Personnel Security and Vetting Administration Officer

Job summary

This is an exciting time to work in the Department of Business & Trade (DBT), a department at the heart of the UK’s relationship with the global economy. Our role is to promote and enable UK trade globally by supporting businesses to take advantage of the appetite for British goods and services around the world, attracting foreign companies and investment to our shores, and helping international companies collaborate with UK suppliers. DBT aims to deliver a step change in UK trade and investment. Digital services, data and technology are central to the department’s ability to meet its objectives. The DBT Security Team is split into 3 main teams supporting the security strategy of DBT. The core security team deals with the day to day running of DBT but with a forward look to upcoming risks and threats to enable the ongoing support of DBT’s business plan. The Trade Negotiations Security Team deals specifically with supporting the ambitious programme of trade negotiations that DBT will be rolling out. This role sits in the core security team but as a subject matter expert will be expected to support colleagues across the other two teams as well as the wider business. This role supports the Personnel Security department within the core team. The role will monitor and triage the main security email inbox and will also be responsible for triaging all emails specifically for Personnel Security. In addition, you will be expected to minute vetting meetings as required by the team and to provide admin support for the confirmation of clearances regarding pass applications and transfers in and out.

Job description

As an Admin Officer in Personnel Security, you will undertake the following duties /responsibilities: you will provide high quality administrative support to the department and relevant senior managers.

Ensure that the Team mailboxes are managed appropriately and that all queries are responded to in a timely manner. You will support the Personnel Security Advisor in delivery of National Security Vetting, Vetting Aftercare and appeals process’ and Insider Risk training sessions. You will support the travel briefings and approvals process working towards being able to deliver sessions independently. You will support building access requests by reviewing building pass requests across the department and all locations.

You will undertake secretariat function in support of any governance process or steering groups established in support of Personnel Security, including maintaining the Personnel Security actions logs and risk register. And additionally support the team in the development, and management of ongoing role mapping.

You are required to effectively communicate policies, processes, and guidance to all relevant stakeholders.

Assuming responsibility for updates Intranet pages, policies, and processes.

The team must record and manage security incidents and trends to contribute to the effective planning, delivery of other projects and administrative tasks, as necessary.

You must continually explore and undertake personal and professional development opportunities. And understand that this is not an exhaustive list.

• Action new clearance requests including any transfers and shares in a timely manner, from receipt.
• Cover email inbox - Monitor the inbox by answering queries from staff and security teams across government.
• Confirm clearances with other government vetting teams.
• Draft and send emails and confirmation of security clearances maintaining consistency.
• Authorise access remotely to staff who require immediate access to secure areas within the building and to visitors requiring day access and assist in the printing of passes as required.
• Check and evaluate clearance applications in, out and pending on a weekly basis.
• Liaise with other departments and teams to conduct further enquiries on Security queries.
• You will be required to deliver at pace, while multitasking and balancing several competing tasks and deadlines
• You will be required to communicate with pace and professionalism with all levels of seniority and officials across the department
• You will be expected to be able to identify messages which are business critical and understand how to escalate accordingly.
• Actioning Vetting requests – new clearance requests, transfers and shares as required.
• Maintain security database, registering any changes to staff clearances – Data entry of staff clearances ensuring accurate information (including clear case notes) is entered and updated on the security database.
• Provide People Data Updates – you will be able to sanitise vetting information and update other teams with limited need to know data.
• Professionalism – this role will be a part of the HMG security profession, and you will need to continually refresh and develop professional skills, maintaining a current understanding of the latest thinking in security.
• Ad-hoc tasks – This is not an exhaustive list. As part of this role, you will be asked to help with a range of projects across the security team.

Person specification

Essential Skills:

The below criteria are essential and will be assessed at application stage.

• Experience of and a high level of competence in, administrative tasks gained through working in an office-based or other relevant environment (private/public sector).
• Experience of stakeholder management and customer service provision.
• An understanding of the principles of data protection and a strong commitment to confidentiality and discretion when handling sensitive personal or organisational data.
• A high level of competence with MS Office365 products, including MS Word and MS Excel.
• Demonstrable ability to deliver at pace while managing and delivering multiple tasks

Desirable Skills:

The below criteria are desirable only. These will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process, but will be used in the event of tied scores between candidates.

• Previous experience of Personnel Security National Security Vetting processes and policy.
• Handling Vetting aftercare and Appeal processes.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £29,640, Department for Business and Trade contributes

£8,586 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).

• 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%

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Interviews for this vacancy will be conducted virtually. We will, however, consider in-person interviews by exception.

Please ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.

To apply for this post, you will be asked to complete the following as part of the online application:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages.
• A Personal Statement of up to 750 words, explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential criteria.

Your application will be sifted against the Experience criteria of the Civil Service Success Profiles.

We aim to sift both the CV and the Personal Statement but, in the event of a large number of applicants, an initial short sift may be conducted on the Personal Statement only. Candidates who pass the initial sift of the Personal Statement will either progressed to a full sift where the CV is then assessed, or progressed straight to further assessment/interview.

Candidates who pass the sift will be invited to interview, where we will assess you on the Success Profiles elements of Behaviours and Strengths .

It is likely that the sift will take place 1-2 weeks after the closing date and interviews 3-5 weeks after the closing date, though this is subject to change.

Please note, following a recent change to the Machinery of Government, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will be renamed to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) as of 20th July 2026. BIST will connect the UK’s world-class science and technology base directly to the businesses, places and workers that will drive good growth across the country. Such changes will not affect the selection process for this campaign; however, we wanted to take this opportunity to advise you of the recent changes to our department.

You can find further information here regarding recent governmental changes Machinery of Government changes: Fact Sheet - GOV.UK .

Reasonable Adjustments

We are committed to supporting candidates so they can perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. This includes making reasonable adjustments to our process. In order to request an adjustment:

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section on the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process.

Alternatively contact the Government Recruitment Service at DBTrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Please see attached Candidate Pack for further information on: Diversity and Inclusion; Benefits; Learning and Development; Working Patterns and what we deliver as a department.

Further Information:

• A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made. Reserve Lists will be for each location and appointments made in merit order based on location preferences.
• Any move to the Department for Business and Trade from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments.
• The Department will not consider sponsoring a visa or issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship. We are unable to offer advice on any Visa and Immigration cases.
• New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
• Applicants who are successful at intervi