Fire Scientist/Engineer (SD Band 4/HEO) Buxton, East Midlands, England
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Environment and Sustainability
Investigation
Science
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About the job
Job summary
Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. We look forward to receiving your application.
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.
We are looking for an engineer or scientist to join our Fire Safety Team, based in the Major Hazards Group, working primarily at our site in Buxton, Derbyshire.
This is an excellent opportunity to use your knowledge and skills to contribute to valuable government and industry research projects, and to be part of a team developing a new focus on fire safety matters within our organisation. Typical work may involve large (outdoor) and lab scale experimental programmes, consultancy or delivering specialised training, giving opportunity for both practical and desk based work. The team supports the newly formed Building Safety Regulator with technical fire safety related matters, which will directly lead to maintaining standards and improvements in safety.
The Fire Safety Team also contribute to several projects concerning the safe development of new energy technologies and achieving safe net zero, primarily hydrogen for heat & transport. Several of the teams larger ongoing projects are high profile collaborations with other scientific organisations/government departments, which offers opportunity to publish work and present at conferences.
As part of the Fire Safety Team, you will join a number of specialists with a range of technical backgrounds, who work together to create innovative solutions to technical challenges. As part of the wider Major Hazards group within Science Division, you will also have opportunity to collaborate with technical experts across many other disciplines, including material scientists, risk experts, and human factors specialists.
As part of HSE, you may be required to provide scientific support to incident investigations. In recent years these have included understanding aspects of fires occurring in industrial settings such as warehouses, tunnels, mines or construction sites. On occasion this will include working with HSE inspectors at the sites of industrial accidents, travelling across the UK. A typical incident investigation will involve taking and testing samples and contributing to an accurate report written in clear language - suitable for use in legal proceedings.
To view a short video of some of our test work, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE2mnZRMHB4
Job description
We are looking for someone with experience of working in a scientific or engineering environment to join our team. This does not have to be directly in the fire science/combustion area, but could be in a related area such as fluid dynamics, heat transfer or post graduate study etc. The team's research and test programmes are largely concerned with fire safety and protection measures across industry (typically construction, aerospace, offshore and manufacturing). You will be contributing to the design, build and delivery of in/outdoor scientific experiments. The scale of these experiments ranges from lab based, to 1:1 scale outdoor test facilities. You will be required to communicate your findings, usually in a report to whoever commissioned the work, but this may also involve presentations or journal publications.
This role will suit someone with a mix of practical insight and theoretical knowledge. The role offers opportunity for a significant amount of problem solving and allowing you diversify your range of expertise. As a member of the team, you will be expected to contribute to its effective running, which may include contributing to the maintenance of team facilities, quality systems, or health safety wellbeing matters.
We are aware the combination of practical research and theoretical knowledge in this area is relatively niche, so we are looking for team members who have an appropriate background and aptitude for this type of work, to develop their skills, whilst working alongside existing team members.
We sponsor our team members professional memberships and will support gaining experience for Chartership applications where relevant. For the right candidates, we may also support further academic studies.
Person specification
You will be able to:
- Work on a range of projects that can be hazardous and complex, in a safe, scientifically robust way, that meets the required scope
- Provide technical leadership and management for projects of an appropriate size and complexity
- Work to high professional standards in science and engineering, including constructively challenging approaches and techniques
- Write or contribute to, high quality, accurate scientific reports or papers that are suitable to be submitted to customers, journals or as evidence in legal proceedings.
- Support the presentation of technical work to expert and non-expert audiences, which may include travel (on occasion international).
- Be proactive in pursuing own continuing professional development in line with business need.
Licences
Qualifications
Desirable - Post graduate level qualification in a relevant subject (or equivalent industrial experience in a relevant area)
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Working Together
- Communicating and Influencing
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Understanding of the science underpinning fire studies
- Techncial competence in experimental design and/or instrumentation
Benefits
We invest in our people with:
- Learning and development tailored to your role.
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- Competitive rates of pay
- Access to the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme to which HSE contribute 27.1%, far more than in the private sector
- Family friendly policies and working hours to help balance your home life and career
- Carer friendly policies to help create a supportive working culture
- 25 days annual holiday increasing to 30 days after 5 years' service, plus bank holidays and 1- day Civil Service privilege leave
- Competitive parental leave benefits
Things you need to know
Selection process details
Application Information:
As part of your application, you will be invited to complete an anonymised CV that displays your career history, skills, experience and qualifications.
You will also be asked to complete a personal statement, of no more than 1000 words, which demonstrates the following:
Present as much evidence as you can demonstrating your skills, knowledge and experience that relates to the criteria described in the job specification and description. Use of examples (academic or industrial) are welcomed (see STAR method) that highlight your suitability for the role. A couple of well-considered examples, making use of the available word count, would be preferable to lists with limited detail.
Application Guidance:
Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply and how to complete a Personal Statement https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/how-to-apply/
Sift Information
A sift will take place during week commencing 13th March where you will be assessed on your CV and personal statement.
Interview information
Interviews will take place during week commencing 3rd April and will be held face to face at our Buxton site, Harpur Hill, Buxton SK17 9JN, where you will be assessed against the advertised behaviours and technical skills.
Further Information
Please note that a Reserve List will be held for the period of up to 12 months.
It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful in their application. For a summary of HSE terms and conditions as part of Civil Service Reform, please see the attached document.
Any move across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018 may have implications on an employee’s ability to carry on claiming childcare vouchers.
If you have a disability and you need an application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please contact: [email protected]
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
- certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals
Working for the Civil Service
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).
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