Band 3 Structural Integrity Inspector

Office for Nuclear Regulation

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 4 weeks

Engineering

Flexible

£83,292 - £100,032 per year

Job summary

ONR is not a Civil Service department, however, we are an arms length body of Department of Work and Pensions.

Job Purpose

As the UK’s independent nuclear regulator, our mission is to ensure safe nuclear for a secure and sustainable future. ONR is changing with the sector: nuclear is set to play a central role in economic growth, energy security, national defence, decommissioning and the development of new technologies. Our role is to enable innovation and growth through proportionate, enabling regulation, while maintaining public confidence that the highest standards of nuclear safety, civil nuclear security, safeguards, and conventional health and safety are met across nuclear facilities in Great Britain.

This is an exciting role at a pivotal time for the UK nuclear sector. You will help regulate work that supports decarbonisation, energy security, national defence, new reactor technologies, fuel manufacture, decommissioning and waste management. A career with ONR offers the opportunity to shape how nuclear technology is used safely and securely, while contributing to a regulator that is becoming more modern, agile and productive.

Job description

As a Structural Integrity Inspector your work will be varied and strategically important. You are likely to undertake a range of roles across the sector, from assessing new reactor designs and advanced nuclear technologies to regulating construction, operational and decommissioning sites. Some inspectors undertake planned and reactive inspections at operational facilities, while others assess submissions, manage discrete intervention projects, conduct investigations, commission research, or mentor and develop the next generation of inspectors. Across these activities, you will help ONR deliver proportionate, enabling regulation that supports safe innovation and maintains public confidence.

As an ONR Structural Integrity Inspector, you will be concerned with the integrity of pressure vessels, pipework, tanks, and their supporting structures. For Light Water Reactors it includes the nuclear safety significant vessels including the reactor pressure vessel; associated pipework; and vessel internal structures. For chemical plants it includes the main processing vessels and pipework that contain radioactive materials. For advanced reactor technologies this will include molten salt and / or liquid metal cooled reactors.

We are looking for experts who not only have a specialism related to structural integrity, but those who have developed an understanding of the inter-relationship between stresses, materials, defects and degradation in structural integrity; the different aspects that contribute to a structural integrity safety case.

As well as providing guidance and advice in your specialism, you would need to be able to take the lead on the technical assessment of structural integrity aspects of safety cases and in making judgements on the adequacy of the safety case and site-based interventions.

Extensive training will be provided on the legal and regulatory aspects of the role, along with opportunities to continue to develop the expand and deepen knowledge in the specialist area and on a range of nuclear technologies

Line Management Responsibilities

None currently, however, there could be an expectation to manage staff in the future.

Location / Travel

This post may be undertaken from the closest ONR office (Bootle, Cheltenham, or London).

You may be eligible for relocation package up to £15,000.This post requires some travel including overnight stays predominantly across the United Kingdom and occasionally abroad. The successful applicant requires a full driving licence which permits the holder to drive in the UK unless reasonable adjustments can be made under the Equality Act 2010.

ONR operates hybrid working (working in the office and or at home) as part of our flexible working policy. There is an expectation that everyone will spend time in the office on a regular basis, recognising that some work is better done face to face. Managers will work with their teams on what works best to meet individual, team, business and organisational needs to enable collaboration, as well as balancing personal choice and wellbeing.

Work with Us

Our colleagues are from all walks of life with varied personal experiences and career journeys into ONR. We want the best people for our roles. As an inclusive employer we value individuals’ contributions, regardless of their age, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, social background, religion, or belief. Our values ‘supportive, open-mindedness, fairness and accountability’ are central to this. We invest in our people to build capability, resilience, and promote wellbeing in our great teams, underpinned by our inherent focus on inclusion and excellence.

Security Clearance

The successful candidate must hold or can achieve and retain National Security Vetting clearance at SC level.

Person Specification

Inclusion

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. We will consider reasonable adjustments to ensure the recruitment process is inclusive and barrier-free. If you require reasonable adjustments as part of your application, please contact ONR HR as soon as possible, preferably before the vacancy closes, by emailing ONR.Human-Resources@onr.gov.uk/ or Stephanie.Glen@onr.gov.uk to discuss further.

We will also offer an interview to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for applicants who opt into the guaranteed interview scheme.

