About the job

Summary

Our Mission

At BEIS, we are leading the UK’s recovery from coronavirus and are building a stronger, greener country. Our varied work makes a real difference to people across the UK and internationally. This is a fantastic opportunity to become part of the BEIS team and our exciting mission!

We lead on the UK’s commitments to tackle climate change and drive green economic growth. We support businesses to create jobs and increase opportunity in regions across the UK. We also encourage investment and innovation to make the UK a science superpower producing research that will improve lives.

Our Inclusive Environment

We are building an inclusive culture to make BEIS a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, not only because we believe it is the right thing to do, but because it will help us be more innovative and make better decisions.

We offer first-class flexible working benefits, excellent employee well-being support and a great pension. We are fortunate to have a range of excellent staff networks and are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We will support talented people from all backgrounds to build a career and thrive.

We actively welcome applications from anyone who shares our commitment to inclusion. We will fully support candidates with a disability or long-term condition who require adjustments in our recruitment process.

Job description

Are you a policy professional who is passionate about using their expertise to help address climate change?

Heating our buildings accounts for 22% of the UK's carbon emissions today and is one of our biggest climate challenges. You could be part of the team solving this issue, and this is an excellent opportunity to work at the heart of energy policy within BEIS.

The Clean Heat Directorate is tackling arguably the most difficult decarbonisation challenge facing the country. The hydrogen heating team is leading the department’s work to test the safety and feasibility of hydrogen as an option for decarbonising the gas grid. We are working with industry on a joint programme across a wide range of projects. These include assessing the changes required for end-users and gas system infrastructure; laboratory and field testing; and consumer trialling. The programme has developed substantially over recent months.

These roles will work on the System Transformation sub-programme. The successful candidates will play a key role in in the team’s work to develop evidence on what gas network and storage infrastructure will be needed to facilitate the use of hydrogen for heating. This will be a key input into the strategic decisions on heat decarbonisation in the mid-2020s, identifying the infrastructure options to deliver different scenarios for hydrogen heating and developing a robust understanding of their costs, deliverability, and security of supply implications. This will include work being done in collaboration with the gas network companies and studies we will commission ourselves.

The Hydrogen Heating Team is in the Clean Heat Directorate in BEIS. It is a friendly, large, multidisciplinary programme team, including project delivery and policy professionals, analysts, engineers, commercial and delivery specialists. It is sociable and supportive – with a range of regular virtual social activities - and people are encouraged to ask questions and put forward their ideas in a safe environment.

Responsibilities

The successful candidates will help to shape the research that is undertaken and oversee its delivery, including monitoring the progress of network companies and third-party providers and providing challenge to their outputs, working closely with other team members, analysts, technical support and wider interested teams across BEIS, and with gas network and storage companies. You will need to develop a strong understanding of how work on hydrogen heating links with work being done on other options for decarbonisaton of heat (principally electrification and heat networks) to ensure that the evidence base we develop can support an assessment of the different strategic options on a consistent basis.

The work will include:

Working with others across the team and other groups within BEIS to scope our work and ensure it fits within and is effectively joined up with the wider programme of policy development in relation to net zero.

Determining how key research questions should be answered, and lead on the development of work specifications and procurement processes where we are commissioning external input from network companies or independent advisers.

Supervising the delivery of research projects, building effective relationships with partners and working to resolve issues as they arise to ensure delivery in lines with plans, and that methodologies and outputs are effectively scrutinised.

Providing clear and authoritative synthesis of findings and advice to senior colleagues and ministers.

Line management/activity management of junior colleagues.

Skills & Experience:

We are looking for a policy professional who can demonstrate:

• Good relationship building skills and experience of working closely with a wide range of teams including specialists such as economists, technical experts;

• Leadership of their policy area and ability to effectively scope their work, ensuring a coordinated approach with others;

• Proven ability to deliver consistently to tight timescales with a high degree of visibility;

• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to break down technical issues and weigh up sources of evidence in order to formulate pragmatic options and recommendations; and

• Excellent written and verbal communications skills, with the ability to synthesise and present complex information and to establish credibility inside and outside of government.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of experience of the energy, gas or home heating sectors more broadly.

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace