Head of Engineering - Jet Decommissioning

Overview of Responsibilities

UKAEA are a world leader in fusion technology and are about to undertake a once in a generation project to decommission JET – the Joint European Torus Fusion Reactor. We have an exciting role for a Head of Engineering to lead a team of engineers delivering multiple projects that make up the extensive programme of works. The overall programme is circa £450M over 12 years.

Who are we looking for?

We are seeking to appoint the Head of Engineering to provide strategic and technical leadership, whilst influencing the direction of the decommissioning programme. The programme includes the decommissioning of a redundant nuclear plant, repurposing and recycling of assets, and a new build of two waste processing facilities and site infrastructure to support the decommissioning programme.

To be successful in this role you will need to be proactive, delivery focussed and motivated to lead a team. You will need to be flexible and positive towards challenges that could be faced daily. The ability to utilise innovation and seek creative ways to change will be essential to the success of the role.

As the Head of Engineering, you will need to have strong commercial skills, be business minded, commercially astute and proactive at seeking out new business opportunities whilst managing potential risks.

What will you be responsible for?

- Oversee the technical delivery of the Decommissioning and Repurposing Programmes to a high standard.
- With the assistance of the Programme Managers, build and maintain a high-performing, diverse project team able to deliver the programme scope to a high technical standard, safely, to time and within budget.
- Challenge design teams on projects to think creatively, testing conventional approaches against key success criteria to ensure best options are selected efficiently in line with a harmonious technical approach across the programme.
- Manage the production of technical documentation describing the strategy and overall design philosophy for the programme including design bases and other technical framework definition documents.
- Steer the allocation and definition of technical scope across the individual projects, harmonising requirements for each.
- Be the point of engineering knowledge to harmonise technical specifications across the programme, ready to tender to the supply chain – Oversee intelligent customer operations in the technical award and execution of contracts – through to project completion.
- Contribute to the overall commercial strategy for the programme and set expectations for technical interactions across projects with the supply chain
- Ensure relevant legislation is observed through the design process and responsibilities towards this cascaded through the supply chain
- Harmonise the sequence and logic of review and endorsement of the selected design approaches across the programme with key stakeholders according to the Authority Technical Control System.

Qualifications

- A relevant engineering degree or equivalent.
- Experience of delivering complex technical programmes in a high-hazard environment.
- Chartered Engineer status with a suitable professional institution.
- Ability to sanction and challenge design calculations using first principles.
- Experience of working within a highly regulated environment.
- Experience of managing a multidisciplinary project team.
- Experience with working to design standards.
-Experience leading teams and supervising staff.
- Please note this position is predominantly office based - 4 days a week with the option of working from home on a Friday if no contractors on site.

Additional Information

What we offer

- A competitive salary
- A culture committed to being fully inclusive, supported by a Being Inclusive Strategy and Inclusion Ambassadors
- An Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders, with a full calendar of health and wellbeing initiatives
- Flexible working options including family-friendly policies
- Emergency leave (paid)
- 30.5 days’ annual leave (including privilege days and 3 days between Christmas and New Year) increased with length of service
- Wide range of career development opportunities (e.g professional registration, internal promotions, coaching and mentoring programme)
- Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme
- Annual corporate bonus scheme
- Relocation allowance (if eligible)

We welcome applications from under-represented groups, particularly from individuals from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds, including nationality and citizenship, people with disabilities, (visible and hidden) and women. The Executive team with support from our EDI ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ (EDI) partner and Inclusion Ambassadors, is actively promoting EDI and taking steps to increase the diversity of our people through reinforcing best practice in recruitment and selection, and revaluating approaches where it is clear we can remove barriers to success. We are easily accessible by car and are a 10-minute walk from Culham Railway Station in Oxfordshire.

Please be advised that this vacancy is due to close on the 13/09/23. We may close earlier than this date if large or sufficient numbers of applications are received.

Please note all employees working at the UK Atomic Energy Authority will be required to complete an online Disclosure Certificate application as part of their clearance – The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks will show the details of all current criminal convictions (convictions considered unspent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974) or will confirm that there are no such convictions.