Vacancies
We’re undergoing an exciting period of change and growth at OPSS, and there’s never been a better time to join us. Below you can find our current vacancies, which are updated regularly.
The Regulatory Leaders Graduate Scheme (RLGS) offers real world experience across a range of teams.
We’re looking for people who are passionate about making a difference, helping to tackle market failures, promoting positive action and enabling growth and productivity to join us on this exciting journey. RLGS will enable you to be who you want to be in a growing, inclusive, and rewarding organisation which make a difference to prevent product related harm.
Over 30 months you will have 4 rotations within the impact areas of OPSS providing the opportunity for you to discover what roles really interest you and play to your strengths.
Alongside the practical experience you will participate in a learning and development programme designed to equip you with the skills and tools to be a future leader within OPSS.
At the end of the programme, you will have a permanent role within OPSS and the opportunity to further develop and progress your career.
Here, your personality and passion for effective regulation matters more to us than your employment or academic history. That’s why, even if you haven’t worked in regulation before, you could be the perfect fit for our exciting Regulatory Leaders Graduate Scheme, and you’ll be poised to embark on an exciting career pathway within OPSS and on your way to becoming one of the very best regulatory leader.
We are looking for a senior compliance testing engineer to co-ordinate the delivery of compliance testing activities across our laboratories. If you are currently working in a commercial test laboratory or working as a test engineer in a similar role, have excellent interpersonal and project management skills, and strive for excitement, challenge, and variety then this could be the role for you. The ideal person will apply your technical and operational expertise to manage the delivery and continuous improvement of compliance testing workstreams, acting as lead reviewer to ensure laboratory policies and outputs provide effective outcomes and impact for the organisation. You will be familiar with the UK regulatory framework and have a good working knowledge of product safety test standards. It is important that you collaborate closely with other laboratory staff members and OPSS evidence and operational teams to ensure the laboratories continue to deliver a high-quality and robust technical service. It is crucial you can communicate clearly to colleagues at all levels and can translate technical findings so they can be readily understood by non-technical audiences.
Join Our Energy Supply Team and Shape the Future!
Are you passionate about sustainability and innovation? Our Energy Supply team is at the forefront of creating a sustainable energy future. As part of the wider Products and Sectors Regulation team, we’re setting rigorous standards for heat networks, electric vehicle charging, and more. Our mission is to foster a thriving energy market where businesses can innovate and consumers enjoy a reliable, affordable, and environmentally friendly energy supply.
We are responsible for the accuracy of over 50 million gas and electricity meters used for billing consumers. We work with energy suppliers to ensure the accuracy of meter populations, thereby helping consumers engage with their energy usage and maintaining consumer confidence in the energy bills they receive. By driving compliance within the energy sector, we’re accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy. Meter accuracy is pivotal in ensuring we account for our energy usage in a fair and efficient manner, helping drive the country’s Net Zero goals.
Why Join Us?
- Impact: Play a crucial role in enforcing standards that drive sustainability.
- Innovation: Help create an environment where businesses can thrive and innovate.
- Sustainability: Contribute to a reliable and eco-friendly energy supply for all.
Your Role: Technical Support Engineer
We’re seeking a Technical Support Engineer to leverage their skills and experience to drive our goals forward. In this role, you’ll be instrumental in implementing rigorous, yet proportionate regulations aligned with the Regulators’ Code. You will be at the forefront of driving compliance within the energy sector. Collaborating closely with key stakeholders including DESNZ, OFGEM, and internal teams, you will develop and execute strategies to achieve our regulatory goals.
What Will You Be Doing?
- Support Delivery: Work with the Utilities Team Manager to support the delivery of the team’s statutory responsibilities under primary legislation and develop policies to accommodate new technologies.
- Coordinate Enforcement: Ensure the continued compliance of gas and electricity meter populations by coordinating the team’s enforcement activities.
- Provide Technical Advice: Offer technical advice and support to OPSS/DBT colleagues, other government departments, meter manufacturers, industry groups, trade associations, and energy suppliers, including participating in various technical committees.
- Liaise with Stakeholders: Work with manufacturers and trade organisations to reduce barriers to trade and ensure UK manufacturers can take advantage of increased market opportunities. Research new, innovative technologies that require appropriate metering.
- Contract Management: Undertake contract management and performance monitoring activities associated with an outsourced service provider.
