Technical Operations Lead

144031

£49,075 - £59,650

£49,075 - £56,350 National / £53,375 - £59,650 London - Government Science & Engineering Practitioner pay enhancement £2,125

Permanent

Office for Product Safety and Standards - Market Frameworks

Engineering
Science

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

1

London, Birmingham, Teddington

About OPSS

Do you care about the safety of products and want to protect people and places? Can we use your skills, knowledge and experience to enable UK business to thrive? If the answer is yes, then we would like to hear from you!

We are the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. We are here for the purpose of making regulation work to deliver real world impact. Regulation is a powerful Government tool to address market failures, influence behaviour and promote positive action. Crafted and delivered well, regulation can be an enabler of growth, innovation and efficiency.

Since early 2019 we have been building a positive and creative team that enjoys a position of influence and respect within an organisation that continues to grow, most recently with the addition of the regulation of construction products planned for 2022.

Our mission: To be a trusted product regulator for the UK.
Our goal: To be a leader of good regulatory practice and a champion of local regulation.

Further information can be found on our website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-product-safety-and-standards

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles. We embrace diversity and promote equality of opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and skills. There is a guaranteed interview scheme (GIS) for people with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

We are Inclusive

We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible and recognise how important inclusivity is to achieve the best outcomes. We hope to attract applications from all underrepresented groups.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

About the Team

The Research, Evidence and Dissemination (RED) team is responsible for the Office’s Strategic Research Programme and Research Hub, developing new and novel research, and ways of delivering research, to drive forward improvements in consumer product safety through changes in policy and delivering regulation, and, has oversight of how the OPSS designates standards for GB.

This is an exciting opportunity to apply for a new role in the RED team that will lead on further developing our growing and cross-disciplinary scientific and technical research function. This includes the development, coordination and maintenance of structures and capabilities that support the development of a robust, fit for purpose and value for money evidence base, as well as, ensuring that the operational and delivery needs of colleagues are met by carrying out high quality research, and providing evidence on which to base decisions. Your work will support the creation and delivery of repatriated UK regulatory functions that OPSS is responsible for, including designating standards and appointing Approved Bodies. Designated standards are lists of standards that businesses can use to show their products, services or processes align with essential requirements of legislation. You will work with technical colleagues, and policy leads across OPSS to develop processes and monitor progress as part of the government’s process to decide whether a standard is appropriate for designation. This is an exciting time to join the team and have your chance help us build for the future!

About the Role

The post holder will have responsibility for supervising the delivery of repatriated UK regulatory functions that OPSS is responsible for, as well as, crafting, procuring, and delivering cross-disciplinary research projects to address evidence gaps; developing a strong understanding of the relevant evidence base and policy drivers, and communicating evidence needs across OPSS, BEIS, other Government Departments, and the technical community to inform our approach, align evidence work and find opportunities for collaboration. Key to this are the abilities to see the bigger picture and understand and communicate how the technical capabilities within OPSS support the delivery of the broad range of activities OPSS has responsibility for; to network and work collaboratively across a large number of internal and external teams; to communicate technical evidence to a non-technical audience; to identify gaps in the evidence base and opportunities for how these can best be filled; and, continue to improve the quality of our evidence.

The work is wide-ranging, from the development and design of processes that will allow and monitoring and delivery of designated standards, design and delivery of research projects, to advising on how evidence is captured to support the critical assessment of issues with current legislation and policy, to looking ahead to how new developments in other fields might impact future consumer product safety legislation and policy. This role offers an outstanding opportunity to build upon your skills and experience while working strategically with a range of senior partners, internally and externally. You will gain exposure to research and evidence activities across OPSS, and across Government, and make a real impact on how these activities are governed and assured.

The post holder is responsible for ensuring the right processes and people are in place to deliver high quality technical advice for policy development, regulatory delivery and enforcement, to help ensure scientific evidence is at the heart of decision making within the organisation.

You will engage with teams from across OPSS, relevant parts of Whitehall, including with OPSS’ key partners and academia to understand the key technical issues affecting consumer product safety and deliver technical advice for policy, regulation and delivery. Key to this are the abilities to work collaboratively and to communicate often sophisticated evidence and ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Working closely with the Science, Engineering & Technology and Analysis teams, as the Technical Operations lead, you will ensure that the Office’s delivery of repatriated UK regulatory functions around designated standards are well led, that they achieve value for money, and deliver high quality and relevant technical output. In addition, you will ensure that technical outcomes are published and effectively disseminated within OPSS as well as to other relevant external partners.

