Business Continuity and Protective Security Officer - Office for National Statistics - EO in Newport

The ONS operates a flexible hybrid working model across the UK, with colleagues linked to one of our contractual locations working between office and remote throughout the week. The locations for this role are Newport and Titchfield (Fareham). All colleagues are required to work from their contractually allocated site for at least 40% of their working time. The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.

About the job

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime and migration.

Protective Security and Business Resilience Operations provide resiliency design, consultancy and advice to projects and business as usual operations, encompassing both subject areas. Services support secure by design and international business continuity standards and approaches to build security and resilience into ONS operations and enable better security assurance. Core activities enable the identification of business disruption and security risk and also mitigations to meet ONS risk appetite. The division also provides oversight and quality assurance of physical security measures and business continuity planning to ensure efficacy and conformity to required standards.

This role forms part of the Protective Security & Business Resilience Operations Team within the Security and Information Management Division. It reports to the Business Continuity & Crisis Management Lead who reports to the Head of Protective Security & Business Resilience Operations. The primary focus of the role is providing advice, guidance and oversight for Business Continuity, with a secondary focus of Incident & Crisis Management within ONS. A key aspect is supporting the delivery of organisational goals for the Business Continuity Management System within the current strategy period through to 2026.

Key outcomes from the role are advice and quality assurance and the effective delivery of the ONS Business Continuity integrated into ONS business operations, verifying the effectiveness of organisation‑wide security and business continuity measures and effective response to security incidents and business disruptions impacting the delivery of prioritised ONS outputs. The role will have Physical Security responsibilities at ONS Sites. The role includes development opportunities and you will be supported to work towards a formal qualification with the Business Continuity Institute (BCI).

• To be a system lead administrator for the Business Continuity Management System (BCMS).
• Provide initial advice to business areas on the development of Business Impact Analyses.
• Provide initial advice to business areas on the development of Business Continuity Plans.
• Assist in the delivery and facilitation of Business Continuity exercises for all areas of the ONS.
• Identify and document business continuity risks and issues and escalation as required.
• Contribute to an accurate and up‑to‑date organisational picture to include risk owners and lines of accountability.
• Support incident response structures for strategic, tactical and operational disruptions.
• Support development of the business continuity capability by establishing, maintaining and reviewing the organisation’s policy and programme activities for each stage of the business continuity life cycle.

Person specification

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with experience engaging effectively with a diverse range of stakeholders, including senior leaders.
• Strong interpersonal and teamwork abilities, enabling smooth integration into fast‑paced environments and proactive support to business areas.
• Self‑motivated, proactive, and able to work independently, ensuring tasks are progressed efficiently and to a high standard.
• Keen to learn and develop professionally within the fields of security and business continuity, with a strong commitment to continuous improvement.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications, with experience in gathering, analysing and presenting management information to support informed decision‑making.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities, consistently delivering high‑quality outputs in dynamic and demanding settings.