Security Advisor

Job summary

We're looking for a proactive and organised individual to join our Security & Resilience team as a Security and Resilience Advisor at the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO), playing a key role in protecting our people, information, assets and operations.

This is a varied and rewarding role where no two days are the same. You'll be at the heart of delivering security assurance across the organisation, providing practical advice and guidance to colleagues, supporting business continuity activities, coordinating site visits, and helping ensure the organisation meets its security and resilience obligations.

As a trusted point of contact, you'll work with a wide range of stakeholders, providing security advice on travel, visitors, and day-to-day security matters. You'll also contribute to audits and assurance activities, helping to identify risks, monitor compliance, and support the continuous improvement of security processes and procedures.

The role offers a unique blend of operational delivery, stakeholder engagement, problem-solving and assurance work, making it ideal for someone who enjoys variety, taking ownership, and working in a role that has a genuine impact across the organisation.

It is important to note that this role is open to sole British nationals with no ties to other nations, due to the nature of the work carried out.

Therefore, candidates will be asked to confirm their eligibility prior to attending an interview. If candidates do not confirm their eligibility, UKHO reserve the right to withdraw applications on the basis that we have no evidence that they are eligible.

The successful candidate must be willing to undertake the stringent inquiries, of a personal nature, by MOD vetting services, to achieve a Developed Vetting (DV) clearance. For more information please read- National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK

Hybrid working

This job role can be worked on a hybrid basis, which is an informal, non-contractual and voluntary arrangement, working between the office in Taunton and remotely within the UK.

The successful candidate will be expected to work 60% of the time in the office. The exception to this is when they are on ‘incident management’ duties when they will be expected to attend the office for 5 days. This will be for approximately one week in five in line with business requirements.

Job description

• Help maintain a safe, secure and resilient working environment by supporting a range of security, access control and assurance activities.
• Provide practical advice and guidance to colleagues on security-related matters, including business travel, visitor management and secure working practices.
• Coordinate and manage travel security processes, ensuring staff are appropriately briefed and supported when travelling overseas.
• Carry out regular audits, checks and compliance activities to help protect organisational information, assets and facilities.
• Support the management of site access arrangements, visitor processes and security records to ensure accurate and effective controls are in place.
• Work closely with internal teams, external partners and service providers to resolve security-related queries and maintain operational effectiveness.
• Assist with incident response and resilience activities, helping the organisation prepare for and respond to security and business continuity events.
• Manage security-related communications and enquiries, ensuring requests are handled efficiently and stakeholders receive a high standard of service.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of security processes, procedures and record management practices.
• Provide flexible support across the wider Security & Resilience team, helping to deliver key priorities and projects as required.

Person specification

• Experience of providing excellent customer service to a wide variety of stakeholders both internally and externally.
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal.
• Experience of handling sensitive situations and topics (this could be in a customer services environment or similar).
• To be able to work independently and as part of a wider team working together towards tight deadlines and having to prioritise to support the organisation.
• Proficient in the use of typical everyday desktop software (e.g. MS Word, Excel, Teams, Sharepoint etc)

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,965, UK Hydrographic Office contributes

£9,549 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).

At the UK Hydrographic Office, it's very important to us that our people feel valued.

We offer a huge range of benefits such as training and development, well-being support, flexible/ homeworking, a fantastic state of the art building, high spec equipment, and so much more.

See our attached Candidate Information Pack for more details.

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 and Experience.

How to Apply:

Please click on 'Apply now' and you will be asked to attach your anonymised CV. You will also be asked to input a supporting statement of 500 words on the Shortlist/Sift Criteria below.

Timeline:

• Advert Closes for applications: 5th October 2026
• Shortlisting: w/c 12th October 2026
• Interviews: w/c 2nd November 2026

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

Lead Criteria:

We have identified a lead criterion for this role, which we may use to differentiate between applications in the following scenarios:

• To conduct an initial-sift in a high volume of applicants (over 20 applications). This would be conducted after the above pre-sift on the mandatory criteria.
• To establish a merit-order in the event of a tie

The lead criteria for this role are identified below.

Pre sift Criteria:

• Do you satisfy the nationality and eligibility requirements for a reserved post as a sole UK British national? Y/N

If you do not meet the pre-sift criteria, your application will not be taken through to be sifted on the criteria below.

Sift/Shortlist Criteria:

All applications are processed anonymously. You will be short-listed against the following criteria:

Experience:

• Experience of providing excellent customer service to a wide variety of stakeholders both internally and externally (lead criteria)
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal.
• Experience of handling sensitive situations and topics (this could be in a customer services environment or similar).
• To be able to work independently and as part of a wider team working together towards tight deadlines and having to prioritise to support the organisation.
• Proficient in the use of typical everyday desktop software (e.g. MS Word, Excel, Teams, Sharepoint etc)

The above will be assessed against your CV and supporting statement.

Interview Criteria

You will be interviewed against the following criteria:

Civil Service Behaviours (EO Level) :

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing (lead criteria)
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

See here for further information: Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours - GOV.UK

Process:

• Single Stage face-to-face Interview at our Headquarters in Taunton, Somerset.
• You will be contacted to book a suitable slot if you are shortlisted (see our Candidate Pack for further information)
• Interview will be with a panel of no more than 3 people and we expect it to last 45 minutes.

Onboarding Checks:

In the event you are offered a role with us, you will be required to go through Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks which will include Employment and Right to Work Checks. Security Clearance (SC) will need to be obtained prior to the role commencing. You will also need to apply for Developed Vetting (DV) which can be completed while working for us but the offer will remain conditional until DV is gained. Please see our attached Candidate Pack for further details and Terms.

Please note, we are unable to offer visa sponsorship.

Nationality requirements:

DV - reserved

This is a Ministry of Defence reserved post and open to sole UK nationals only. Successful applicants will require Developed Vetting (DV) and therefore need to have resided in the UK for a minimum of 24 consecutive months within the last 10 years.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (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.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window) .

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.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the

Civil 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 : recruitment.queries@ukho.gov.uk
• Email : recruitment.queries@ukho.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment.queries@ukho.gov.uk

Further information

Further Information

The Department’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the requirement of selection for appointment based on merit, open and fair competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles, details of which can be found at http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact recruitment.queries@ukho.gov.uk If you are not satisfied with the response