Head of Intelligence

at  Office for Environmental Protection

JOB SUMMARY

Do you have experience in assimilating information and developing intelligence products to help identify risks, issues and opportunities?
Can you use this information to produce intelligence products that informs better evidence-based decision making and supports the delivery of an organisational mission?
We are excited to be recruiting for a motivated, professional, Head of Intelligence to join the OEP’s Regulatory Directorate. This unique role will involve working across the whole organisation to help inform and enable our work through the effective management of our intelligence function – the purpose of which is bring together information from across the OEP and external sources, to add value through synthesis and analysis of what the information means for the OEP, by identifying risks, issues, opportunities and to produce intelligence products that informs better, evidence-based decision making, supporting the delivery of our mission.
The Office for Environmental Protection (the OEP) mission is to protect and recover the environment. Created by the Environment Act 2021, our role is to hold Government and public bodies to account. The OEP do this in several ways including reporting on progress against environmental targets, advising on changes to environmental laws and receiving complaints from the public which can lead to us taking enforcement action.
This role sits within the Regulatory Directorate, which is responsible for delivery of key functions as set out in the Environment Act. These are monitoring, investigating, and enforcing the implementation of environmental Law, and advising the government on the development of Law and other matters relating to the natural environment. The intelligence function plays a key role in identifying and supporting enforcement and reporting activity.
With a total staff of just over 80, we are a dynamic, friendly and flexible organisation covering both England, Northern Ireland, and environmental matters reserved to the UK government. We offer flexible working arrangements, high profile, dynamic work and the chance to have an impact on improving the state of the environment.
To find out more about the OEP, what we do, who we are and our current work, visit the OEP website .
The OEP is a non-departmental public body sponsored by Defra in England and DAERA in Northern Ireland which means it operates independently from Defra. Employees are public servants and as part of the benefits package, employees have the opportunity to enrol in the Civil Service Pension Scheme.

JOB DESCRIPTION

This is an exciting opportunity to work across the Regulatory Directorate and to support the delivery of the OEP’s key objectives; to contribute to environmental protection and improvement of the natural environment.
The Directorate is comprised of three teams – the Complaints and Investigations Team, the Monitoring Environmental Law and Advice Team, and the Intelligence Team.
The successful candidate will be responsible for setting strategic direction and leading and managing the overall performance of the Intelligence Team. This will include continuous improvements to the OEP’s intelligence management system and horizon scanning capabilities, and the design and implementation of new and emerging intelligence capabilities that will be advantageous to the OEP’s functions and mission. They will also ensure the team’s activities and outputs provide robust and evidence-based products to drive the effective implementation of environmental law by public authorities, support enforcement activity carried out by the Investigations team, and contribute to the delivery of the OEP’s strategy.
The post holder will work to the Chief Regulatory Officer and will have responsibility for ensuring relevant information is distributed across the OEP to inform decision making and priorities, and for co-ordinating and maintaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders across England and Northern Ireland.

The role holder will:

• Ensure delivery of the agreed outcomes of the Intelligence function. These are to; improve corporate memory, improve information flow across OEP, improve situational awareness, reduce blind spots and improve confidence in our decisions.
• Manage business-as-usual activities, including weekly source scanning to produce intelligence products and annual horizon scanning to support annual strategic priorities.
• Supervise and line manage one member of staff within the intelligence team.
• Ensure efficient management of the intelligence mailboxes and Intelligence Management System.
• Support projects OEP-wide through the commissioning of analysis and delivering results in multi-disciplinary forums.
• Identify opportunities for continuous improvement by acting on feedback to develop and evolve the Intelligence function and Intelligence Management System.
• Collaborate across the OEP to raise awareness and embed the intelligence function throughout the directorates and individual teams, to ensure that mechanisms are in place to share and receive valuable intelligence which will inform our work.

The above list of job duties is not exclusive or exhaustive and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Experience in managing and analysing large amounts of data from a range of sources to identify emerging issues and trends.

Benefits
Alongside your salary of £65,430, Office for Environmental Protection contributes £18,955 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

APPLICATION PROCESS

The OEP uses the Civil Service Success Profile framework which is made up of five elements: Behaviours, Strengths, Ability, Experience and Technical. It is strongly recommend you have a look at the Success Profiles to enable you to make the best application possible.
When writing or presenting behaviours, the OEP recommends you use the STAR format to present your answers (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV detailing qualifications and work history; a 750 word statement of suitability on how you meet the person specification outlined in the advert.
The personal statement is a very important part of your application. Review the person specification and essential experience and skills criteria on the job description and outline how you meet it providing specific and relevant examples. These could be from work, volunteering, training or education.
Further details are provided on the application form.

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)

The role holder will:

• Ensure delivery of the agreed outcomes of the Intelligence function. These are to; improve corporate memory, improve information flow across OEP, improve situational awareness, reduce blind spots and improve confidence in our decisions.
• Manage business-as-usual activities, including weekly source scanning to produce intelligence products and annual horizon scanning to support annual strategic priorities.
• Supervise and line manage one member of staff within the intelligence team.
• Ensure efficient management of the intelligence mailboxes and Intelligence Management System.
• Support projects OEP-wide through the commissioning of analysis and delivering results in multi-disciplinary forums.
• Identify opportunities for continuous improvement by acting on feedback to develop and evolve the Intelligence function and Intelligence Management System.
• Collaborate across the OEP to raise awareness and embed the intelligence function throughout the directorates and individual teams, to ensure that mechanisms are in place to share and receive valuable intelligence which will inform our work