Opportunities in Engineering Biology

About the job

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) delivers high-impact science for the UK's defence, security and prosperity. In order to do this, we need self-motivated people who can apply their skills to ensure we are at the forefront of science. We work in specialised areas which are sensitive in nature, operationally-critical to the UK and internationally recognised in importance.

The field of Engineering Biology encompasses the entire innovation ecosystem that supports the exploitation of Synthetic Biology research, often coupled with industrial biotechnology, for economic and public benefit, and may be potentially disruptive for defence capability.

 As an underpinning platform technology that will affect multiple requirements, a coherent and coordinated approach to EngBio is required to maximise alliances between programmes and facilitate exploitation.

At Dstl we are working across defence, industry and academia to assess the potential for SynBio and EngBio to further develop capabilities for UK Defence and Security. Due to the increased focus in these areas we have an exciting opportunity to build a team of research scientists who will be working in this space to understand the current threats and opportunities and deliver scientific outputs to support our customer requirements.

Research Scientist

Are you a graduate or post-doctoral scientist with a love of the life sciences? 

Are you excited by recent developments in applying biological tools to society’s problems?

Do you enjoy exploring the art of the possible?

Are you committed to a career in research and have experience in modern molecular biology? 

If so, we are seeking to recruit up to nine enthusiastic, self-motivated scientists who have either recently undertaken post-doctoral research employing SynBio-related approaches, or graduated with a degree relevant to the field of SynBio. You will undertake laboratory work and interact with a range of collaborators to build and promote Dstl’s EngBio capability.

Team Leader

This recruitment is accompanied by that of a Team Leader for Engineering Biology who will provide leadership to a team of newer recruits and also existing scientists working in the areas of Eng and SynBio. Driving an area of emerging technology is a uniquely challenging one, requiring resilience, and ability to carefully push on boundaries, patience, versatility, flexibility, new ways of working, effort in establishing and exploiting networks. We are therefore seeking an individual with a leadership or scientific background who will be able to establish and lead this team to deliver against a range of customer requirements.

Dstl recognises the importance of diversity and inclusion as people from diverse backgrounds bring fresh ideas. We are committed to building an inclusive working environment in which each employee fulfils their potential and maximises their contribution.

We particularly welcome female and ethnic minority applicants and those from the LGBTQI community, as they are under-represented within Dstl at these levels.

Job description

Research Scientist – In this role you will:

•    Work on a variety of exciting and challenging problems for Defence and Security
• Apply your molecular and synthetic biology techniques to laboratory based challenges
• Develop yourself and your networks through pro-active engagement and continuous professional development (CPD)
• Apply logical thinking and problem solving to enable the design and testing of innovative technologies to meet our customers’ needs.
• Develop your career in an exciting new area that is growing to meet cutting-edge challenges
 •    Enhance your current knowledge, learning many new skills through the exciting work on offer and through learning and development opportunities

Team Leader – in this role you will:

•    Develop & sustain capability (people relationships, infrastructure, knowledge, licences to practice) to provide technical/scientific contribution to current and future projects across Dstl through effective use of the Team's resources/expertise:
o Maintain awareness of current and future demand requirements
o Understand and use the different resource options to ensure an appropriate mix of team members
o Understand and effectively develop capability to align with Division Capability plans
o Build resilience through succession planning, including developing future leaders
• Direct Line management of a team of ca.15 Team Members:
o Enable effective performance management and development of team members
o Allocate employees to tasks or projects based on requirements
o Coach and support Team Members career and personal development.
• Ensure that people have the necessary skills and competencies for the tasks assigned
• Ensure employees have knowledge of and conform to all safety and security and resilience requirements.
• Build employees engagement and create an environment which nurtures excellence
• Implement Dstl's policies and ensure compliance with the Management System.
 •    Provide individual technical/professional contribution as agreed with Line Manager.

Person specification

Research Scientist

We are looking for people who have;

• a degree or PhD in a field relevant to molecular biology, synthetic biology or related discipline. Applicants with experience in bacterial, viral and fungal cuture and manipulation are particularly encouraged.
• an interest in synthetic biology
• a desire to stretch themselves to understand a broad application space and an interest in contributing to S&T across the breadth of Dstl
• a commitment to delivery of high quality innovative science
• well-developed organisational skills
• the ability to think creatively and make connections between disparate information sources
• an interest in building something of their own and working independently, whilst ensuring the team is appropriately involved
• a commitment to ongoing self-development, including continuing to expand their knowledge on developments in synthetic biology

Skills;

• Good communication skills, both written and oral, able to tailor the technical level to the given audience
• Effective networking and ability to build productive relationships
• Good time management and able to prioritise challenging demands to meet deadlines
• Be able to work independently or as part of a team, as required
• An understanding of synthetic biology, with in-depth knowledge of a specific area, and broad understanding of Responsible Research and Innovation pertaining to the field.
• Ability to demonstrate applied molecular biology laboratory techniques (e.g. PCR, cloning, bioinformatics)

 Experience

• Confirmed experience or education in synthetic biology research
• Laboratory experience and understanding of working practices in ACDP/ACGM containment level 2
• Communicating technical content to others, both in writing and orally.

 Team Leader

We are looking for somebody who has

• The ability to successfully manage multiple tasks simultaneously
• The ability to quickly develop good working relationships with a variety of people.
• Good networking skills.
• Tact and diplomacy in dealing with a wide range of issues/challenges
• Persistence to see things through to a conclusion
• Passion for developing capability and people
• The ability to lead through change
• Able to communicate coherently and sensitively, explaining complex issues in a way that is easy to understand.
• Emotional Intelligence, able to understand own and others reactions, motivations etc
• The ability to handle conflicting priorities successfully delivering to changing requirements.

 Skills

• Effective leadership
• Management and/or supervision of people and tasks
• Excellent communication skills.
• Sufficient technical and business management expertise to understand the tools, techniques and skills required within the Team and how to develop them.
• Understanding of safety, security and resilience risks in order to assess/mitigate those relating to the specific team.
• Understanding the business benefits of diversity and equality and how to create an inclusive working environment
• Commercial Awareness - ability to understand what makes a business or organisation successful. Understanding of the commercial implications of contracts and working practices.
• Able to develop networks and use these to resolve issues/challenges.

 Experience

• Experience of providing effective leadership
• Experience of managing and/or supervising people
• Experience of successfully communicating difficult/complex messages
• Successful management and delivery of work
• Supervision of others; this may include tasking or guidance.

Leadership

As a leader in Defence you will help shape, role model and bring to life the ‘One Defence’ mindset that will enable us to deliver our vision and strategic objectives. Your leadership style must be inspiring, confident and empowering. Working at every level of our organisation to break down silos, unite teams and create a culture that is trusting, collaborative, innovative, diverse and inclusive. Enabling us to deliver with pace and agility through the skills, commitment and empowerment of our employees and military colleagues.

Important Information

Our work in defence, security and intelligence requires our employees to be UK Nationals who are able to gain a high level of security clearance to undertake the projects we are involved in to protect us from security threats. For this reason, only UK Nationals will be able to apply for this role. If you are an international or dual-national candidate, and you think you have the skills we need, please consider applying to any of our government, security or defence partners.

 These roles will require full UK security clearance and you should have resided in the UK for the past 5 years. For some roles Developed Vetting will also be required, in this case you should have resided in the UK for the past 10 years.

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Developing Self and Others

Technical skills

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

• Please state which role you are interested in applying for - Research Scientist or Team Leader. Other than the role, no further information is required for this question.
• Research Scientist Role - Please provide a description of your experience and interest in Synthetic Biology. If applying for Team Leader role, please state as this in this question and leave the rest blank.
• Research Scientist Role - Please describe the technical skills used during your degree and/or PhD and subsequently. If applying for Team Leader role, please state as this in this question and leave the rest blank.
• Research Scientist and Team Leader role - Please describe how you would build productive and collaborative relationships within the scientific community.
• Team Leader Role - Please explain why you feel your skills, experience and knowledge are suited to this Team Leader Role If applying for Research Scientist role, please state as this in this question and leave the rest blank.
• Team Leader Role - When have you used sound judgement to resolve conflict and minimise risk while continuing to deliver a quality service? If applying for Research Scientist role, please state as such in this question and leave the rest blank.

Benefits

Benefits 

Dstl’s full range of great benefits can be found in the information pack which includes:

• Financial: An excellent pension scheme starting from 26% employer contribution (find out more here). In Year Rewarding Achievement bonuses and thank you vouchers. Rental deposit scheme and cycle to work scheme. 
• Flexible working: Working options include alternative working patterns, compressed hours, job shares and annualised hours
• Flexible working hours: Ability to bank hours in a 12 month reference period including the ability to accrue and use 3 days per calendar month. 
• Annual leave: A generous annual leave allowance starting at 25 days pro rata (rising to 30 after 5 years) plus 8 public holidays with the ability to buy/sell 5 additional days per annum.
• Family: Maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks with full pay, an additional 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid
• Learning and Development: Encouragement and support on charterships, accreditations and access to fully funded apprenticeships up to level 7 (Masters Degree). Paid memberships with 2 relevant bodies/institutions. Employees have access to Civil Service Learning.
• Facilities: Onsite parking, EV Charging points, restaurants, cafés and gyms.

The information pack can be found attached to the job specification on Civil Service Jobs. 

Diversity 

We have a number of support networks to ensure all employees feel supported at work. These include the following:

• Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Network
• Race, Faith and Culture Network
• Parents and Carer Support Network
• Alternative Working Network
• Gender Equality Network
• New Starters Network
• Enabled Network, for people with visible and non-visible disabilities.

For further information about Dstl please check out our LinkedIn page

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Sift - week commencing 15 May 2023

Interviews - week commencing 5 June 2023

Please note due to the number of applications anticipated we may look to sift and interview throughout the duration of the advert and therefore an early application is encouraged. 

 Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

 This job is not open to candidates who hold a dual nationality.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

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.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.