Location

Birmingham, Leeds, London

About the job Summary

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. 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 we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Do you have a background in engineering or science?

Would you like to be at the forefront of developing environmental and safety standards for road vehicles, representing the UK in international expert groups, and delivering research programmes?

If so, these exciting opportunities as our Senior Technical Specialists are for you, and we’d love to hear from you.

Job description

The Department has three exciting opportunities within the International Vehicle Standards division (IVS). IVS lead the Department’s work in developing policy and technical regulations for safer, cleaner and quieter road vehicles (from e-scooters and pedal cycles to heavy-goods vehicles, tractors and off-road machinery). We are a team of experts in the fields of active and passive safety, automation, vehicle security (including cybersecurity), environmental performance, and vehicle approval. Taking an informed approach means we establish relationships across industry, universities and other organisations, and that we develop, commission and lead exciting and original programmes of work to shape our understanding.

We have three positions available at SEO level in the high-profile areas of innovative mobility and environmental standards.

Within the innovative mobility team, you will develop new approaches for enabling the safe and secure deployment of innovative technologies and vehicle designs on our roads. Your work will be varied, covering areas such as automation, connectivity, as well as more established systems (such as braking and steering) in the context of a variety of applications (from e-scooters and e-bikes to pods, shuttles and vehicles).

Within the environmental standards team you will be working to develop new technical standards to ensure that future vehicles are the cleanest ever, minimising their impact on air quality and public health. The work of the team covers a wide range of subject areas including pollutant emissions, vehicle noise and fuel standards, in addition to exciting new areas such as emissions from non-exhaust sources and battery standards for electric vehicles.
 

Responsibilities

Your role responsibilities will include:

Innovative mobility

Lead on the development and delivery of new approaches to safety assurance, and writing technical regulations, to enable the safe and secure deployment of innovative technologies and vehicle designs on GB roads.

Identify knowledge gaps and ways to fill those gaps through evidence gathering, research, and engagement with companies and experts at the forefront of innovative technologies, vehicle designs, and safety assurance. Where research is needed, to write proposals for, and oversee the delivery of, projects to address these needs.

Environmental standards

Lead on the development of new technical standards to improve the environmental performance of vehicles. Your work will be varied, including commissioning research to understand the potential of new technologies and inform policy making, developing and negotiating new technical standards in collaboration with our international counterparts and working with our agency partners to implement those standards.

For both roles you will:

• Support teams across the Department by providing expertise in vehicle technologies to assist in the delivery of objectives that uphold safety and environmental ambition whilst enabling innovation and growth within the UK.
• Identify and undertake training courses to develop subject knowledge.
• Providing expertise within the IVS division, demonstrating flexibility across other projects and technical areas where required.
• Represent the Department in meetings and conferences, including internationally, where required.
• Advising Ministers and senior officials as well as responding, in writing, to enquiries from members of the public and the media.

Special features of the role:

In order to successfully deliver IVS objectives, you may be required to travel within the UK and abroad. This will depend on developments on COVID-19 and Government travel advice.

About you

To be successful in this role, you will need the skills to:

• Quickly understand and appreciate complex technical information and systems, and be able to summarise this effectively for a given audience;
• Work effectively with a wide-range of different stakeholders, building relationships and collaborating where appropriate to achieve desired outcomes;
• Anticipate and be aware of changing political, economic, social, environmental and technological developments and react appropriately;
• See the bigger picture, maintaining a Government-wide perspective and looking for opportunities to bring together perspectives and achieve collective goals.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• GSE - Applying Knowledge
• GSE - Interfacing with Policy
• GSE - Technical project management

Benefits

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance.

Find out more about what it's like working at the Department for Transport.

Things you need to know Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

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, Experience and Technical skills.

We are closely monitoring the situation regarding the coronavirus, and will be following central Government advice as it is issued. There is therefore a risk that recruitment to this post may be subject to change at short notice. In addition, where appropriate, you may be invited to attend a video interview.

Please continue to follow the application process as normal and ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.

How to apply:

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

When considering your experience, please tailor your CV/Personal Statement to provide evidence of:

1) Working with complex technical (and perhaps conflicting) engineering or scientific information (such as but not limited to data, research findings and expert views) and using this information to draw conclusions and to make recommendations;
2) Delivery of work (such as, but not limited to, projects, research, briefings, presentations) to challenging deadlines;
3) Developing professional relationships, collaborating and influencing to deliver a piece of work.

The sift is due to take place w/c 8th November 2021

Interview/assessment will be held w/c 15th November 2021.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

The selection process will be designed specifically for the role. As a result, your assessment could include:

• an interview with one or more exercises

You’re encouraged to become familiar with the role profile, as you may be assessed against any of the criteria recorded within.

The Department for Transport alongside other Government Departments recruit using Success Profiles. This means for each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate in order to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

For further information on Success Profiles visit our Careers website.

Please see attached candidate notes for further information about our recruitment process.

Further Information

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section

To learn more about applying for a role within the Department for Transport, visit the Application Process page of our Careers website.

Before submitting your application, we encourage you to visit our Things You Need to Know page for further information about applying for a role within the Department for Transport and the Civil Service.

Throughout this job advert there are links to the DfT Careers website, which provides you further information to support your application. Should you be unable to access the information on our website, please email [email protected] for assistance.

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

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)
• 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

Further information on nationality requirements

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.

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants Job contact : Name :   Dr David Miles Email :   [email protected]   Recruitment team : Email :   [email protected] Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact Government Recruitment Services via email: [email protected] If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website at https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk