Operational Security Advisor

Company Overview:

About Palladium – Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, people’s lives.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion – Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at [email protected] and we will be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding – We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.

Palladium’s Humanitarian and Stabilisation Operations Team (HSOT) delivers humanitarian and stabilisation services worldwide in support of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).Within the FCDO, HSOT directly supports the Office of Conflict, Stabilisation, and Mediation (OCSM) and the Humanitarian Response Group (HRG). .

Key Responsibilities

The Operational Security Advisor role reports into the Senior OSA and will provide comprehensive security advice on international deployments and will support the preparation and ongoing activities required to support humanitarian and stabilisation experts globally.

• Provide early input in the planning of deployments, ensuring that operational plans remain feasible and that security aspects are acceptable, represented and effectively addressed at each phase.
• Undertake international and regional travel to austere and challenging environments to conduct local security and risk assessments,
• Provide relevant, accurate and enabling technical security advice to HSOT, HRG and OCSM Leaderships, Response Managers, Risk Owners and Deployees to support planned, reactive and ongoing deployments.
• Produce accurate, and effectively evidenced risk assessments including Safety and Security Instructions (SSI) and Travel Risk Assessments (TRA).
• Provide concise verbal and written briefings to support submissions, estimates and risk registers that can escalate to the senior official or ministerial level.
• Engage with external contacts in the UK (and internationally) to inform risk assessments and support risk management activities, including the updating or redrafting of old or out-of-date assessments.
• Monitor the security situation throughout individual deployments acting as the security management focal point for deployed teams; ensuring reasonable mitigation of foreseeable risks and intervening early where required.
• Assist in the evolution of, and thus ensure the practical relevance of, HSOT’s Hostile Environment & Security Training (HEST) and attend the course to remain qualified.
• Lead on security initiatives to overcome novel, contentious, systemic or technical issues: improving outcomes for the client and deployed staff.
• Act as the on-call OSA over weekends and public holidays on a rotational basis amongst a team of 4.

Required Qualifications:

• Relevant and consistent security experience with governmental deployments or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) providing security advice with demonstrable ongoing improvements.
• A first-level university degree or equivalent work experience.
• Demonstrate a profile of experiences that bridges sectors, contexts and operational environments and a personal commitment to ensuring the safety of deployed staff
• Evidence an ability to work under limited supervision, demonstrate independent initiative and build and exploit professional networks to provide pragmatic, succinct solutions.
• Proven ability to research, understand and then influence decision making through high quality written and verbal briefings within a short timeframe; often researching material from scratch using open and classified sources and professional networks.
• Demonstrate an expert ability to research and synthesise information to produce clear analytical products.
• Experience of working within humanitarian context and supporting deployments with similar departments will be advantageous
• Excellent time management and coordination skills, with the ability to organise a substantial workload of complex, diverse tasks.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to negotiate successful outcomes in challenging situations; present a can-do attitude, remain proactive and be solution focused.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, fluency in a second language an asset.
• The applicant must hold the right to work in the UK and have the ability to acquire a UK Security Check (SC) clearance ( at least two full years of UK residency) with the ability to acquire Developed Vetting (DV) in due course.
• The closing date for this role is the 4th July 2022.