a direct line of authority with National Armaments Directorate (formerly Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) on behalf of the Capability Safety Delivery Team manager for all equipment safety matters.
• Be prepared to assist other Capability Safety Delivery Teams as directed (matrix management).

Person specification

Essential Skills Required:

• Ability to communicate and influence a wide variety of colleagues, including those at more senior levels.
• Engage and win the cooperation and support of multiple internal and external parties, holding them to account to achieve common goals.
• 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.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and communication skills as there will be times you will have to liaise with Senior Leaders.
• You will be Microsoft Office literate, able to use Office 365, Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint
• Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, able to quickly build up rapport resulting in trusted working relationships.
• Strong communicator, confident in clearly setting direction and adapting your approach to diverse audiences, breaking down and conveying messages to ensure they are understood.
• Self-driven and able to work with autonomy, managing and organising a varied workload and able to balance and reprioritise tasks where necessary, applying an agile way of working.
• 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.
• A willingness to learn new skills and be prepared to successfully complete NEBOSH Health and Safety, Auditor and System Safety training courses to enable you to be effective in your new role.

Desirable Skills & Experience:

• 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 qualification in an engineering related subject area or interest, experience with engineering.
• A qualification or experience of the project and programme management environment
• A qualification in Health and Safety
• A practiced safety delivery and assurance professional with experience in large scale and sophisticated organisations or with giving impactful advice to leaders and or decision makers.
• Experience of working within a Project orientated environment is essential.

Training

You will be required to complete the system safety suite of training. There are plenty of other learning opportunities found within the Civil Service Learning hub that you may benefit from and other that may interest you.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions

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

• Leadership

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,720, Ministry of Defence contributes £10,927 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

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. Thro