Security Assurance Officer in Derby

Location: Hybrid, based from one of our offices in Derby, Manchester or Warrington

About Us

Rolls‑Royce SMR is here to transform how nuclear energy is delivered—cleaner, faster and at global scale. Our teams are developing one of the world’s most advanced small modular reactors, helping secure affordable, low‑carbon energy for generations to come.

The Team

Our Safety & Regulatory Affairs team plays a vital role in ensuring our programmes meet the highest standards of quality, nuclear governance, and regulatory compliance. We enable safe, efficient delivery by shaping the frameworks that keep our documentation accurate, traceable, and audit‑ready.

Role Summary

The role of security assurance is to identify Physical and Personnel Security risks and highlight non-compliance and vulnerabilities to enable others to manage residual risk.

What we’ll need you to do:

• Deliver security assurance processes, including providing audit information to risk owners
• Monitor and report on the delivery of Physical and Personnel Security services against requirements, with the use of key performance indicators
• Ensure alignment with objectives and standards, proactively reviewing and assuring security risk and highlighting non-conformance

Responsibilities

• Applied Physical and/or Personnel Security
  • Develops and applies new concepts in Security, involving the other specialisms/enablers, with an emphasis on creating new or adapting existing audit activity
  • Promotes Physical and Personnel Security as a business enabler throughout the organisation, through the identification of vulnerabilities and recommendations to remove or mitigate these to improve business processes
  • Engages with the UK security community
• Legal & Regulatory environment and compliance
  • Advises others on the principal requirements of major legislation and regulations relevant to security, and the legal and regulatory instruments relevant to the role
  • Provides oversight of the range of regulations that impact the security function and the interactions between them
  • Reports residual non-compliance to senior management in accordance with organisational procedures
• Risk Understanding and Mitigation
  • Assists in the development of risk management plans based on findings from security audit activity, enabling the organisation to deliver balanced and cost–effective risk management decisions
  • Assists business risk assessment and mitigation plan development
  • Ensures that risk is embedded into security governance processes and activities
• Protective Security
  • Maintains an up-to-date understanding of fundamentals of all areas of security and appreciates the importance of making use of a combination and multi-layering of appropriate and proportionate Physical and Personnel Security measures to protect assets
  • Promotes protective security, providing advice to others
• Threat Understanding
  • Describes specific threats and how they may manifest themselves in a local environment
  • Maintains understanding of local threat environment and can apply to inform and provide context for wider activities
  • Uses local threat information in decision-making and planning
  • Demonstrates knowledge of current threats and trends affecting the landscape

What we’re looking for:

• Experience in the following areas would be advantageous:
• Relevant industry qualifications and accreditations, e.g. ISO27001 Auditing, Physical or Personnel Security Professional, Certified Information Systems Auditor etc
• Relevant security qualifications and accreditations
• Knowledge of Nuclear Industry Security regulation or similar highly regulated industry, such as aerospace, MOD etc
• Willing to travel to undertake audit activities in person

The successful candidate must be prepared and able to travel to locations inside and outside the UK to undertake assurance activities.

Location & Ways of Working

This role can be based in Derby, Manchester or Warrington, with flexibility to work between home and the office depending on business needs. There may be some international travel required on an adhoc basis.

What’s in It for You

A salary between £42,000 - £55,150, £2,200 benefit allowance, 12.5% bonus opportunity, 6x pensionable life assurance, 50% income protection, 28 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, and a £250 new‑joiner payment—alongside opportunities for development and progression.

Selection Process

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a competency‑based interview and may be asked to provide evidence of document management capability. This role requires BPSS checks as part of our onboarding process.

Inclusion & Accessibility

We’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued. If you meet around 75% of the criteria, we’d still love to hear from you. We’re happy to discuss reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and offer flexible or part‑time working where possible.

Pay Range:

Why Join Us?

You’ll be joining a forward-thinking organisation that values transparency, fairness, and innovation. We offer:

• A flexible, inclusive, and supportive working environment
• Opportunities for career growth in a rapidly scaling business
• A culture that values diversity, innovation, and continuous learning

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all backgrounds. Inclusivity is important to us, and as a Disability Confident organisation, we are committed to fair, supportive, and continually improving recruitment practices that ensure everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Confidence can sometimes hold us back from applying for a job. But we'll let you in on a secret: there's no such thing as a 'perfect' candidate. If you feel you meet 75% of the requirements for this role, we would love to hear from you.

Also, if you are considering a career move or a sector-jump, please get in touch – we welcome applications from people with transferable skills.

Our Application Process

Due to the safety regulations within the nuclear industry, applicants will be required to participate in additional screening. These are:

• Obtaining Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) clearance
• Satisfactory completion of a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
• Satisfactory completion of a basic financial probity check