Occupational Health Manager Ref. 3880

Flexible working: Due to the nature of this role, home working will not be possible. We recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance, which is why we offer flexible working options, including part-time and compressed hours, with flexibility around start and finish times.

About us
MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners, including MI6 and GCHQ, to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you’ll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.

The role
As the Occupational Health Manager, you’ll lead the on-site occupational health team, translating the department’s priorities into effective support that protects and promotes occupational health and wellbeing across the organisation. With plenty of unique challenges, you’ll enjoy day-to-day variety as you support colleagues in carrying out their mission-critical work safely.

You’ll oversee occupational health service delivery and take a proactive approach to health risk management, including designing and updating standards and ensuring practice remains evidence-based.

Day to day, you’ll lead complex casework, produce management reports and provide timely advice in line with relevant standards and legislation. You’ll also play an important role in developing the OH team, holding regular reviews, maintaining professional competency across the team and supporting new starters as they settle into their roles.

Collaboration will be an important part of your role. You’ll work closely with colleagues across Wellbeing, Safety and Psychology as well as other healthcare specialists and partners such as HR. There’ll be opportunities to spend time with different teams, helping you get to know the organisation and better understand the colleagues you’ll be supporting. By building these relationships, you’ll help ensure Occupational Health provides a connected and effective service that colleagues across the organisation can understand and can access.

Occasional UK travel may be required and, subject to business needs, there may also be opportunities for overseas travel.

About you
You’ll be registered with NMC on Parts 1 and 3 and hold either a PG Dip, degree or master’s in Occupational Health. You’ll bring extensive knowledge of occupational health and employment legislation, along with experience leading and developing an occupational health team, ideally in a multidisciplinary environment.

You’ll be confident managing complex and varied caseloads involving both physical and mental health matters, using sound judgement and analytical skills to make evidence-based decisions and provide effective solutions. Your leadership skills will enable you to support and develop your team, while balancing the needs of individuals with those of the organisation.

Training and development
When you start, you’ll receive an organisation induction and be paired with a buddy to help you settle in. We’re proud to offer an inclusive and supportive working environment and are committed to helping colleagues develop both professionally and personally.

From a wide range of courses through our internal training academy to opportunities to build on your professional qualifications, we’re committed to supporting your ongoing development. This could be furthering your management skills or funding for job-specific training such as refreshers in audiology, spirometry, vision screening and HAVS (Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome).

Rewards and benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary of £67,073, plus other benefits including:

• 25 days’ annual leave rising to 30 days after five years' service, plus an additional 10.5 days of public and privilege holidays
• opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• a dedicated development budget
• an interest-free season ticket loan
• an excellent pension scheme
• a cycle to work scheme
• facilities such as a subsidised gym, restaurant, and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• paid parental and adoption leave

Equal opportunities
At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions.

We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce. such as women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity and inclusion on our website.

We’re Disability Confident
MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions’ Disability Confident scheme. This scheme encourages employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position are offered an interview, where it is practical for us to do so. This is known as the Offer of an Interview (OOI) scheme.

To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria. in order of application process, are:

1. You’ll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses criteria important for all roles in our organisation.

At application sift, you’ll be assessed against the following minimum criteria:

2. Experience of leading and managing an Occupational Health service or team, including responsibility for service delivery, people management, and clinical leadership within an Occupational Health setting.

3. Ability to make evidence-based decisions, effectively manage complex Occupational Health casework, and build productive working relationships with employees, managers, HR teams, and other stakeholders.

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best. See our website for information on the reasonable adjustments and support we can offer.

What to expect
Our recruitment process is fair, transparent and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

1. An initial online application form including pre-screening questions to ensure you meet our eligibility criteria
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) in which you rate the appropriateness of responses to a series of short scenarios
3. Interview, including technical and competency-based questions
4. If successful, you’ll receive a conditional offer of employment and progress to the vetting stage of the process

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 to 9 months to process, including vetting, so we advise you to continue your current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before you apply
To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Find out more about the vetting process.

Please note that we have a strict drugs policy. Once you start your application, you must not take any recreational drugs, and you’ll need to declare your previous drug use at the relevant stage of the process.

Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying information in your email address, such as your first name, surname or date of birth. This is good practice and will help you manage your application with us more securely.

The role is based in London, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application. An interest-free loan is available to assist with relocating into privately rented accommodation to take up the offer of employment.

We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in-person appointments during the recruitment and vetting process. Full details will be provided with your interview or assessment invitation.

Reimbursement is discretionary and will only be provided in accordance with the Candidate Expenses Policy, as amended from time to time. Candidates must book their own travel using the most economical option and provide original hard copy receipts for reimbursement.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK before launching an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, with anyone other than your partner or a close family member.

Right to withdraw statement:
Please be aware that we reserve the right to close applications once a certain number have been received. Please submit your application as soon as possible to avoid missing out.

If you have a disability (as defined under the Equality Act 2010) and need additional time to complete your application, please submit your initial application. Then contact us via the email address provided as soon as possible, using the subject line “Reasonable Adjustments Extension” and briefly outline the support you require.