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Personal Protective Equipment – Scientist

Employer
Dstl
Location
Salisbury, Wiltshire
Salary
£25,052 - £29,228
Closing date
3 Oct 2021

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Clearance Level
DV, SC
Sector
Central Government, Defence, Scientific
Job Type
Permanent

Job Details

We have an exciting opportunity here at Dstl to deliver Scientific and Technical (S&T) advice to the Home Office in support of providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to UK Police.
On behalf of the Home Office, we maintain and manage certification to the Home Office standards for Police PPE. These items of PPE include body armour, public order equipment and portable ballistic protection. We also provide scientific and technical advice to senior Police Communities and the Home Office, in support of protecting Police Officers.

Job description

In this role you will:
Be working in the field of personal protection and will require effective communication with technical specialists in this area as well as non-technical user communities. In support of standards development, you will have a methodical and scientific approach to problem solving. This role requires you to work on your own initiative and as part of a team, drawing on required expertise across a range of subject matters within Dstl but also across academia and industry, to deliver timely S&T advice. Where appropriate, you will technically manage support contracts with industry and be familiar with the requirements of treating all commercial entities both fairly and openly.
 

Responsibilities

We are looking for someone who has:

Experience
Essential
• Experience of applying technical knowledge to evaluate information or solve problems.

Desirable
• Experience of working with Quality Assurance Processes (Such as ISO9000, ISO17025)
• Experience of working with Body Armour or other items of PPE.
• Experience of working in the field of terminal ballistics (small arms).
• Experience of armour testing and evaluation
• Experience of developing experiments in order to test hypotheses.
• Experience of working in a security or government setting, whether industry, MOD, Home Office, the Armed Forces or the Defence Agencies.
• Awareness of Home Office test standards and their application.
• Experience of working in a regulatory environment
• Experience of working with external stakeholders.

Qualifications
Essential
Professional or vocational qualifications or equivalent experience in Physics or Engineering.

Desirable
Qualifications or equivalent experience in any of the following: Statistics, Materials Science or Systems Engineering.
Membership of relevant professional body.

Skills
Essential
• Ability to quickly learn and utilise new knowledge and skills.
• Ability to work as a team and on own initiative.
• Confident and clear written and verbal communications skills to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Meticulous attention to detail.
• Ability to critically evaluate information and data from multiple sources, identify key factors and trends and provide succinct summaries to enable evidence based decision making.
• Good record keeping and organisational skills.

Important Information
Our work in defence, security and intelligence requires our employees to be British Citizens who are able to gain a high level of security clearance to understand the work you will undertake to protect us from any security threats. For this reason, we regret that only UK Nationals will be able to apply for this role. If you are an international or dual-national candidate, and you think you have the skills we need, please consider applying to any of our government, security or defence partners across the enterprise. We work closely with the Defence and Security Industry on many projects, so it would be great to work with you via one of our partners.

This role will require full UK security clearance and you should have resided in the UK for the past 5 years.

Behaviours

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

  • Changing and Improving
  • Managing a Quality Service
  • Delivering at Pace

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

  • Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

In return for playing your part in the UK’s Defence and Security, we offer extensive benefits; it’s not just your working environment that we’ve thought about, your home life is important too. We'll provide a great range of benefits including;
• Flexible working
• Chartership and accreditation support
• Pension
• Generous annual leave
• A competitive salary
• Excellent learning and development
• Onsite gyms and restaurants
• Staff discounts for high street and online shopping, restaurants and days out.

Our ethos
Dstl recognises the importance of diversity and inclusion. We recognise that people from diverse backgrounds can bring fresh ideas and perceptions and we are committed to building an inclusive working environment, in which each employee is able to fulfil their potential and maximise their contribution.

Things you need to know Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security 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 basic personnel security standard checks.

Selection process details

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

Applicants invited to interview will undergo a combined Technical and behaviour based interview which will assess their experiences and behaviours relating to the requirements detailed in the attached job profile. Interviews will be held week commencing 18 October 2021.

We want you to have your best chance of success in our recruitment process, so If at any stage of the application process you would like help or assistance please contact the Dstl Recruitment Team, dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk and we will do all we can to support you.

We offer a guaranteed interview for all disabled applicants who provide evidence in their application of meeting the minimum essential requirements of the post, set out in the job description. You will be asked to indicate if you are applying under this scheme when you submit your application.

Please note that Dstl will be contacting individuals via email and you should check your junk mail folder regularly. Any attachments may not be available via smart phone or tablet views.

Due to the current situation interviews are likely to be held via video link and full details will be sent to you should you be invited to an interview.

If you are applying for this position as a Job Share please indicate if you have a partner who is also applying for this vacancy and if you are successful but they are not if you would still consider the role.

For further information about Dstl please check out our LinkedIn page 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

This job is not open to candidates who hold a dual nationality.

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.

Company

The Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence. We bring together the top minds in government, industry and academia to keep our armed forces and the UK safe.

Our values are at the heart everything we do: we are innovative, collaborative and impactful.

There’s a lot more to us than white lab coats.

We also have cyber labs, wargaming teams, engineering workshops, trial areas and collaborative working spaces. Of course, we do have science labs too. We need them to do the vital research and sensitive project work that simply can’t be done anywhere else – and we are hiring!

At Dstl, you can learn and grow within one of our divisions (or experience multiple) with opportunities available within:

  • Cyber and Information Systems,
  • Platform Systems,
  • Exploration,
  • Counter-terrorism and Security,
  • Chemical, Biological and Radiological or
  • within one of our enabling divisions.

Interesting fact…not all of our employees have PHDs, Masters, or Degrees because we equally value experience and the right mindset. So, if you don’t have higher level qualifications we welcome your application and if you want to, we can help you to obtain qualifications to advance your career even more.

Already have the qualifications? We want to hear from you too!

As well as our on-going recruitment for experienced hires, our emerging talent recruitment calendar happens every year.  Our emerging talent opportunities are award winning, from being voted a top graduate and apprentice employer to having our own apprentices winning awards such as the prestigious Rising Star award.

At Dstl everyone is encouraged to thrive, succeed and achieve their ambitions, whatever their background, circumstances, experiences, or characteristics.

We achieve amazing things when we work together. We work hard to make sure everyone can be themselves at work, be heard, and reach their full potential.

We listen and share experiences through our active Employee Support Networks. They are run by our people and supported by our leaders.

Apply now to become part of the science, or the support behind it!

Company info
Telephone
01980 613000

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