- Reduce Regulatory Burden: Assist businesses in complying with legal requirements to reduce the regulatory burden.
Be Part of the Change
Join us in our mission to enable a thriving energy market. If you’re driven by sustainability and innovation, and want to make a real impact, apply now and help us build a better future!
As a Team Leader for our Heat Networks team, you’ll be at the forefront of shaping a sustainable energy future. Your work will directly contribute to reducing carbon emissions, protecting consumers, and promoting a thriving energy market. By ensuring compliance with industry regulations, you’ll play a vital role in building a cleaner, more equitable, and resilient energy landscape for generations to come.
Leading a team of enforcement officers and technical experts, you will be responsible for creating and implementing comprehensive operational plans, including performance reporting.
Why Join Us?
- Impact: Play a crucial role in enforcing standards that drive sustainability.
- Innovation: Help create an environment where businesses can thrive and innovate.
- Sustainability: Contribute to a reliable and eco-friendly energy supply for all.
The Incident Management Team (IMT) is a busy, friendly and highly supportive team, comprised of two closely related functions.
A readiness and resilience arm prepares OPSS to respond to national-scale incidents, emergencies and disruptive events. We develop and exercise a range of incident response plans and related procedures and ensure processes are continuously improved considering lessons arising from exercises or incidents.
An operational arm carries out initial assessments of product safety and noncompliance notifications, publishing product safety alerts, reports and recalls on publicly available websites and working internationally to report product safety issues and to monitor for product safety issues that might impact the UK.
IMT also lead on the coordination of incident activity, liaising with a range of OPSS and wider functions to ensure an effective incident response is delivered.
This vacancy is within the readiness and resilience arm of the team, focusing on training, exercising and lessons identified.
Members are intended to act in an advisory capacity designed to contribute to a strong set of governance arrangements for OPSS. Members will not be involved in specific technical regulatory decisions, but we are looking for a diverse range of people with experience of operating at a senior level. The roles will give you the opportunity to impact on a range of important policy, regulatory and operational issues impacting businesses and consumers daily.
Potential topics for discussion include:
• The EU and UK regulatory divergence
• The development of novel regulatory functions or expansion into the online space
• The UK internal market
• How OPSS gathers and uses science and evidence
• Stakeholder engagement
• Policy development
• International engagement with regulators and industry
• Business planning, control mechanisms and delegation in a growing organisation
Preference is for meetings to be held in person, in London, but we aim to be flexible for those that may find it difficult travelling to London.
The role is based in a G6 Social Research team, consisting of 11 social researchers and will work closely with the other 30 analysts in our wider team. We have a strong commitment to collaborative working with other parts of OPSS, to ensure that we are delivering robust and useful analysis. We also have the joint head of profession for social research as our deputy director.
OPSS’s mix of regulatory activity, from policy to enforcement of regulations, makes OPSS an exciting and challenging place to work. OPSS has a strong commitment to development and puts a lot of effort into bringing roughly 500 OPSS colleagues together to learn and share information.
This is an exciting opportunity to work in a dynamic and varied role as part of a high-profile national regulator. You will be:
Working on 3 different teams; giving you a range of experience to draw on, no matter what your future focus might become.
Part of our Apprenticeship Programme, studying for a Level 4 Regulatory Compliance Officer Apprenticeship This is equivalent to the first year of a University Degree. Our apprentices are our future enforcement officers and leaders. Whether you are at the start of your career, or are an experienced professional looking for something new to move your career forward, we believe in supporting people to develop and grow.
Gaining the continual professional development offered to our officers to ensure you are learning and developing the skills to be an effective regulator.
Working with businesses to help them understand the regulations that apply to them and give them advice and support.
Checking products and businesses to see if they are compliant with the relevant regulations… If not, you will assess the level of risk of harm to people or place to decide what the best course of action will be. You might do this in response to an issue or complaint, or as part of a project looking at a type of product or business area.
Supporting enforcement cases. This means investigating businesses and products we believe are not compliant with the relevant regulations, and taking enforcement action where necessary, following the required processes and procedures.
Communicating with businesses and our partner organisations, to solve problems and resolve any issues of non-compliance.
Reading and understanding written documents and data and write reports following inspections or projects.
Working with your colleagues in Enforcement Teams and across the Office for Product Safety and Standards, to share information and find ways to increase our impact.
