Essex Police and Kent Police
Senior Digital Forensic Specialist (Chelmsford)
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Location of Role: Chelmsford
Advert Closing Date: 06/10/2026
Starting Salary: £49,716 (pro-rata for part-time vacancies)
Part/Full Time: Full Time
Contract Type: Permanent
Working Pattern: Shift not 24/7
Weekend/Evening Working: Yes
Kent & Essex Police have recently transformed their digital service to adapt and take advantage of the latest technology and infrastructure available. An exciting opportunity has arisen for an individual to undertake the role of Senior Digital Forensic Specialist within Kent & Essex Digital Forensic Services, based at Chelmsford, Essex Police HQ.
The new Digital Forensic Services’ structure has been designed to provide the best possible career progression & Continuing Professional Development (CPD) framework to ensure you will have the tools and necessary experience to carry out first-class digital forensic investigations.
Digital devices and information communication technology are present in almost every investigation the Police Service undertakes. These range from complex computer platforms and mobile phone handsets to games consoles, digital CCTV systems, video management platforms, and cloud-based storage solutions. As digital technologies continue to evolve, it is critical that you can adapt to and learn emerging technologies to meet the requirements of the role.
Responsibilities:
- The role involves the day-to-day supervision of a team of digital forensic practitioners, including specialists engaged in the examination and recovery of evidence from computers, mobile devices, and CCTV systems.
- You will be responsible for ensuring service delivery against published SLAs, monitoring workloads and quality standards, allocating resources appropriately, and supporting investigations through the effective management of digital forensic submissions.
- You will ensure compliance with ISO accreditation requirements, legislation, organizational policy, and forensic best practice across all forensic disciplines.
- You will be able to provide advice and guidance to officers and staff regarding the proportionate extraction, recovery, and interpretation of digital evidence from computers, mobile devices, and CCTV systems.
- You will possess an understanding of CCTV systems and associated technologies, including digital video recorders (DVRs), network video recorders (NVRs), cloud-based CCTV solutions, video formats, export methods, and evidential continuity requirements.
- You will support staff in identifying, preserving, recovering, and presenting CCTV evidence, ensuring that examinations are conducted proportionately, effectively, and in accordance with forensic and legal requirements.
- You will have an understanding of the quality standard ISO/IEC 17025 and how this affects the role.
- You will be required to develop and maintain your competence under these requirements, ensuring best practice is shared amongst colleagues.
- It is expected that you will maintain current knowledge of specialized digital forensic procedures, CCTV technologies, emerging digital evidence sources, and advancements within the wider digital forensic field.
Requirements:
- To balance these technical attributes, you will need to be a highly motivated team player with the ability to manage competing priorities, supervise and develop staff, conduct performance and welfare conversations, and utilize coaching and mentoring techniques to create an environment that is both supportive and constructive.
- You will be expected to promote continuous improvement, quality standards, and professional development across the team.
- You will be dealing with highly sensitive and distressing information which requires a high degree of emotional resilience.
- You will also be required to work to tight deadlines, manage competing demand, support court requirements, and make informed decisions regarding prioritization of digital forensic and CCTV examinations.
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Working Conditions:
This is a highly collaborative role that works across Digital Forensic Services, partnering with technical leads, practitioners, quality personnel, and management teams across both Essex Police and Kent Police. The post holder will be required to build effective working relationships across the teams in Chelmsford and Ashford sites to support the delivery and continuous improvement of quality standards, accreditation requirements, and operational processes.
Whilst primarily based at Chelmsford Headquarters, the role will require occasional travel to the Central Digital Forensic Hub in Ashford to support audits, quality assurance activities, accreditation work, staff engagement, and operational requirements.
Skills and/or Experience Required:
- Technical ability across a range of digital devices, including computers, mobile devices, and CCTV systems, with knowledge of associated hardware, software, operating systems, and video management platforms.
- Educated to A Level standard or possess at least 2 years' recent experience within a Digital Forensic Service Provider (law enforcement or private sector), including experience of leading digital forensic and CCTV forensic tools currently employed nationally.
- Experience of supervising, mentoring, or supporting staff and managing workloads within a quality-focused environment.
- Good understanding of ISO/IEC 17025, evidential continuity, forensic quality standards, and relevant legislation.
- Knowledge of CCTV recovery processes, digital video evidence handling, video enhancement principles, and best practice for the seizure, preservation, and examination of CCTV evidence.
- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing, adapting information for a variety of audiences including investigators, senior leaders, legal stakeholders, and court proceedings.
- Ability to prioritize competing demands, make sound decisions, and deliver services within agreed timescales.
Working Pattern:
The Senior Digital Forensic Specialist role is shift-based, working a 6-week pattern where you will be required to work 1 weekend in 6. The shifts are detailed below:
- AM shift: 0700 – 1500
- PM shift: 1200 – 2000
- Weekend shift: 0800 – 1600
Recruitment Process:
This recruitment process consists of 2 stages which involves a presentation & a competency-based interview.
Application Process:
Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Andrew Richards or Andrew Marbrow for further information regarding the role on 01622 654783 or 01245 49149 ext 489201. andrew.marbrow@essex.police.uk
Essex Police offers incremental increases within this salary band, therefore the salary for this position will rise to a maximum of £53,451.00.
For the full Essex job description please click here.
For the full Kent job description please click here.
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Kent Police and Essex Police have separate salary grading systems, therefore the salary for this position will be dependent on which home office force you are appointed to. This will be discussed with the successful applicant before a final offer is made.
Your application for this role will be shortlisted on the content you provide within the “reason for application” question, within the application form itself. CV’s, covering letters, or attachments are not included in the shortlist. Within your “reason for application” answer, please refer to any experience, skills, and abilities you feel you have that will make you suitable for this role, based on the role criteria stated in the job advert or job description. Please provide as much detail as possible as insufficient content may mean you do not meet the shortlisting criteria, however please note this question is limited to 9000 characters and this system will count spaces and blank lines as characters. This count may differ from the Microsoft Word word count function, therefore you may wish to use a different online character counter to check the characters used.
Application Support and Adjustments:
All of our posts require a level of vetting and security clearance. During the recruitment process, you will be sent vetting information forms to complete.
Kent Police and Essex Police welcomes applications regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, sex, or employment status.
Please let us know if you require extra support at any stage of the application process, or for further information regarding this position, please email us at recruitment.business.services@ecis.police.uk stating ‘Application Support and Adjustments’ in the title of your email. Alternatively, you can call us on 01245 452833. Where appropriate, we will make adjustments to the selection process, working arrangements, and/or the working environment provided it is reasonable in all the circumstances to do so.
Eligibility:
If you’re not from the UK, you must be a resident in the UK and have lived here continuously for the last three years. You must also be free from restrictions with indefinite leave to remain. If you’re from the UK, you must have lived here continuously for the last three years. This doesn’t apply to those serving abroad in the British Armed Forces.
Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion:
Essex Police is a Disability Confident Leader, we:
- have subjected our Disability Confident self-assessment to external challenge and validation
- are taking an active leadership role in encouraging and helping other employers on their journey to becoming Disability Confident.
Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion are central to the values of our organization. At Essex Police, we value and embrace the unique experiences, identities, and abilities that each of us bring to our roles. We strive to empower everyone to bring their authentic self openly and safely to work.
Through the dedicated commitment of our support networks, DE&I team, and wider HR departments, we are on a journey to embed our DE&I commitments, ensuring Essex Police is an employer of choice; where everyone feels included.
Essex Police and Kent Police are an equal opportunities employer. Communications may be recorded for monitoring purposes.
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