Protective Security Adviser Principal

At Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), we supply and maintain vital equipment and services for the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force. Together, we deliver a vast range of essential defence programmes, and strive for what's next. Because it helps keep our military at the top of their game and our nation safe – for today, and tomorrow.

DE&S has recently been integrated into the National Armaments Director (NAD) Group. The NAD Group brings together key Ministry of Defence (MOD) organisations to unite expertise across science, technology, procurement, infrastructure, and support to provide integrated capabilities faster and more efficiently for our armed forces and our allies.

This is an exciting new opportunity to enable better ways of working and empower greater collaboration across Defence. We offer 25+ days’ holiday, flexible and hybrid working, enhanced parental leave schemes, shopping discounts, and an exceptional employer pension contribution of 28.97%, to help make work for you.

As a Protective Security Advisor, you will play a crucial role in advising and supporting the delivery of a robust security and resilience posture across the NAD Group, industry partners, and the wider Defence community. You will ensure the organisation applies rigorous security and business continuity management processes to protect critical operations and assets across all security classification levels. Your expertise will support the secure delivery of NAD Group, MOD, and Government projects, working within established policies and governance frameworks to maintain the highest standards of security assurance throughout the project lifecycle.

The UK Government holds vast amounts of sensitive data, financial assets, and personal information that underpin essential public services used by millions. Protecting this information is vital, as threats from organised crime, hacktivists, terrorism, foreign intelligence, and rogue individuals pose significant risks. Your role will be key in defending people, property, and physical assets from damage or loss, helping to maintain public trust and national security.

We seek curious, analytical minds who consider every possibility, ask insightful questions, and dig deeper to uncover risks. You should have a solid understanding of Risk, Mitigation, and Physical Security, alongside working knowledge of Protective Security, Threat Awareness, and Government standards. You will be responsible for the management and assurance of highly sensitive compartmented information, including compliance, physical security, personnel security and information handling requirements.

In this role, you will provide assurance of compliance with Cabinet Office and Defence policies, develop strong working relationships with authorities and the wider government security community, analyse information, establish resilience processes, and offer expert guidance. You will also manage queries and records related to accreditations, processes, and procedures. This specialist role is based at Abbey Wood in Bristol and includes significant travel. When not travelling, full time attendance is required in office.

For security reasons these roles are open to sole UK nationals only. A ‘sole UK national’ refers to an individual who holds citizenship solely in the UK, without dual citizenship or nationality from another country. We’re unable to offer visa sponsorship. This role requires you to have lived in the UK for the last 10 years and obtain Developed Vetting (DV) security clearance. Clearance must be obtained without any caveats that prevent you from carrying out the role you have been recruited for. If it isn’t obtained or is obtained but with caveats that prevent you from carrying out the role, any conditional offer made to you will be withdrawn. Obtaining DV security clearance can be a lengthy process. If clearance isn’t obtained within 12 months, we reserve the right to withdraw any conditional offer made.

Lead/Support the accreditation of facilities designated to handle, discuss, process, and store highly compartmented information across the Defence Industry. Liaise with the Department’s security authorities, Establishment Security Officers, Security Controllers, and other delegations as appropriate to support the accreditation and security management arrangements of highly compartmented information. Manage protection of highly compartmented assets by rigorous controls and audit, ensuring procedures for controlling access, use, and decommissioning of equipment and information are robust. Administer any queries regarding the processes and procedures with matters raised through appropriate security reporting lines. Provide tasking to the Security Assurance team as required to support accreditation activity. Provide authority for the release of reports and monitor follow-up actions. Align with relevant regulation, policy and standards to provide proportional, practical advice, tailored to the strategic environment, and advise relevant stakeholders on any residual risk. Deliver informed / evidence-based recommendations to decision-makers with a means of mitigating risk and managing issues.

To be successful with your application, you'll need to show that you meet the following essential criteria:

• Lead criterion: Significant experience of providing protective security advisory or consultancy services within government, defence, critical national infrastructure, industry, the public sector, or a similarly complex organisation. Demonstrable experience of applying protective security expertise to assess risk, influence stakeholders, develop practical mitigations and deliver security outcomes.

In addition to the responsibilities above, the following technical competences and behaviours will be assessed at interview:

• Core Behaviour 1: Making Effective Decisions – CSBC 3
• Core Behaviour 2: Communicating and Influencing – CSBC 3
• Technical Competence 1: Risk understanding and mitigation – Expert
• Technical Competence 2: Protective Security – Practitioner

Offered benefits:

• 25 days’ annual leave +1 day a year up to 30 days, 8 bank holidays and a day off for the King’s birthday
• Market‑leading average employer pension contribution of 28.97%
• Annual performance‑based bonus and recognition awards
• Access to specialist training and funded qualifications

Please note as a Disability Confident Leader we want to ensure you receive any reasonable adjustments that you need throughout the recruitment process. If you do require any reasonable adjustments, you can let us know on your online application under the section ‘Please indicate and give details of any reasonable adjustments you may require during the recruitment process.’

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

Your application will go through the following stages of assessment:

• Pre-sift - We will check your application to ensure that you meet any essential or eligibility criteria that are listed in the Person Specification section of this advert. On your CV, please clearly show how you meet the essential criteria.
• Sift - Your CV will be assessed against the following categories, using a simple numerical scoring system: Key Achievements; Relevant Experience; Applied Knowledge and Skills. Please follow our guidance on CV writing for best chance of success.
• Interview - If you're invited to interview, you will be assessed against the following: CV Review, Core Behaviour 1, Core Behaviour 2.

Please Note: In the event of a tied score at interview, the Order of Merit will be distinguished based on the ranking of the assessed behaviours and competencies. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview. If you’re not successful at interview, we may offer you a role at a lower level if this is a match for your skills and experience.