Occupational Health Manager

Department

Specialist Roles

Location(s)

Cheltenham

Salary

£65,288

Flexible working: Due to the nature of this role, home working is not possible. We recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working options, including part-time and compressed hours, as well as flexibility around start and finish times.

MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners, including MI6 and GCHQ, to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you’ll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.

The role

As the Occupational Health Manager, you’ll lead our on-site Occupational Health team, helping to protect and promote the health and wellbeing of colleagues while supporting them to carry out their mission-critical work safely.

This varied leadership role combines strategic responsibility with operational delivery. Leading a team of Occupational Health Advisors, you’ll provide professional oversight of the service, manage complex casework and ensure the delivery of high-quality, evidence-based occupational health services.

Working as part of a multidisciplinary team, alongside colleagues in Safety, Health, Wellbeing, Psychology and Workplace Adjustments, you’ll contribute to a joined-up approach to employee wellbeing and support staff across a range of business areas across the organisation.

Alongside leading the service, you’ll translate departmental strategy into effective occupational health delivery, ensuring practice remains evidence-based, compliant with legislation and aligned with organisational needs. This includes proactive health risk management, developing standards, producing management information and providing advice on complex occupational health matters.

Day to day, you’ll support employees in managing health conditions in the workplace through occupational health assessments and advice, alongside services such as travel clearances, risk assessments, health surveillance programmes and fitness-for-work medicals. Advice and recommendations must be timely, practical and aligned with professional standards and legislation.

You’ll foster a culture of continuous development, ensuring professional standards are maintained while helping colleagues build capability, confidence and expertise through coaching, learning and ongoing support.

You’ll be employed by MI5 but based at GCHQ, working predominantly with colleagues from GCHQ. Occasional UK travel may be required and, depending on business needs, opportunities for international travel may also be available.

About you

As well as demonstrable line management experience, you’ll be a Registered Nurse (NMC Part 1) with a Specialist Community Public Health Nursing (Occupational Health) qualification recorded on the NMC register (Part 3).

An experienced Senior Occupational Health Advisor, Team Leader or Manager, you’ll have experience leading and developing Occupational Health teams and working as part of a wider multidisciplinary team.

Experience of managing complex occupational health caseloads, supporting both physical and mental health needs, and providing practical, evidence-based advice is essential. Strong communication and interpersonal skills are key, enabling you to build effective relationships with employees, managers and stakeholders across the organisation.

Excellent analytical skills are needed to assess complex situations, make evidence-based decisions and develop effective solutions. Effective leadership skills are equally important, ensuring the service balances the needs of individuals and the organisation while maintaining high professional and clinical standards. Experience of working with neurodiverse populations would be advantageous.

To perform their roles effectively across MI5, employees need to be able to understand information provided in English, including emails, workplace communications and other work-related documents; communicate effectively in English during meetings and discussions; and produce and respond to written communications in English relevant to their role.

Training and development

When you join us, you’ll follow a structured induction programme designed to help you understand the organisations we support, the diverse range of roles within the organisation and the delivery of Occupational Health services within a unique operational environment.

You’ll be supported by an experienced buddy from the Occupational Health team and will have access to guidance and expertise from the wider Safety, Health and Wellbeing community across the business, helping you settle into the role and build your professional network.

We’re committed to helping colleagues develop their skills and fulfil their potential. From a wide range of courses within our internal training academy to opportunities to enhance professional qualifications, you’ll benefit from ongoing learning and development throughout your career.

Funding is available for job-specific training, including audiology, spirometry, vision screening and HAVS (Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome), alongside other professional development opportunities relevant to the role.

There may be opportunities to shadow colleagues across different areas of the organisation, broadening your understanding of the business and helping you build valuable relationships across a wide range of teams and functions. Depending on business needs, opportunities for UK and international travel may also be available.

Rewards and benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £65,288, plus a range of benefits including:

• 25 days annual leave, rising automatically to 30 days after five years' service, and an additional 10.5 days’ public and privilege holidays
• opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• a dedicated development budget
• an interest-free season ticket loan
• an excellent pension scheme
• a cycle-to-work scheme
• facilities such as a subsidised gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• paid parental and adoption leave

Equal opportunities

At MI5, diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: people with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking, and people with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce, such as women, those from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled people, and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website.

We’re Disability Confident

MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions’ Disability Confident scheme. This scheme encourages employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position are offered an interview, where it is practical to do so. (This is known as the Offer of an Interview scheme.)

To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

1. You’ll be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the online Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which assesses criteria important for all roles in our organisation
2. Demonstrated experience of managing an Occupational Health team
3. Experience of analysing issues, making evidence-based decisions and providing effective solutions

There is a wide range of support available throughout the recruitment process to help you perform at your best. Please visit our website for information about the reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

1. An initial online form including pre-screening questions to ensure you meet our eligibility criteria
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) in which you rate the appropriateness of responses to a series of short scenarios
3. Interview, including technical and competency-based questions
4. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment and progress to the vetting stage of the process

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around six to nine months to process, including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before you apply

To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria.

This role requires the highest level of security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). This is undertaken by everyone working in the UK Intelligence Community. Find out more about the vetting process.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy. Once you start your application, you must not take any recreational drugs, and you’ll need to declare any previous drug use at the relevant stage of the process.

Before you apply, we recommend setting up a separate email address for your correspondence with us to ensure your personal and application-related communications remain separate. Where possible, avoid using identifying information in your email address, such as your first name, surname and/or date of birth. This is good practice and will help you manage your application with us more securely.

The role is based in Cheltenham, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application.

We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in-person appointments during the recruitment and vetting process. Full details will be provided with your interview or assessment invitation.

Reimbursement is discretionary and will only be made in line with the Candidate Expenses Policy, as amended from time to time. Candidates must book their own travel using the most economical option and provide original hard copy receipts for reimbursement.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you are visiting the UK before submitting an application. Applications submitted from outside the UK may affect our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application with anyone other than your partner or a close family member.

Right to close applications early

Please be aware that we reserve the right to close applications once a certain number have been received. To avoid disappointment, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible.

If you have a disability (as defined under the Equality Act 2010) and require additional time to complete your application, please submit your initial application, and then contact us as soon as possible using the email address provided. Please use the subject line “Reasonable Adjustments Extension” and briefly outline the support you require.