Band 3 Nuclear Safety Inspector Fault Analysis

Job Description

Job Purpose

As the UK’s independent nuclear regulator, our mission is to ensure safe nuclear for a secure and sustainable future. Our primary role is to ensure the highest standard of nuclear safety, civil nuclear security and safeguards, and conventional health and safety are maintained at nuclear facilities across our nation.

As an inspector your job will be varied, and you are likely to undertake a range of regulatory roles across the sector: from regulating the construction of new nuclear build to the decommissioning of legacy facilities. Some inspectors focus on undertaking planned and reactive inspections on site, while others will assess safety submissions or manage discrete intervention projects. Additionally, there may be opportunities to conduct investigations, manage research projects, support our international work, and mentor staff to help us develop the next generation of inspectors.

About The Role

You will be a specialist inspector within our Fault Analysis profession and you will be primarily concerned with assessing the dutyholder’s safety case and arrangements to identify and protect against fault conditions that could arise at their installation. This includes assessment of whether a dutyholder has appropriately identified faults, undertaken analysis of their progression and potential consequences, and has identified suitable and sufficient safety measures to prevent or mitigate them.

The Fault Analysis profession is made up from three specialisms: Fault Studies, Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA) and Fuel & Core. We welcome candidates with skills and experience across these but this opportunity is primarily focussed on the PSA specialism. Your work will be varied and will include conducting detailed technical assessments of PSA models, assessing dutyholder arrangements for developing and using PSA, influencing improvements when you identify shortfalls, and identifying risk insights from PSA to share with other inspectors. 

Line Management Responsibilities

• None currently, however, at this level there could be an expectation to manage

staff in the future.

Location / Travel

This post may be undertaken from a base at any one of ONR’s office locations (Bootle, Cheltenham, or London).

You may be eligible for relocation package up to £15,000.This post requires some travel including overnight stays predominantly across the United Kingdom and occasionally abroad. The successful applicant requires a full driving licence which permits the holder to drive in the UK unless reasonable adjustments can be made under the Equality Act 2010.

ONR operates hybrid working (working in the office and or at home) as part of our flexible working policy. There is an expectation that everyone will spend time in the office on a regular basis, recognising that some work is better done face to face. Managers will work with their teams on what works best to meet individual, team, business and organisational needs to enable collaboration, as well as balancing personal choice and wellbeing.

Work with Us

Our colleagues are from all walks of life with varied personal experiences and career journeys into ONR. We want the best people for our roles. As an inclusive employer we value individuals’ contributions, regardless of their age, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, social background, religion, or belief. Our values ‘supportive, open-minded, fair and accountable’ are central to this. We invest in our people to build capability, resilience, and promote wellbeing in our great teams, underpinned by our inherent focus on inclusion and excellence.

Security Clearance

SC

Person Specification

Inclusion

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. We will consider reasonable adjustments to ensure the recruitment process is inclusive and barrier-free. If you require reasonable adjustments as part of your application, please contact ONR HR as soon as possible, preferably before the vacancy closes, by emailing ONR.Human-Resources@onr.gov.uk/ or Stephanie.glen@onr.gov.uk to discuss further.

We will also offer an interview to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for applicants who opt into the guaranteed interview scheme.

We recognise we have a role to play in helping those leaving the Armed Forces and have a Veterans guaranteed interview scheme. We offer an interview to Veterans who meet the minimum criteria for applicants who opt into the scheme. Please see eligibility criteria below.

• served for at least one year in His Majesty's Armed Forces (as a Regular or Reserve).

• be in transition from, or ceased to be a member of, His Majesty’s Armed Forces.
• not already be employed by ONR.

Essential Skills / Experience

The key skills required of the role are as follows:

• In-depth knowledge of a wide range of PSA techniques and methodologies, including awareness of national and international standards for developing and assessing PSA. 
• Experience of developing, reviewing or acting as an intelligent customer for PSA models and supporting studies for complex high hazard facilities such as nuclear power plants.
• Experience with using PSA results and probabilistic insights to risk inform judgements in complex situations, balancing insights from the PSA against insights and requirements from other areas.  This could include experience with application of PSA to activities such as safety case development, modifications, design development, operations or decision making.
• Knowledge of one or more nuclear or other high hazard facilities, examples include: light water reactors, advanced gas cooled reactors, liquid metal or liquid salt reactor systems, other Generation IV reactors types, nuclear fuel manufacturing or reprocessing plants, or other high hazard activities.
• The ability to assimilate, analyse and provide judgements on new and complex technical issues, clearly and concisely.
• Strong communication, decision making and influencing skills. With the ability to see the bigger picture, targeting and prioritising work, based on risk.
• Confidence in the use of modern Microsoft-based IT tools and applications.

Desirable Skills / Experience

As you will be part of the wider Fault Analysis profession, in addition to PSA skills, we would also welcome the following:

• Experience with other aspects of Fault Analysis, such as Design Basis Analysis, Severe Accident Analysis or other forms of deterministic safety assessment. Experience or knowledge of nuclear fuel and reactor core performance and safety analysis or radiological consequences would also be welcome.
• Experience of non-reactor facilities, other high hazard industries, or in other regulatory regimes (e.g. outside of the UK).

Qualifications

We expect all Nuclear Safety Inspectors to have:

• A degree level qualification or equivalent in engineering, physical sciences, mathematics, or a related discipline.
• Chartered membership of a relevant professional institution, or the ability to demonstrate performance and/or experience at an equivalent professional level

For Further Information

For more information about this vacancy please correct Matt Worsley. 

E: Matthew.Worsley@onr.gov.uk

How To Apply

Please submit your application through the recruitment portal.

The closing date for receipt of applications is 21^st August 2026 at 11:45.

Your application should include:

• CV to include a full record of your education and professional qualifications and a full employment history.
• A suitability statement (maximum of 800 words) highlighting how you meet the ‘essential skills and experience” required for the role, which will be used at shortlisting in conjunction with your CV.
• Where applicable highlight if you have any experience under ‘desirable skills and experience’ within the application form.

Throughout our shortlisting process, we will make decisions about your capability to do the job, based on evidence you provide against the essential criteria (and the desirable if applicable).

Please note that an in-person based interview at Bootle will be required for this role

Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Important guidance when providing CV’s – please upload text-based CVs with no graphics or pictures to ensure the anonymisation function works correctly.

Please note - if whilst completing your application, you use special characters such as (‘; “- _ *) within your examples, Hireserve will convert these characters into symbols. We are currently unable to change this. 

Whilst these examples will appear on your application, this will not prevent it from being reviewed at the shortlisting stage.