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As the UK’s independent nuclear regulator, our mission is to ensure safe nuclear for a secure and sustainable future. Our primary role is to ensure the highest standard of nuclear safety, civil nuclear security and safeguards, and conventional health and safety are maintained at nuclear facilities across our nation.

As an inspector your job will be varied, and you are likely to undertake a range of regulatory roles across the sector: from regulating the construction of new nuclear build to the decommissioning of legacy facilities. Some inspectors focus on undertaking planned and reactive inspections on site, while others will assess safety submissions or manage discrete intervention projects. Additionally, there may be opportunities to conduct investigations, manage research projects, support our international work, and mentor staff to help us develop the next generation of inspectors.

About The Role

You will be a specialist inspector within our Fault Analysis profession and you will be primarily concerned with assessing the dutyholder’s safety case and arrangements to identify and protect against fault conditions that could arise at their installation. This includes assessment of whether a dutyholder has appropriately identified faults, undertaken analysis of their progression and potential consequences, and has identified suitable and sufficient safety measures to prevent or mitigate them.

The Fault Analysis profession is made up from three specialisms: Fault Studies, Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA) and Fuel & Core. We welcome candidates with skills and experience across these but this opportunity is primarily focussed on the PSA specialism. Your work will be varied and will include conducting detailed technical assessments of PSA models, assessing dutyholder arrangements for developing and using PSA, influencing improvements when you identify shortfalls, and identifying risk insights from PSA to share with other inspectors.

Job description

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

The key skills required of the role are as follows:

In-depth knowledge of a wide range of PSA techniques and methodologies, including awareness of national and international standards for developing and assessing PSA.
Experience of developing, reviewing or acting as an intelligent customer for PSA models and supporting studies for complex high hazard facilities such as nuclear power plants.
Experience with using PSA results and probabilistic insights to risk inform judgements in complex situations, balancing insights from the PSA against insights and requirements from other areas. This could include experience with application of PSA to activities such as safety case development, modifications, design development, operations or decision making.
Knowledge of one or more nuclear or other high hazard facilities, examples include: light water reactors, advanced gas cooled reactors, liquid metal or liquid salt reactor systems, other Generation IV reactors types, nuclear fuel manufacturing or reprocessing plants, or other high hazard activities.
The ability to assimilate, analyse and provide judgements on new and complex technical issues, clearly and concisely.
Strong communication, decision making and influencing skills. With the ability to see the bigger picture, targeting and prioritising work, based on risk.
Confidence in the use of modern Microsoft-based IT tools and applications.

Desirable Skills / Experience

As you will be part of the wider Fault Analysis profession, in addition to PSA skills, we would also welcome the following:

Experience with other aspects of Fault Analysis, such as Design Basis Analysis, Severe Accident Analysis or other forms of deterministic safety assessment. Experience or knowledge of nuclear fuel and reactor core performance and safety analysis or radiological consequences would also be welcome.
Experience of non-reactor facilities, other high hazard industries, or in other regulatory regimes (e.g. outside of the UK).

Qualifications

We expect all Nuclear Safety Inspectors to have:

A degree level qualification or equivalent in engineering, physical sciences, mathematics, or a related discipline.
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 Further Information

For more information about this vacancy please correct Matt Worsley.

E: Matthew.Worsley@onr.gov.uk

How To apply

Please submit your application through the recruitment portal.

The closing date for receipt of applications is 21st August 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 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 : Matt Worsley
Email : Matthew.Worsley@onr.gov.uk

Salary range

£83,292 - £100,032 per year