Army - Capability Safety Team Manager

Army HQ Marlborough Lines, Monxton Road, Monxton, Andover, Hants, SP11 8HT.

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 and 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.

This Senior Executive Officer role would 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 and 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. 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.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job Description You will be committed to providing excellent safety support and line management to a small team of professional capability development safety advisors. Ensuring your staff receive all the necessary training and development to successfully undertake their roles. You will also 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.

Main Role Responsibilities:

• Provide the day-to-day matrix and line management of assigned Higher Executive Officer staff, ensuring all staff and their respective output areas receive the appropriate level of support.
• Act as a Safety Delivery Team Subject Matter Expert for Army sponsored equipment, attending, or ensuring that one of their team attends any safety related meetings as directed by Deputy Head (DH) &​ Assistant Head (AH) Capability Safety.
• Act as a Safety Team Leader ensuring that all HR requirements are met with consultation and support from DH &​ AH Capability Safety.
• Work with stakeholders to drive Army Capability safety to a known, managed and ultimately as low as reasonably practicable state.
• Directly liaise with National Armaments Directorate (formerly Defence Equipment &​ Support (DE&​S) on behalf of the DH/AH Capability Safety for all equipment safety matters.
• Empowered to assist &​ request assistance from other Capability Safety Delivery Teams (matrix management).
• Act as a Digitalisation Champion for Capability Safety and provide assurance that Information Management policy is adhered to.

You will be committed to providing excellent safety support and line management to a small team of professional capability development safety advisors. Ensuring your staff receive all the necessary training and development to successfully undertake their roles. You will also 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.

Main Role Responsibilities:

• Provide the day-to-day matrix and line management of assigned Higher Executive Officer staff, ensuring all staff and their respective output areas receive the appropriate level of support.
• Act as a Safety Delivery Team Subject Matter Expert for Army sponsored equipment, attending, or ensuring that one of their team attends any safety related meetings as directed by Deputy Head (DH) &​ Assistant Head (AH) Capability Safety.
• Act as a Safety Team Leader ensuring that all HR requirements are met with consultation and support from DH &​ AH Capability Safety.
• Work with stakeholders to drive Army Capability safety to a known, managed and ultimately as low as reasonably practicable state.
• Directly liaise with National Armaments Directorate (formerly Defence Equipment &​ Support (DE&​S) on behalf of the DH/AH Capability Safety for all equipment safety matters.
• Empowered to assist &​ request assistance from other Capability Safety Delivery Teams (matrix management).
• Act as a Digitalisation Champion for Capability Safety and provide assurance that Information Management policy is adhered to.

Person specification

Essential Skills Required:

• 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.
• A keen interest in safety and engineering paired with an enquiring mindset, as well as the ability and drive to enhance digital and electronic information management.
• 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.
• 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 Skills &​ Experience:

• You will be an experienced capability safety advisor 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 qualification in an engineering related subject area or interest, experience with engineering.
• A qualification or experience of the project and programme management environment.
• 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.

Training The successful applicant will be required to complete the IOSH/NEBOSH suite of training if not already held. There are plenty of other learning opportunities found within the Civil Service Learning hub that you may benefit from and others that may interest you

Development Opportunities To obtain and develop behaviours and skills through formal and ‘on the job’ training. The job holder will progress through the stages of the HS EP Functional Competency Framework. You must demonstrate you are already at ‘intermediate’ level as described in HS EP Functional Competency Framework. Additionally, you may gain qualifications via IOSH membership and the suite of training courses, with the possibility of reaching chartered status.

Qualifications A qualification in Health and Safety

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 £46,040, Ministry of Defence contributes £13,337 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:

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