Defence and Security Accelerator Graduate 2022

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) finds and funds exploitable innovation to support UK Defence and Security mission quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity. Our vision is for the UK to maintain its strategic advantage over its adversaries and build a safer future for the country and our people. DASA is part of the Ministry of Defence but we work across all Government departments who have responsibility for national security. We are serious about making a difference to those on the front lines in the armed forces, police and elsewhere who protect us, and we are committed to supporting the innovators who can help.

DASA has four mutually supporting teams, Outreach, Operations, Partnership & Impact and Support Services. The Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) is a policy and strategy unit that coheres and enables innovation activities from the Ministry of Defence in Westminster. It encourages changes in behaviours, empowers a culture that is innovative by instinct and breaks down barriers to provide freedom to pursue and deliver innovative solutions. DIU co-ordinates the Defence Innovation Ecosystem and champions a continuous learning approach as well as sharing of best practice.

Job description

During your first two-years, you will have the opportunity to gain experience across all four DASA teams and within DIU. This will either be in the form of a 6-month+ placement or through shadowing specific roles. At the end of the two-year period, you will be have a permanent role within DASA (based on a balance of business requirement, skills and personal preference).
Could you help us by undertaking these exciting and dynamic roles?

In this role you will also

• Lead small work packages, working at pace and to tight deadlines to achieve what is required of this role, whilst maintaining close, trusting relationships with those you work with.
• Work with our customers to understand defence and security requirements & develop challenges for industry and academia to respond to.
• Support engagement with, and management of, defence and security customers and stakeholders relevant to your tasks.
• Prepare and deliver reports and presentations to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Develop your knowledge and understanding of defence and security challenges and issues.
• Within a role in DIU you may provide briefings to Minister and Senior Civil Servants, liaise with other Government Departments or develop, and implement strategies and policies relevant to DIU’s objective of ‘Embedding Innovation’ across Defence.
• You will not have direct budget responsibility but you may be required to work with financial information.

There will be a need to work at pace and to tight deadlines to achieve what is required of this role, whilst maintaining close, trusting relationships with those you work with. You will be a team player, focused on delivery, and comfortable operating in a high pressured and demanding environment.

As well as Defence and Security expertise our staff have experience in communications, banking, analysis, project management, venture capital, industry, technology, amongst others. If you thrive on wanting to make a difference to national security and prosperity in a friendly, multi-disciplined and diverse team, DASA may be the place for you.

Responsibilities

We are looking for people with

• A passion for innovation and a keen interest in the development of science and technology to enhance national security.
• People skills to develop good working relationships across DASA and DIU, and develop and maintain networks across the wider Defence & Security innovation ecosystem.
• Organisational skills, administrative skills to support the delivery of a quality service for our customers.
• Communication skills such as, writing clearly and unambiguously, tailoring content to be appropriate for a wide range of audiences, and being willing to present your work to others.
• Good reflective and creative skills to suggest improvements to current processes and contribute to the development of novel service offerings.
• The ability to be a team player and contribute to the development of the team including being supportive of others at all times.

Skills

Essential

• Be self-motivated and enthuse others
• Be happy to work under your own initiative
• Have strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Have an aptitude to think and work innovatively
• Enjoy working independently and collaboratively within a team
• Work well under pressure
• Be creative and enjoy problem solving
• Have proficient IT skills in Microsoft Office

Experience

Desirable

• Knowledge of UK Government organisations and their responsibilities.
• Knowledge of the UK defence and security environment.
• Experience of supporting science and technology funding competitions and/or events.

Qualifications

For these posts you will need a honours degree, Masters or PhD in any subject

Behaviours

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

• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Working Together

Technical skills

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

• Please state the title of the degree you are studying and list the modules that you are taking
• Please list your top 3 technical areas of interest and include a short explanation of why you enjoy these. This is not necessarily your highest scoring modules, but more the ones you have a passion for or ones you continue outside of university.
• What transferable skills can you bring from your university/work/life/extra-curricular activities which you feel might be relevant for a role at DASA?

Benefits

We'll provide a great range of benefits including

• Fully flexible working, including alternative working patterns, annualised hours, compressed hours and job share, to name a few.
• Flexible Working hours, a 12 month reference period and the ability to bank hours. Up to 37 hours can be taken in any calendar month
• Excellent learning and development to ensure everyone fulfils their potential.
• Maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks full pay followed by 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid, and paternity leave of 2 weeks full pay.
• Chartership and accreditation support.
• Pension.
• Generous annual leave, with the ability to buy and sell up to 5 days holiday per year.
• Onsite gyms and restaurants.
• Staff discounts for high street and online shopping, restaurants and days out.

Our Diversity Networks

Dstl recognises the importance of diversity and inclusion as people from diverse backgrounds bring fresh ideas. We are committed to building an inclusive working environment in which each employee fulfils their potential and maximises their contribution. We have a number of support networks to ensure all employees feel supported at work.

These include the following

• Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Network
• Race, Faith and Culture Network
• Parents and Carer Support Network
• Alternative Working Network
• Gender Equality Network
• New Starters Network
• Enabled Network, for people with visible and non-visible disabilities

Things you need to know

Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

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

People working with government assets must complete basic personnel security standard checks.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

For full details and the behaviors for this role please see the attached job profile at the bottom of this page.
We are aiming to sift and interviews periodically throughout the application window but we are going through a large growth period at the moment, so if you do not hear back with in two weeks please do not worry your application will be looked at, we are just experiencing a very busy period at the moment so it may take us abit longer to get back to you.

Dstl aims to attract the best talent. We recognise the importance of diversity and inclusion as people from diverse backgrounds bring fresh ideas. We are committed to building an inclusive working environment in which each employee fulfils their potential and maximises their contribution.

Important Information

Our work in defence, security and intelligence requires our employees to be British Citizens who are able to gain a high level of security clearance to understand the work you will undertake to protect us from any security threats. For this reason, we regret that only UK Nationals will be able to apply for this role. If you are an international or dual-national candidate, and you think you have the skills we need, please consider applying to any of our government, security or defence partners.

This role will require full UK security clearance and you should have resided in the UK for the past 5 years. For some roles Developed Vetting will also be required, in this case you should have resided in the UK for the past 10 years.

Individuals within DSTL who hold dual nationality and currently hold the required clearance level may apply. If found suitable for the role further security discussions will need to take place before a formal offer can be made.

If you are a current Dstl employee, you are encouraged to inform your line manager of your application as they can support you through the process and should you be successful it will help in negotiating a release date.

We are taking positive action to actively encourage under-represented people. Representation within our workforce from females, black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities and the LGBTQI+ is currently much lower than we want it to be.
We actively encourage and welcome applications from those who work alternative working patterns (part-time, job share, term-time only etc.). Please be prepared to discuss this if you are selected for interview. You can also discuss your working pattern with the recruiting line manager or talent acquisition adviser at the application stage if preferred.

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

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

This job is not open to candidates who hold a dual nationality.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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.

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.