CBRN Operational Technology Lead
| Posting date: | 22 July 2024 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £39,439 to £47,039 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National: £39,439 - £43,569 London: £42,577 - £47,039. For details of our pay on appointment policy, please see below under the heading ‘Salary’. |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 19 August 2024 |
| Location: | Stafford |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 361521/5 |
Summary
Our team vision is to be prepared, adaptable and resilient in reinforcing the UK's ability to manage CBRN incidents, drawing together national and international expertise to deliver CBRN recovery coordination and remediation, addressing the ever-changing threat of CBRN incidents.
The team are currently reviewing our Radiological and Nuclear Recovery strategy, determining how the UK will coordinate cross-Government recovery activities and deliver monitoring, remediation (including decontamination) and waste management in the event of a major malicious or accidental release of radiological or nuclear materials.
The team are delivering a programme of policy development and applied scientific research and development in partnership with other government departments and agencies to improve the country’s ability to recover from a CBRN incident or nuclear accident.
We are looking for an Operational Delivery lead to drive the transition of new technologies developed using government funded research and development programmes into operational use. The successful candidate will also help develop access to existing operational capabilities across the public and private sectors, improving the resilience of planned recovery operations working closely with commercial specialists within Defra and other government departments.
Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) incidents, resulting from malicious use by terrorist groups or state actors, civil nuclear accidents or spills of hazardous materials, present significant recovery challenges. An area contaminated with a CBRN agent could remain dangerous, unhabitable and a serious public health risk if not dealt with appropriately. It also means that CBRN incidents, whether accidental or malicious, can cause serious issues when affecting critical sites.
Defra is the Lead Government Department (LGD) for Recovery from CBRN incidents in England. Defra is also responsible for the provision of remediation (including decontamination) capabilities for incidents which overwhelm local arrangements for the whole of the UK and its overseas territories.
Defra CBRN Recovery Policy & Operations Team are looking for a Technology Transfer lead. This is a new, exciting, stretching post with the opportunity to challenge assumptions and shape development of new technological solutions to decontamination challenges. We are looking for someone enthusiastic and interested in this fascinating operational delivery area.
The CBRN Recovery Policy & Operations Team sits within the Flood, Water and CBRN Emergencies Division. The division is a fast paced and high-profile team at the heart of Defra’s contingency planning, working closely with resilience teams across government, scientists and engineers, operational leads, communications colleagues, Private Offices and Ministers.
- We prepare for the recovery following the release of CBRN material into the open or built environment, and the recovery of the environment from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents and accidents.
- We plan for and respond to natural hazards such as flooding and drought
- We lead on risk management and planning for threats to water supply and lead on incidents working closely with the water sector and other sector leads across government.
- We also coordinate Defra’s interests in other incidents such as flooding and water security issues, working across the Defra Group to understand risks and provide ministers with advice, consistent and timely information during an emergency.
The work will require developing close working relationships with innovators in government and industry, identifying opportunities for commercial exploitation of new technologies and options for maintaining new technologies at a state of readiness for use in the event of an incident.
The Flood, Water and CBRN Emergencies team consists of 28 permanent staff based in London, Bristol, Manchester, Crewe and Stafford.
Responsibilities
The successful candidate will be responsible for developing and leading technology transfer within Defra, in close partnership with Defra’s CBRN science team and other government agencies. Defra’s CBRN Recovery strategy is currently being refreshed, and so the successful candidate will have significant influence on Defra’s future direction and resilience in this space. This will include identifying operational gaps and working with the science team to address these by operationalising new technologies. Some of these technologies will be the outputs from research conducted by the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). In the medium term, other technologies developed by industry will need to be operationalised for CBRN recovery applications and for commercial exploitation more generally. The successful candidate will help government access these technologies in a timely fashion, developing effective partnerships across sectors of the economy.
This is an exciting, stretching post with the potential to have a real-world impact during high-profile incidents of significant public, political and media interest. As such, we are looking for someone who is strong across the SEO behaviours with the ability to develop strong relationships with industrial partners, who has strong commercial awareness and an understanding of the operational challenges posed by CBRN incidents. The successful candidate must be able to successfully influence key stakeholders (including industry specialists and international partners), be capable of understanding and communicating information to a non-technical audience, confident in building networks as well as see the bigger cross-HMG picture. Strong written, reasoning, and verbal communication skills are a must.
As part of the Floods, Water and CBRN Emergencies team the successful candidate should also expect to work closely with members of the wider team and other Defra teams during major incidents such as flooding. Given the nature of our work we need members of the team to be willing to work unsociable hours when the need arises. You will also be expected to part of our out of hours duty rota – you will be compensated for this role. The minimum expected commitment for this post is 3-years.