Offshore Electrical & Control Systems Engineer – Control & Instrumentation and Cyber Security Specialist

Diverse Perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. We look forward to receiving your application.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

At HSE, we work with one goal in mind – to help keep Britain’s workforce safe and healthy.

Our Offshore Electrical, Control & Instrumentation  engineers help to ensure employers in the  offshore oil & gas sector – and associated essential industries – work safely. In this role, you can utilise your considerable technical knowledge and practical experience to influence not only individual employers but whole industry sectors.

A career with HSE gives you a rare opportunity to visit and interact with different and diverse employers and work activities, one day you could be inspecting an offshore production installation and the next investigating an incident on a dynamically positioned drilling platform.

You’ll work alongside other technical specialists to ensure the work activities of those we regulate are operating within the legislative framework by inspecting, investigating, and assessing Duty Holders.

Your work with HSE will make the most of your experience – whether that’s inspecting safety Electrical systems, Hazardous area equipment, instrumented systems,  process control systems, looking at management of cyber security in control systems or providing technical assistance to colleagues undertaking complex investigations into serious incidents on offshore installations. As you can see this role will broaden your knowledge and your professional credibility like no other role can.

Your main responsibility is to address potential major accident hazards in relation to electrical & control systems in offshore major hazard installations.

Additional responsibilities include addressing the Network and Information Systems regulation in relation to assuring continuity of essential services for applicable Offshore Oil & Gas Installations

Using your specialist knowledge, you will carry out the full range of duties of an HSE Specialist Inspector including:

• Carry out various topic assessments of offshore installation safety cases;
• Carry out various topic inspections of offshore oil and gas installations across the UKCS; either on your own or with a specialist team, to make sure that major hazard risks are being actively managed and reduced, driving improvements and gaining commitment to comply with the law.
• Topic based inspections will include Cyber Security Inspections for both the NIS regulations and Major Hazard risks
• Forensic analysis of Offshore Electrical & Control Engineering related incidents to identify the root cause and where necessary, lead the technical aspect of the investigation, calling in other specialist support and supporting legal action to prevent a recurrence;
• Support enforcement action, preparing specialist reports and providing specialist opinion in reports to guide legal decisions;
• Appear as specialist witness at tribunals, inquests and prosecutions;
• Secure intelligence, share information and advice towards policy, research, and guidance to benefit other Government departments, the public, industry, professional bodies and trade associations.
• Represent HSE in standards committees such as JPEL/18, Energy Institute, ATEX, IEC61511 and any stakeholder meetings, such as; OEUK Electrical or Control & Instrumentation Technical Groups.

Training:

From day one, you will be supported by your manager and colleagues to understand your role in HSE, develop your skills and support you in your continuing professional development.  For the legal requirements of the role, you will be enrolled on the specialist training programme (STP) and will be required to study for and successfully complete the unit.  You will receive appropriate training and complete a legal assessment.

Responsibilities

For this particular EC&I role, we are looking for a professional with a bias towards control & instrumentation systems and cyber security in the offshore oil and gas or petrochemical process industry, who has the knowledge and understanding of the design, installation, operation and maintenance of control & instrumentation systems to achieve and maintain safety in the offshore oil and gas environment.

At HSE, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to work in a hybrid way which combines working from home and the office. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your allocated office will be your contractual place of work. There will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities e.g., collaborative working, supporting and training colleagues. If hybrid working is suitable for you and your role, the arrangements will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. Therefore, we would encourage candidates to consider if the commute from home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. Please note that if you are successful, hybrid working will be discussed prior to taking up the post.

To excel at this role, you will;

Control & Instrumentation

• Must have at least 5 years direct, relevant experience relating to safety-related control & instrumentation systems in the UK offshore oil and gas industry.
• Have sound practical & theoretical control & instrumentation engineering experience, installation maintenance and inspection of electrical equipment in explosive atmospheres, including knowledge and experience of relevant UKCS offshore engineering codes and standards.
• Have experience and in-depth understanding in the risk assessment, design, installation, maintenance and inspection of both process control and safety instrumented systems (SIS). Along with experience in the application of relevant British Standards in the offshore major hazard industry e.g. BS EN61511.
• As a minimum be certified as a Functional Safety Engineer (FS Engineer)
• Knowledge and experience in applying the offshore engineering codes and standards relevant to the UKCS.  Be able to satisfy the UK offshore medical & survival training requirements.
• Have an awareness of other Electrical, Control & Instrumentation topics, relevant to the offshore oil & gas industry, such as the following; Fire & Gas Systems, Blowdown systems, PAGA, Emergency Power, UPS, emergency lighting and Process Control & ESD systems.
• Ideally, you will have worked in senior role in relation to the above requirements e.g. in a technical management and / or technical authority position.