You will provide leadership and direction to our highly skilled workforce of scientists and engineers, supporting their development and playing a leadership role within OPSS.

Responsibilities

The post holder will be required to:

• Build new systems and ways of working to ensure that the UK delivers what it is required to, including designated standards that businesses can use to provide presumption of conformity with GB law, to ensure we retain and enhance our high levels of consumer safety.

• Establish processes that will allow OPSS to decide if a standard is appropriate for designation.

• Build relationships within OPSS, other government departments, industry, and academia both in the UK and beyond to ensure that outputs are as robust as possible.

• Work with our Programme Management Office to report to senior leadership / management boards of progress both in setting up and implementing new systems and ways of working; engaging with senior OPSS leaders to address risks to delivery before they become issues.

• Deliver horizon scanning input for OPSS’ various products, specifically in the application of standards and legislation in this area.

• Act as a champion for high professional standards, openness to scrutiny of research and working practices.

• Work closely with internal and external partners, and confidently communicate complex ideas and technical information to a diverse audience.

Teamwork across OPSS is key for this role. It will mainly involve working with OPSS’ wider SEA, policy and enforcement teams to provide leadership to support their requirements in the development of designated standards, using your knowledge and experience to build process to ensure that their needs are met.

You will also be encouraged to support OPSS’ wider aims and goals by representing OPSS at internal and external meetings with key partners including industry bodies / trade associations, standards / accreditation bodies, academia, both in the UK and abroad.

The post is likely to have direct line management responsibility for at least one member of staff.

It is important to note that as public servants we flex and deploy resources according to the shifting priorities of government so, as with the majority of civil service posts, there is potential for the postholder to be redeployed onto a higher priority work area on either a temporary or permanent basis should the need arise.

Skills and Experience

As someone who sees the bigger picture, you will understand the importance of your work in achieving OPSS’ objectives and will champion continuous improvement to improve assurance processes and ensure robust governance is in place. You are highly organised and adaptable, and comfortable working at pace whilst managing a full workload and driving forward assurance activities.

Essential

We would love to hear from skilled scientist or engineer or able to demonstrate the following attributes!

• Deliver high quality analysis at pace – able to make quick, effective decisions/resolve complex problems even when data is limited/ambiguous and provide well targeted analysis.

• Draft technical reports, advice papers and analytical notes to a high standard and clearly communicating complex concepts, ensuring that the output is of the right content and right level of detail.

• Work and collaborate in a multidisciplinary team to deliver analytical outputs.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with specialist partners within/outside government to support programme of work.

• Define, design and implement new ways of working and collaboration across OPSS, BEIS, UK industry, and beyond.

• Experience of operational delivery, implementing new systems and ways of working to meet statutory requirements, and managing people to deliver high quality outcomes.

• Applying your experience of operational delivery to a new team and new functions to ensure that consumer product safety is guaranteed by delivery of a quality service.

• A degree, or equivalent experience, in science, engineering or equivalent analytical subject area and/or Member of the Government Science and Engineering profession.

Desirable

• Experience of delivering scientific and / or technical advice in a regulatory context.

• Experience in the application of standards and legislation to new or innovative technology in the UK regulatory regime.

• Understanding the product safety and / or legal metrology legislative processes within the UK.

• Experience of systems mapping and systems (dynamic) thinking.

Technical Skills

GSE Technical Skills - Provide Technical and Commercial Leadership

• Scopes, plans and manages multifaceted projects.

• Implements solutions with due regard to wider environment and broader context.

• Exercises responsibility for self and others.

• Demonstrates effective leadership.

• Takes responsibility for continuous performance improvement.

Please see the following link for the Government Science & Engineering Career Framework, for further information:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-science-and-engineering-career-framework

Please visit our Careers website at https://opss-careers.co.uk/ for further information.

A degree, or equivalent experience, in science, engineering or equivalent analytical discipline

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

• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• GSE Technical Skills - Provide Technical and Commercial Leadership. (This will be tested as part of your application and at interview).

BEIS offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, home working and compressed hours.

• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme.

• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.

• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.

• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.