Competence and development

• Maintaining an individual competence record for every assessor and inspector, mapped to the tiers in BS 8674:2025 and to the premises types each person is authorised to assess.
• Managing the formal review of each assessor's competence at intervals not exceeding 36 months, as required under BAFE SP205.
• Deciding and enforcing the scope of work each individual is authorised to undertake, and escalating anything outside it.
• Owning the CPD programme: setting expectations, monitoring completion and evidencing it for audit.
• Tracking qualification renewals and third-party certifications, including fire door inspection certification.
• Building development plans that move assessors up the competence tiers, and identifying successors for senior roles.

Accreditation, legislation and standards

• Keeping the network working in line with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the Fire Safety Act 2021, the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, and the equivalent Scottish and Welsh regimes.
• Maintaining readiness for BAFE SP205 surveillance audits and supporting recertification, including evidence of assessor competence, validation records and CPD.
• Ensuring consistent methodology and consistent use of Axion's templates and digital inspection platform across the whole network.
• Monitoring changes to legislation, standards and guidance, and briefing the network on what changes in practice.

Operational delivery

• Working with the Delivery team on scheduling, geographic coverage and capacity planning.
• Monitoring productivity, turnaround times and report quality, and holding the balance between volume and quality.
• Managing the use of associate and subcontract assessors, including competence verification before they are engaged.
• Providing technical input to bids and tenders on resourcing, methodology and deliverability.
• Reporting to the Director of Fire Risk Management on network performance, competence status, QA findings and risks.

Person Specification

Essential

• Demonstrable, current experience of conducting fire risk assessments to a high standard, including residential and social housing stock.
• Minimum four years' people management experience, including managing remote or field-based staff.
• Level 4 or higher qualification in fire risk assessment, or equivalent demonstrable competence mapped against BS 8674.
• Detailed, current knowledge of fire safety legislation, supporting guidance and the assessor competency framework.
• Working knowledge of BAFE SP205, including how competence review and validation operate in practice.
• The credibility to be taken seriously by a graduate assessor, a principal consultant and a client's head of compliance alike.
• Comfortable giving direct feedback on technical work and holding a standard when it is inconvenient.
• Full UK driving licence, and genuine willingness to travel nationally with regular overnight stays.

Desirable

• Experience gained within a BAFE SP205 certified organisation, ideally holding or having held Validator status.
• Fire door inspection certification, or equivalent demonstrable fire door competence.
• Membership of the Institution of Fire Engineers or the Institute of Fire Safety Managers.
• Experience of social housing clients and the compliance regimes they operate under.
• Experience introducing or embedding a digital inspection or compliance platform across a field team.
• Experience of post-incident or regulator-facing scrutiny of assessment work.

Travel and Working Pattern

The postholder should expect to be travelling three to four days in a typical week, with overnight stays as required to cover the full geographic spread of the network. Remaining time is home based. Some flexibility on the balance is available once the network is established, but candidates who are not willing to travel at this level should not apply.

What Success Looks Like in the First Twelve Months

• Every assessor and inspector has a current, evidenced competence record with a scheduled review date.
• A documented QA sampling regime is running, with spot checks completed to plan and findings tracked to closure.
• The one-to-one cycle has been completed for the whole network, with development plans in place.
• BAFE SP205 surveillance audit passed with no major non-conformities relating to competence or validation.
• A measurable reduction in reports returned by clients for technical correction.
• Clear succession and progression routes identified for the strongest assessors.

Benefits

In addition to working with fantastic colleagues, we offer the following benefits:

Time Off & Flexible Working

• 25 days paid annual leave plus statutory holidays
• Birthday leave

Health & Wellbeing

• Comprehensive medical and dental insurance
• 5% pension contribution

Career Development

• Learning and development fund
• Performance-related bonus / commission structure

Additional Perks

• Electric vehicle scheme
• Referral bonus scheme
• Perkbox benefits & rewards

We prioritise diversity and inclusion, recognising the importance of representing our diverse customer base. We strive to attract the best talent and create an environment that supports and includes all individuals.

Interview Process

Our goal is to keep the interview process fairly simple to keep you engaged, but thorough enough to help us each understand if we're a good fit for each other.

This is what the process will look like for this role:

Step 1:

30-min initial meeting with the HR Manager to discuss your background, operational experience, and analytical capability - so that we can understand if your skills and expertise match what we're looking for.

Step 2:

60-min in-person meeting with the Managing Director and senior leadership to explore your approach to operational management, data-driven decision-making, and team leadership in more depth. This may include a short practical exercise or case study.

Throughout the process we'll give you insights into Axion and Riskhub, we welcome any questions as we want to make sure you're joining a team and company you'll be excited to be part of.

If you'd like to, we'll also be able to arrange for you to meet more people from the team.

This job description outlines the main duties of the role and is not intended to be exhaustive. It may be reviewed and amended in consultation with the postholder to reflect the needs of the business.