Associate, Engineering Officer

Please note that this role will close at 00:01 on Wednesday 27 May, and therefore we advise getting your application in by no later than midnight on Tuesday 26 May.

This role will cover the Central belt of Scotland.

Looking for a job where you can utilise your radio engineering skills and help manage the UK’s radio spectrum?

Ofcom is the regulator for the communications services that we use and rely on each day. We make sure people get the best from their broadband, home phone and mobile services, as well as keeping an eye on TV and radio.

Our culture is clear – we live by our values:
Empowerment;
Excellence;
Collaboration;
Agility and Respect. These define how we work to deliver our purpose, now and in the future. The behaviours which support these values set the path for a fully inclusive and innovative culture at Ofcom.

We focus not only on what we do, but how we do it. We pride ourselves on being an organisation of people who genuinely care about helping others.

Radio spectrum is a vital resource, and it touches everyone's life every day. The radio spectrum connects our mobiles, wireless headphones, tablets, and computers. It enables our key fobs to unlock our cars, the Met Office to forecast the weather, satellites to measure global warming, and concerts and shows to be seen and heard. Without access to radio spectrum, the police, fire, ambulance, coastguard, and air traffic control would not be able to communicate – it’s that important.

It’s Ofcom’s job to manage and protect the use of all this spectrum. Your role will be working in the Spectrum Assurance team within the wider Ofcom Spectrum Group. Spectrum Assurance is a large team consisting of two core elements: a team of Spectrum Engineering Officers (SEO’s) who cover specific geographical areas across the UK; and the Spectrum Management Centre – Ofcom’s central technical operations hub in Hertfordshire.

SEOs provide advice and assistance to licensed spectrum users and, whenever necessary, they undertake compliance action to resolve interference issues. SEOs will also monitor and proactively investigate improper use of the spectrum, to keep the UK businesses and consumers “on the air”. You are not required to have a legal/regulatory background as full training will be provided.

The key purpose of the role is to deliver high quality spectrum assurance to services and spectrum users within a geographical area. This requires first class radio engineering and interpersonal communications, and we will teach you the investigation and compliance skills necessary to carry out the role.

In this unique Engineering / Regulatory role, you will collaborate with a wide range of Ofcom’s radio and telecoms external stakeholders to resolve harmful radio interference cases which can disrupt critical safety to life systems. This includes aircraft radio communications and navigation systems as well as radio services essential to everyday life such as mobile network operators.

Radio interference casework will be triaged and passed to you from the Spectrum Management Centre; it will be your responsibility to locate and manage the interference case to resolution. In addition, you will manage the radio spectrum within your geographical area monitoring and investigating unlicensed spectrum use.

And you will be supported by a highly specialised and experienced Ofcom team using state of the art mobile and fixed radio measurement equipment such as real time radio spectrum analysis supported by the relevant regulatory legislation.

• Responsible for maintaining high radio/spectrum engineering standards and ensuring all harmful interference issues raised are resolved within KPIs.
• Responsible for investigating all unlicensed radio spectrum use within geographical area are resolved within KPIs.
• To mitigate the effects of harmful radio interference you will be responsible for planning targeted proactive radio monitoring to ensure radio licence compliance.
• Proactive inspection of a wide range of radio equipment to ensure licence compliance and adherence to associated technical specification.
• Support large sporting…