We recognise we have a role to play in helping those leaving the Armed Forces and have a Veterans guaranteed interview scheme. We offer an interview to Veterans who meet the minimum criteria for applicants who opt into the scheme. Please see eligibility criteria below.

served for at least one year in His Majesty's Armed Forces (as a Regular or Reserve).
be in transition from, or ceased to be a member of, His Majesty’s Armed Forces.
not already be employed by ONR.

Person specification

Essential Skills / Experience

We are looking for specialists who can also take the lead on the overall assessment of a safety case or for people with specialist knowledge of one (or more) of the following areas.

Materials behaviour such as irradiation embrittlement, corrosion, creep, environmentally assisted fatigue and other ageing and degradation phenomena.
Non-destructive examination testing and inspection qualification processes such as ENIQ.
Casting, Forging, Welding, and fabrication including the production of high integrity pressure vessels, dissimilar metal joints etc. for nuclear or high hazard applications.
Knowledge of advanced manufacturing techniques, for example additive manufacture.
Knowledge of advanced reactor technologies; including molten salt and / or liquid metal cooled reactors.
Stress analysis and pressure vessel design code assessment to ASME III or RCCM.
Fracture mechanics assessments to R6, RSEM or similar assessment codes and high temperature assessment to the R5 procedure.
Graphite reactor core integrity including material degradation processes, and engineering analysis and simulation.

Desirable Skills / Experience

You should have experience of working in responsible positions in the nuclear sector in design, construction, operation, decommissioning or safety appraisal in a safety case environment, with preference given to candidates who can demonstrate a sound understanding of the current nuclear industry context and understanding of relevant principles and practices.

In addition to technical experience, candidates should have:

Proven effective judgement and decision-making skills, applying logical reasoning, and making effective and proportionate risk-based recommendations.
Good team working and communication skills to help us deliver our strategy.
Demonstrable strong influencing skills and an ability to persuade by working collaboratively and flexibly with all stakeholders, showing appropriate interpersonal sensitivity, self-awareness, and assertiveness.
Proven experience of balancing challenging and conflicting priorities, with resilience to flex to meet business needs.
Evidence of effective and professional behaviours throughout delivery of roles.
Confidence in the use of modern IT tools and applications.

ONR will consider applicants with a non-nuclear/non-high hazard background, who if appointed would undertake a structured nuclear equivalence process in order to reach Nuclear Safety Inspector level. Applicants should be aware that if individuals are appointed on this basis, they will be appointed on an alternative salary range whilst undergoing the equivalence process.

Qualifications

We expect Structural Integrity inspectors to have:

A good honours degree, or equivalent in a subject appropriate to the specialism, or the ability to demonstrate performance and experience at an equivalent professional level.
Chartered membership of a relevant professional institution, or the ability to demonstrate performance and/or experience at an equivalent professional level.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £83,292, Office for Nuclear Regulation contributes £24,129 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

An annual leave allowance of 25 plus 8 days public holiday. There is also an entitlement to 1 privilege day. Your annual leave allowance will increase by 1 day each year up to a maximum of 30 days.

Learning and development tailored to your role
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
A civil service pension

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

For more information about this vacancy please contact Mike Webb.

E – Michael.Webb@onr.gov.uk

How To apply

Please submit your application through the recruitment portal.

The closing date for receipt of applications is 30th September 2026 at 11:45

Your application should include:

CV to include a full record of your education and professional qualifications and a full employment history.
A suitability statement (maximum of 800 words) highlighting how you meet the ‘essential skills and experience” required for the role, which will be used at shortlisting in conjunction with your CV.
Where applicable highlight if you have any experience under ‘desirable skills and experience’ within the application form.

Throughout our shortlisting process, we will make decisions about your capability to do the job, based on evidence you provide against the essential criteria (and the desirable if applicable).

Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Important guidance when providing CV’s – please upload text-based CVs with no graphics or pictures to ensure the anonymisation function works correctly.

Please note - if whilst completing your application, you use special characters such as (‘; “- _ *) within your examples, Hireserve will convert these characters into symbols. We are currently unable to change this.

Whilst these examples will appear on your application, this will not prevent it from being reviewed at the shortlisting stage.

Please submit your application through the recruitment portal on the ONR website directly by clicking onto the link above apply at advertisers site where you can also download full job description.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a standard (or equivalent) criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.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 : Mike Webb
Email : Michael.Webb@onr.gov.uk

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Salary range

£83,292 - £100,032 per year