Maritime Operations Officer

You answer a 999 call, someone’s in trouble at sea and they need help – quickly.

You work with a close team of professionals to organise a response – coastguard, ambulance, police, fire.

You make the critical difference in one of the most important ways possible.

You are a Maritime Operations Officer.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) implements the government’s maritime safety policy in the United Kingdom and works to prevent the loss of life and occurrence of pollution on the coast and at sea.

Safer lives. Safer Ships. Cleaner Seas.

Our vision is to be a world-leading organisation, accelerating the transition to sustainable shipping with non-negotiable safety standards. We put our people, our customers and our planet at the heart of everything we do.

We are committed to giving all our colleagues purpose, professionalism and pride in what we do. We work in supportive, diverse and inclusive teams.

We want everyone to feel valued and supported to achieve their potential at MCA.

This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks groups covering, Women’s, LGBTQI+, Race, Carers, Mental Wellbeing and volunteer Respect Ambassadors.

Job description

You will be operating through the radios, phones, and various other systems in one of our Rescue Coordination Centres, so whilst you won’t be out at sea, that doesn’t make what you’re dealing with any less real.

You alone will be the first point of contact for people who need our help. This could range from a call that someone appears in distress in the waters and needs help, through to a ship that requires assistance, sometimes with life-changing consequences to everything in between.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the first point of call for all public contact.
• Coordinate responses to both emergency and routine issues.
• Work as part of a team to organise the response to emergencies.
• Work with other Emergency Services to ensure the most effective and robust outcome is achieved.
• Ensure that you work to strict operating procedures.
• Accurately record, update and maintain incident logs, records and databases.

For further information about the role, please see the attached Role Profile or Click Here to hear from one of our Maritime Operations Officers.

Person specification

About You

This is an excellent opportunity to access a new career path, we don't ask for you to be an expert in this role and you should rest assured that we will provide you with all the training you need. What we particularly need from you are a number of core skills such as:

• Communication - you have to be a good communicator, you will be speaking to people who could be going through one of the most difficult experiences of their lives, they may be scared and panicked. You will have to keep them calm to be able to get the right information from them quickly and then effectively pass that on to others.
• Resilience - this can be a very difficult job, you will be involved in responses to incidents that don't always end well and this can include keeping people in serious distress calm and even incidents that end in fatalities.
• Teamwork - you will often have to act alone and you individually will be the first and sometimes only person a member of the public may speak to, but you will work with a team to coordinate responses. It's essential that you're the kind of person who can work effectively with others when it really counts.

Additional Information

We are an emergency service and have to be able to respond 24/7/365, so you will be working in a way that can be antisocial. Maritime Operations Officers are required to work a 12-hour shift pattern (a mix of day and night shifts as laid out in the example) to allow HMCG to provide its 24-hour emergency service to the public, 365 days a year. On average the shift pattern equates to 37 duty hours per week over a 12-month period. As such, this position attracts a number of allowances to reflect the shift working and unsociable hours.

Please see attached document containing a template shift pattern.

Any further questions in regards working pattern please contact katrina.smart@mcga.gov.uk

Please note: This is a uniformed role and uniform will always be required when on duty.

Medical ​

Successful candidates will be expected to undertake a physical and mental health medical for this role, please see the attached document.

Please contact if you have any further questions HR.Resourcing@mcga.gov.uk

You will be required to start in your role prior to the 24/03/25 as your training will begin online on the 06/05/25 .You will then be required travel to our Coordination Centres in Fareham and Southampton frequently throughout your training (expenses will be paid).

Open session

We will be holding a drop-in session for candidates to join and ask questions about the role on 10/12/24 at 16:30 and 12/12/24 at 10:00. If you wish to attend one of these sessions please email katrina.smart@mcga.gov.uk.

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance.

The Civil Service offer a pension contribution of 28.97%.

Click here to get a copy of the MCA Staff Benefits Brochure.

Find out what it's like to work at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency