Platform Equipment Delivery Team

Job summary

The Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA) is a part of the Ministry of Defence responsible for the procurement, in-service support, and disposal of the UK’s nuclear submarines. Our work is of unparalleled strategic importance nationally and internationally, ensuring the security of the UK’s continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent (CASD), and delivering some of the most technically complex programmes in defence. At least one of four nuclear-armed submarines, supported by smaller attack submarines, is on patrol at all times: 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

At the SDA, we strive to Support, Deliver and Aspire and put our values at the heart of our recruitment process. We believe that everyone should feel comfortable to be themselves and be supported to do their best work. As part of a diverse and inclusive workforce, our team will find a community to belong to. We believe that, by celebrating different backgrounds and different perspectives, together we’ll achieve the extraordinary.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

The primary delivery location for this position is Bristol Abbey Wood.

Please note, due to the level of security, this role is reserved for UK nationals only.

Job description

The role requires strong leadership, portfolio management, project delivery experience, with an engineering background and commercial expertise to provide and maintain approximately 38000 equipment's and components that is ‘safe to operate’, in accordance with the regulatory requirements, and within a fast-paced, challenging portfolio. Therefore, while not exhaustive, the following capabilities and demonstrable competence will be required for successful execution of the Platform Equipment Delivery Team (PEDT) Head role:

Team Leadership: Lead drive, management of the PEDT Team circa 100 individuals, including Civil Servants, military personnel, and contractors, drawn from all the SDA professions, (Commercial team are managed centrally but embedded into the Delivery Team). The team are predominately based in MOD ABW but with a small number in HMNB Devonport (Plymouth), and an individual in Barrow-in-Furness. The PEDT Head is responsible for reporting, performance management, absence management, welfare, recruitment, coaching/mentoring and supporting career development of their 4 direct reports.

Stakeholder Management:As a senior stakeholder, working collaboratively and influencing directors and leveraging subject matter experts, across the SDA the enterprise (DNE), National Armaments Director Group (NADG), Industrial Partners, and Navy Command (NC) – to promote coherence, drive consistency, combined effectiveness, leadership, collaboration and excellence. The ability to promote, drive coherence, consistency, and combined effectiveness, operating in a complex uncertainty and ambiguous platform equipment and through-life environment, while leveraging subject matter experts to support the interests of national endeavour.

Strategy, Approvals & Projects: Working alongside SDA enabling teams where appropriate, e.g. commercial, finance, accountable for PEDT future strategy, business operations (planning and reporting), monitor performance of supply chain assurance and compliance and their associated risks, portfolio management and governance, of a wide variety of approvals and contracts being replaced with performance focused Equipment Authorities (EA) arrangements with industry to recover spares availability, improve reliability, reduce obsolescence and professional management of our Submarine assets through life.

Financial Management: Working alongside the Senior Finance Business Partner (FBP) to manage the PEDT finances, an annual budget of circa £100M. With a delegation, Approving Authority for business cases up to £100M pa for the provision of submarine spares and associated services. Ensuring throughout the PEDT budget is planned, managed, and aligned to UKs Defence budgetary processes e.g. business cases, reporting, and ensuring costs are within approved limits.

Commercial Management: Collaborate with the central commercial team to manage the PEDT programme of work contracts and extensions (circa 25 contracts), including preparing follow-on agreements, to meet the customer need for inventory, equipment support and through life management.

Risk Management: Work with senior stakeholders across DNE and industry to manage risk, issues and opportunities, including effective control and mitigation, of the PEDT programme and identifying impacts to the SDA in-service programme.

Information Asset Management: Ensure proper handling of nuclear information across the Defence Nuclear Enterprise, including suppliers and other departments, to maintain governance, and compliance, including PEDT information asset owner (IAO).

The systems and equipment managed by PEDT are varied and range in size and complexity, include: Atmosphere Control and Monitoring, Platform Mechanical Systems, including Secondary Propulsion, Heavy Electrical, Control & Indication, Platform Digital Systems to include Platform Management Systems, Internal Communications, Motion Control, and Escape & Rescue.

Other responsibilities​:

• ​Regular reporting up to SDA Technical Director, Director Submarine Support (DSMS) and Director Submarine Acquisition (DSMA) through routine delivery reviews, SDA executive, performance, and programme management boards.
• Demonstrate compliance with MOD and SDA safety, quality, environmental and technical policies, including the provision of Equipment and System Authority responsibilities as required.
• Demonstrate through Life technical and materiel aspects of a robust and comprehensive asset management regime for equipment within their scope of supply.
• Act as owner of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) and National Armaments Director Group (NADG) service-level agreement for Power, Propulsion and Auxiliaries.
• Act as chair of Submarine In-Service Supply Chain Management Board.
• SDAs representative at the Defence Electronics and Components Agency (DECA) Steering Committee.
• A senior leader, member of the following Groups and Committees:
• SDA Engineering committee,
• SDA Security and Resilience Committee,
• SDA Safety and Environmental Committee,
• SDA Supply Chain Acquisition Review,
• SDA Category Management Steering Group.

Personal Skills

• Develop and deliver strategies for portfolios and directorates, ensuring continuous improvement and learning from experience.
• Drive performance management to create an agile, capable, and high-performing team.
• Provide innovative solutions to complex problems and support senior leaders in making strategic decisions.
• Broad knowledge of MOD practices and the UK nuclear sector, with the ability to apply experience to new contexts.
• Work effectively in a fast-paced, high-profile environment, maintaining agility and resilience.
• Uphold integrity, policies, and processes while challenging leadership, delivering technical expertise, and striving for excellence.
• Help develop clear strategies, agreements, and priorities, considering political, economic, social, environmental, and technological factors.
• Foster a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and knowledge sharing, promoting personal and professional development for all.
• Take a strategic approach to identifying current and future organisational capability needs.

If you need to contact Defence Business Services (DBS) regarding this vacancy, please indicate that your vacancy is being handled by the SDA Recruitment Team. If you experience any technical difficulties with the CS Jobs system, please contact the Support Team at candidate@support.oleeo.com

Person specification

Please provide evidence of the following criteria in your Supporting Statement:

Essential Criteria:

• Proven success in leading and delivering complex programmes or portfolios within regulated environment, maintaining a sustained focus on performance and effective outcomes, throughout challenging delivery phases, including experience across the full engineering product lifecycle.
• A collaborative and inclusive leader with experience operating at senior management level, successfully delivering business unit or directorate outputs and contributing to organisational strategies, within a complex enterprise.
• Strong senior stakeholder management, collaborating, seeking innovation, and building consensus with a wide range of stakeholders (including partner organisations, customers, external partners – regulators, across government, and senior industry representatives) to optimise support solutions, resolve complex supply‑chain challenges that ensures the availability and reliability of critical submarine platform equipment – delivering successful outcomes for the interests of the national endeavour.
• Demonstrate value-based leadership, with a commitment to diversity and inclusion, and experience in developing, motivating and performance-managing high-performing multidisciplinary teams. Skilled in fostering a psychologically safe, positive, and work environment.
• Demonstrate experience in leading and driving organisational change through to implementation, to embed new cultures and behaviours; to improve readiness and performance; to identify interdependencies and opportunities across multiple issues, shaping and driving strategic transformation initiatives.
• Proven evidence of managing financial/budgetary responsibility in either industry or Government contexts.

Essential Memberships / Qualifications:

• Chartered Professional in either Engineering or Project /Programme Management.

Memberships

Chartered Professional in either Engineering or Project /Programme Management.

Evidence of the Membership will be required at interview.

All memberships declared must be held at point of application and be in date.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Discover My Benefits: Please follow the link to visit the Discover My Benefits site which showcases the benefits and discounts offered when working as a civilian for the MOD: https://discovermybenefits.mod.gov.uk/civilian/

This post does not offer any assistance with Relocation Allowances.

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

Shortlisting

All applications must include the following:

• A CV (1250 word limit) setting out your career history, full qualification details and previous skills/experience with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
• A separate Supporting Statement (1250 word limit) providing clear evidence of how you meet the Essential Criterialaid out in the Person Specification.

To apply for this role please provide your CV and personal statement through the application steps on the CS jobs website.

Please see the candidate pack attached for further details of the job role.

As part of the application process, you are asked to complete a Diversity Monitoring questionnaire provided. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the characteristics, you have the option to select 'prefer not to say' but completion of the form is a mandatory part of the process, and your application will not be considered complete without it.

Any data collected in this section will be reported in an anonymous and aggregate format and will not be seen by anyone assessing your application.

All applications will be reviewed by the selection panel who will consider the evidence provided by the candidates against the essential criteria to determine a shortlist, with the strongest candidates being invited to the interview process at Abbey Wood, Bristol. Full details of the selection and assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates.

Due to the volume of the applications we receive we will not provide feedback to applicants who are unsuccessful at the shortlist stage.

Assessment

• Candidates shortlisted will be invited to an interview which will include the requirement to prepare a presentation for which they will normally be given at least one week’s notice of the subject.

Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates.

Candidates shortlisted will be invited to an interview with:
•Claire Johnson (Technical Director)
•Rear Admiral Boyes (Director of Submarine Support)
•Katherine Budden (DNE Deputy HR Director)

The sift will be completed within 10 working days of the vacancy closing date. Interviews will be held on a date to be confirmed.

SDA reserves the right to make any offer of appointment conditional upon references and satisfactory conclusion of security enquiries.

By applying for this role, SDA will also consider your application for other suitable roles within the organisation for a 12-month period from the closing date of the original campaign.

Requests to work flexibly will be considered, taking into account business needs.

All employees joining Ministry of Defence who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a 6-month probation period (unless otherwise advised) effective from the employment start date.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Developed Vetting.

To be considered for this role, qualifications and/or memberships detailed must be held in full, prior to submitting your application.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. It is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system.

Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The post does NOT offer relocation expenses (move of home, excess fares or temporary transfer). Non-Standard move applicants will be eligible for the full package, subject to eligibility.

This vacancy is part of the A Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. Making the Civil Service a Great Place to Work for Veterans - GOV.UK

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact DBSFPCP-SRMResourcingSDA@mod.gov.uk

SDA Reward Offer - Working for SDA - Submarine Delivery Agency - GOV.UK

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for its staff which includes educating them on the benefits of not smoking, protecting them from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke and supporting those who want to give up smoking. Under the Smoke-Free Working Environment policy, Smoking and the use of all tobacco products (including combustible and chewing tobacco products) will not be permitted anywhere in the Defence working environment. The policy is Whole Force and includes all Defence personnel, contractors, visitors and other non-MOD personnel. All applicants seeking, considering, or accepting employment with the Ministry of Defence should be aware of this policy and that it is already in place at a number of Defence Establishments.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 4 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (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.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) 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 (opens in a new window).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.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

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 : SDA-TD-OuterOffice@mod.gov.uk
• Email : SDA-TD-OuterOffice@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DBSFPCP-SRMResourcingSDA@mod.gov.uk

Further information

Please see Further Information document.

Attachments

Defence Civil Service Offer Opens in new window (pdf, 1562kB)20241009 - Further Information - External Opens in new window (docx, 38kB)20260331-PEDT Head Candidate Pack-Final Opens in new window (pdf, 1825kB)