Investigations Officer

The investigations team sits within the Offshore Environmental unit which is a team within OPRED which works to protect the environment through implementation of the United Kingdom's offshore environmental regulations. Working at the heart of OPRED’s regulatory and enforcement functions, the team gathers and analyses evidence, interviews witnesses, liaises with operators and key stakeholders, and develops detailed findings to establish the facts surrounding complex events. Investigators work closely with technical specialists, legal colleagues and other government bodies to ensure that lessons are identified, compliance is improved and appropriate enforcement action is considered where necessary.

To ensure continued high standards of environmental performance and protection we are looking for a suitably experienced and qualified person to join the Investigations Team. The team brings together individuals with varied but specific work experiences and skills in order that all environmental aspects associated with offshore oil and gas activities are competently monitored.

Person specification

Responsibilities

As part of a dynamic team, your role will be diverse and involve all aspects associated with the regulation of environmental legislation and pollution prevention within the offshore oil and gas industry. Your key responsibilities will include:

• With support from the Senior Investigations Officer Environmental Inspectors and environmental managers, leading investigations on and offshore into contraventions of environmental legislation and deciding on the appropriate enforcement action, including the preparation of reports to the relevant prosecution authorities when required.
• Maintaining an overview of ongoing investigations and providing expert advice on the conduct of such criminal investigations, in line with OPRED’s Enforcement Policy.
• Ensuring transparent, consistent, and proportional methods are employed to prioritise investigations and the targeting of appropriate enforcement activity.
• Assisting with the development of internal and external investigation and enforcement procedures.
• Assisting with training on criminal investigation and legislation subjects and investigation procedures.
• Assisting in the review of existing and new legislation to ensure the necessary enforcement powers are appropriate and in place.
• Representing OPRED on industry forums. Whilst investigation and enforcement will be the focus of your job, you may also be required to undertake other activities in support of OPRED’s regulatory function to help achieve OPRED’s objectives.
• Could be required to take part in an Emergency on call rota

You will need to actively develop and maintain effective liaison with assigned industry representatives, other Government departments, and agencies as well as other non-governmental organisations on environmental and enforcement issues.

Essential Criteria

• Significant experience conducting criminal investigations, gained through service within a police force or through investigative roles in relevant agencies, such as HMRC, other government departments, or equivalent organisations that provide comparable investigative skills and experience.
• It is mandatory that applicants pass the UK offshore medical and survival training requirements.

Desirable

• A proven track record of inspection, regulation or enforcement in the oil & gas or a related industry.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• Specialist / Technical Knowledge
• Statutory Requirements

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,765, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £12,678 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).

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

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, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Please use your personal statement (in no more than 250 words) to provide a statement of suitability, explaining what skills and professional experience you will bring to the role. This will be scored against the skills, experience and essential criteria required for the advertised role.

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the CV only.

The interview will consist of behaviour and technical questions.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DESNZ Candidate Guidance. A DESNZ Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

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

If successful and transferring from