About OPSS

Do you care about the safety of products and want to protect people and places? Can we use your skills, knowledge and experience to enable UK business to thrive? If the answer is yes, then we would like to hear from you!

We are the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), part of the Department for Business & Trade. We are here for the purpose of making regulation work to deliver real world impact. Regulation is a powerful Government tool to address market failures, influence behaviour and promote positive action. Crafted and delivered well, regulation can be an enabler of growth, innovation and efficiency.

Since early 2018 we have been building a positive and creative team that enjoys a position of influence and respect within an organisation that continues to grow.

Our primary purpose is to protect people and places from product-related harm, ensuring consumers and businesses can buy and sell products with confidence

Further information can be found on our website here.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles. We embrace diversity and promote equality of opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and skills. There is a guaranteed interview scheme (DCS) for people with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

We are Inclusive

We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible and recognise how important inclusivity is to achieve the best outcomes. We hope to attract applications from all underrepresented groups.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation if required to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is delighted to launch an innovative research fellowship scheme, to enable talented researchers from either academia or industry to contribute specialist subject knowledge and technical expertise to OPSS research.  
 
Subject area specialists who are motivated to keep people and places safe from product related harm will join OPSS for a year to work on a specific project. The projects are aligned with our strategic priorities, strengthening OPSS's collaborative work with researchers, and providing the opportunity to contribute to OPSS's work to ensure consumers and businesses can buy and sell products with confidence.  
 
Fellows are invited to join OPSS on a secondment basis to lead on a specific research project for the duration of the year. The project will align with the Fellow's specialist area, enabling the Fellow to make a unique contribution to the effective development of UK product safety regulation. This opportunity is available full time or part time. The position is funded, allowing Fellows' current salary to be matched according to Civil Service pay scales.  

Becoming a Fellow at OPSS is a unique career development opportunity that will allow researchers to:   

• Understand the role of evidence and research in informing policy decisions   
• Take a step back from their usual research, such as lab-based or academic work, to lead on research that makes an impact within a policy environment    
• Collaborate with government employees across a range of teams to build new professional networks    
• Gain access to unique training and development opportunities to learn new skills to take back to your employer and/or advance your career   
• Join the founding cohort of OPSS Fellows, benefiting from the support of other researchers   
• Contribute to forging connections between UK academia, industry and government 

Artificial Intelligence National Quality Infrastructure Futures Project 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the centre of the government's growth mission and the industrial strategy. Its use in products and services is rapidly increasing. OPSS has a number of workstreams dedicated to understanding the potential hazards, harms and risk that AI in consumer products might pose to consumers and how OPSS can best use AI to improve its outcomes and impacts as the UK's product regulator.  

This project is in the OPSS Technology Team, which bridges Legal Metrology, Futures, Research and Artificial Intelligence. While we consider what the hazards, harms and risks to consumers and businesses of AI in consumer products are, over which OPSS has direct regulatory control, we need to consider the wider effect on the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI).  

Key Responsibilities: 

1. Main output: Work with Futures, AI, Metrology and Research Leads in Tech Team to create a report on AI in the NQI for OPSS. Fellow will own the creation of the report. The report should cover relevant aspects of "AI in the NQI for Consumer Products" including but not limited to whether AI used to create and assure compliance of consumer products may result in new hazards, harms and risks, and if so, how the National Quality Infrastructure can mitigate them 
2. Secondary output: Create (if required) or amend current methodology for AI Futures thinking, based on OPSS existing futures work, other government departments or other sources. Fellow will own the creation and/or adoption of the methodology and justification for its creation and/or amendment 

• Combine desk-based research and commissioning of external research, consultation and/or surveys as required  
• Liaise with stakeholders in OPSS, Department for Business and Trade, other government departments, academia, industry, non-governmental organisations, the NQI and other countries' versions of these institutions  
• Work with OPSS templates and/or formats for outputs, amending if required  
• Create metrics to measure the projects' success and OPSS's approach to Future of AI - how will we know the project is a success and how will we know if OPSS's approach to policy and regulation of AI is the right one?  
• Run meetings, workshops, surveys and interviews with stakeholders to gain insights and shape work and reach conclusions  
• Task colleagues in Tech Team as appropriate  

We have two vacancies at SEO level which you can choose from, based on your relevant experience and interests. Further details of other roles can be found in our candidate pack and details of where to apply is below. 

Essential criteria

The below criteria are essential and will be assessed at application stage.

An awareness of:   

• Building and Applying Knowledge  
• Developing Science and Engineering Capability  
• Communicating Insights  
• Monitoring and Evaluation  

Practitioner of:  

• Applied research  

Desirable Criteria 

The below criteria are desirable only. These will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process, but will be used in the event of tied scores between candidates;

• Futures thinking 
• AIML applications (in consumer product assurance) 
• The National Quality Infrastructure 

For further information, please refer to the: Government Science and Engineering (GSE) Career Framework, November 2021 (Version 2)

If you have any enquiries about the roles, please email: [email protected] 

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

• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving

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

• A presentation dependent on specific project

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Please refer to the attached candidate pack for further information on our benefits.

Job contact :

• Name : Erin Kehoe
• Email : [email protected]

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]