Principal Safety Case Engineer
Abingdon Rd, Culham, UK
Full-time
Department: Office of Chief Engineers
Salary: £66,897 to £70,874 (inclusive of MPP) + excellent benefits including outstanding pension
Confirmed Grade: Level 6*
Site Location: UKAEA Culham, Oxfordshire

Company Description

In 2017 the Chief Engineers Unit formed into the Office of the Chief Engineer. This expanded from an initial focus on JET to the provision of technical governance for all UKAEA facilities and engineering works in line with our organisation’s diversifying portfolio of plant and activities at the forefront of fusion power development.

The Office of the Chief Engineer provides technical governance for the full lifecycle of all UKAEA’s engineering activities, providing the ‘Engineering Authority’ is important to realising effective, safe technical outcomes. This post is based within the Safety Case Engineering Group strand of the Office of the Chief Engineer. The Safety Case Engineering Group is responsible for the production of all of UKAEA’s safety cases and is pivotal in the assessment of high hazard operations with both a radiological and non-radiological hazard.

As we work towards our mission and goals, UKAEA has devised values that capture the spirit of how we work. These values include being: Innovative, Committed, Trusted and Collaborative.

Job Description

Who are we looking for:

The UKAEA is looking for a Principal Safety Case Engineer who will advise on strategies for the development of safety cases, ensuring fit for purpose and timely submission of the relevant safety case documentation against UKAEA’s programme and ensure regulatory compliance.

As a member of the Safety Case Engineering Group, the post-holder is a role model within UKAEA and will be held to high behavioural standards. The key values, as agreed by members of the Engineering Authority are integrity and honesty; accessibility and visibility; empowering and enabling; proportionate and targeted; learning and improving.

To be successful in this role you will need to be comfortable making decisions on the ALARP position of arguments, acting as a champion of pragmatism, challenge / speaking up and appropriate levels of rigour. This will require you to be able to review large amounts of technical engineering data while remaining cognisant of the ‘bigger’ picture.

Your responsibilities

- Establish our practices and processes. Remit to identify, influence and lead continual improvement to ensure that UKAEA Safety Cases retain an appropriate degree of alignment with licensed sites and reflect best practices across the industry (both fission and fusion)
- Advise on the identification, competency requirements and appointment of UKAEA safety-related roles. Scrutiny and expert advice on the development and maintenance of Safety Cases for UKAEA Facilities
- Proactively influence, communicate, transfer knowledge and coach the desired culture for UKAEA Safety Cases (working with ATO holders, developing engineers within the organisation)
- Champion integration of safety cases with technical change
- Externally represent UKAEA in relevant, high-impact industrial forums (e.g. Safety Directors Forum Safety Case Group)
- Benchmark and extend the Authority to keep pace with emerging industry trends (from fission and high hazard industrial plants)

Qualifications

Qualifications & Experience

Essential:

- Degree Level Science or Engineering Qualification (or equivalent experience)
- Extensive demonstrable experience in Safety Case Production
- Extensive experience in performing Design Basis Analysis (DBA) and Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA)
- HAZAN (hazard identification and analysis), FMECA (Failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis) and Safety Case Writers training
- Extensive experience of relevant industry regulations, working alongside and communicating with specialists within Human Factors and Engineering Substantiation.
- Able to be both detail-oriented & consider ‘bigger’ picture, dependent on the situation

Desirable:

- Comfortable with decision making and effective in delegation
- Personal resilience (determination, able to work under pressure, comfortable with differences of opinion and able to mediate)
- Via formal logic, self-awareness and knowledge of biases, able to influence and persuade others to alternate points of view
- Leadership of a highly technical team

Additional Information

Our comprehensive benefits package includes a vibrant culture committed to being fully inclusive, an Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders, Flexible working, Emergency paid leave, Generous annual leave (30.5 days) increased with length of service, wide range of career development opportunities, defined benefit pension scheme; Corporate bonus and a Relocation allowance (if eligible).

We welcome applications from under-represented groups, particularly from individuals from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds, including nationality and citizenship, people with disabilities and women. UKAEA is actively promoting EDI and taking steps to increase the diversity of our people through reinforcing best practice in recruitment and selection, and revaluating approaches where it is clear we can remove barriers to success.

This vacancy is due to close on 07/12/2022. We may close earlier than this date if with sufficient numbers of applications.

Employees working at the UK Atomic Energy Authority will be required to complete an online Disclosure Certificate application as part of their clearance - The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks will show the details of all current criminal convictions.

Applicants who are applying for employment with UKAEA either from outside the United Kingdom or who have spent time outside the United Kingdom in the last five years. Please visit the UK Government website. If the country you are resident in or have resided in is not listed on this website or that the UK Government is not aware of how to obtain a criminal records check from that state then we are unable to process your application.