Cyber Security

• Have experience and in-depth understanding of cyber risk assessments and methodologies in relation to Operational Technology(OT)/Industrial Automation Control Systems, in the UK offshore oil and gas industry, with an understanding of the application of Cyber Security to critical national infrastructure. You will also be familiar with applying appropriate controls across people, process and technology to mitigate cyber risk.  Appropriate cyber security qualification, such as CISSP, ISO27001 Lead auditor, GICSP or SA/IEC 62443 Cyber Security Expert would be desirable.

In addition, you’ll have made some impact in your career so far making intelligent, measured decisions in your area, with good analytical skills to spot underlying issues.

Communication is key in this role and you will be able to persuade and influence people at all levels. We value people who respect others, work well in a team and can build robust relationships with employers and other partners.

Desirable Criteria:

• Have an awareness of offshore/marine and drilling electrical HV/LV distribution systems.
• Have an awareness of instrumentation/control systems used in marine and drilling systems used in the offshore sector, such as those used in Ballast systems, Jacking system, Dynamic Positioning systems, Blow out Preventer and drill floor machinery.

Attributes Required

We are looking for high calibre specialists who can, under challenge, think strategically, identifying underlying core issues, and engage at different levels both with colleagues, site technical staff and at the most senior levels within an organisation.  you will be decisive and able to influence those organisations to bring about improvements.  You will have:

• Strong communication skills to influence change at all levels in the organisations we regulate;
• Sound analytical skills to identify underlying gaps and deficiencies related to risk management;
• Initiative and decisiveness, making sound decisions based on available evidence;
• Good organisational and planning skills taking responsibility for delivering expected outcomes on time and to the required standard;
• The ability to work collaboratively as part of a multi-disciplinary team, maintaining positive professional working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders;
• The ability to write effective technical reports and present complex technical information in a clear and concise way for a non-technical audience.

You must be able to satisfy the UK offshore medical & survival training requirements.

You must be willing and able to regularly spend short periods working away from home, including on offshore oil and gas installations.

Please provide evidence from Institution of Engineering and Technology that you satisfy their requirements to gain Chartered Membership.

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

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

• Experience relating to Instrumentation, Control, protection and mitigation systems.
• Experience in the risk assessment, design, installation, operation, maintenance and inspection of process control, measurement, safety instrumented protection systems (SIF/SIS) and Emergency shutdown (ESD) systems
• Knowledge and experience in the application of offshore engineering codes and standards, relevant to the UKCS Offshore Oil & Gas industry
• Knowledge and experience in the application of Cyber Security standards to Industrial Control Systems (ICS), relevant to the UKCS Offshore Oil & Gas industry.
• Awareness of other Electrical, Control & instrumentation topics, relevant to the UKCS Offshore Oil & Gas industry, i.e. Explosive atmospheres and associated equipment, Fire and Gas systems, Blowdown systems, PAGA, Emergency power and UPS

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

• We invest in our people with;
• Competitive rates of pay
• Access to the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme to which HSE contribute 27.9%, far more than in the private sector
• Family friendly policies and working hours to help balance your home life and career
• Carer friendly policies to help create a supportive working culture
• 25 days annual holiday increasing to 30 days after 5 years’ service, plus bank holidays and 1-day Civil Service privilege leave
• Parental leave benefits

Allowances

This post is eligible for a Market supplement (non-consolidated / non-pensionable) up to £10,000 & Aberdeen allowance where applicable (non-consolidated / non-pensionable) of £7,000

This post is eligible for Excess Fares Allowance. A successful internal candidate currently based at another office may be entitled to Excess Fares Allowance in line with HSE policy (http://intranet/finance/expenses/excess-fares-allowance-policy.htm)

Job contact :

• Name : John Pirie
• Email : john.pirie@hse.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : hr.resourcing-team@hse.gov.uk