About the role

  • Salary: £30,226 rising to £35,744 with possible Recruitment and Retention Allowance
  • Location: Taunton
  • Contract: Permanent
  • Working pattern: Flexible working, Full-time
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The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) is a world leading centre for hydrography, specialising in marine geospatial data to support safe, secure and thriving oceans.

 As a trading fund of the Ministry of Defence, we support defence, safe maritime navigation and marine development around the UK and worldwide.

We are looking for maritime professionals to join our team. If you have the maritime qualifications and experience required for the role and want to apply your skills to support the maritime community, then this role is for you.

The purpose of the Maritime Advisor role is to assess new data to maintain our Sailing Directions Volumes, providing essential information to support port entry and coastal navigation for all classes of ships at sea.

Quality is paramount and the role is to ensure the volumes of Sailing Directions (SDs) are safe, accurate, clear to users, whilst remaining comprehensive, and up-to-date including Section IV Notice to Mariners supporting the maritime customer.

Post holders also provide navigational and maritime input for existing and emerging UKHO products and services, often acting as the “voice of the customer” due to their Maritime expertise.

You would be joining this team as we move towards producing digital SD volumes.

If you are successful, you will undertake a programme of development and will be measured against a defined skills and competency framework and, once the required level is reached, normally within 12 – 18 months, post holders will become B2 Maritime Advisors.

We are currently working towards a start date in January 2025.

Job description

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On starting, Maritime Advisors will undertake the following activities:

› Assess new information for its impact on Sailing Directions (SDs) and maintain in steady state maintenance

› Recommend Notice to Mariner action for SDs

› Provide mariner's input to product development

› Pro-actively seek information for SD content from external sources

› Prepare, amend and technically edit Sailing Directions volumes for publication.

Once assessed as competent in these tasks, post holders will progress to undertake the following tasks:

› Verify assessment decisions relating to new information and recommendations of Notice to Mariners action; providing feedback and guidance to support colleagues.

› Collaborate with others to share knowledge providing the mariners’ perspective on New Charts, New Editions and new chart schemes at specification stage.

Additional tasks undertaken by Maritime Advisors may include:

› Provide navigational expertise in response to queries from both internal and external customers.

› Provide mariners perspective/advise to other areas of the business when required.

› Continually develop own skills and provide clear coaching and mentoring for the development of the team.

› Use own expertise to play an active role in development and implementation of new processes and working practices and review and update process documentation.

Required skills and experience

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In this role you will have the opportunity to share your external user experience to contribute to and support the development of our products and services to meet current and future customer needs.  We are looking for team players, with a proactive approach to identifying and taking forward improvements to ways of working.  An eye for detail and the ability to use clear written English to produce user focused sailing directions are key requirements for the role.

Qualifications

Officer of the Watch CoC (Unlimited) or Navy Equivalent (Minimum)

Apply

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All applications for this role must be submitted through Civil Services Jobs. You will be assesed against set crtieria, for both the initial shortlist and interview selection. 

Please read all criteria in detail and be sure to tailor your application to these requirements. 

Life at UKHO

Find out what it's like to work at the UKHO

At the UKHO we recognise that people are at the heart of our organisation and we ensure we support our people throughout their career with us.

A place which values you

We know the importance of wellbeing, so offer 26.5 days annual leave, flexible working as standard and an exceptional civil service pension of 27.9% plus much more.

A place to grow your career

We provide a nurturing, flexible working environment with a culture that will ensure you can get the most out of your career with us.

Whether you are looking to enrich your existing skills or learn new ones, we encourage staff to reach their full potential. 

A place for everyone

We embrace Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). We work with people from all walks of life, championing diverse perspectives to develop innovative solutions.