Job Description

About the job

Job summary

Do you want a career where you can make a real difference? Join the Ministry of Defence Guard Service (MGS) to protect Defence from threats such as crime, terrorism, espionage, and sabotage by providing the highest quality of security services through professionalism, excellence, and trust.

We are looking for a Security Area Operations Manager to join our Gold Standard Security Service and play a crucial role to the business requiring resilience, alertness, and organisational skills. Due to the nature of the role and its high-profile locations, it is essential that our Security Operations Manager has a strong work ethic, great teamwork, customer service, communication, and management skills. We are looking for individuals who are willing to go above and beyond to support and manage security operations across the Defence estate. If you can demonstrate this from past or current experiences, we want to hear from you and see this detailed in your CV.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

The Ministry of Defence Guard Service (MGS) provides high quality security services at over 170 MOD sites across the United Kingdom. The MGS has guarded the Defence Estate for over 30 years including high profile locations such as MOD Main Building in London, Whitehall and His Majesty's Naval Bases at Portsmouth, Devonport, and the Clyde. We provide access control, military working dogs, control room operations and other security services. We play a vital role supporting the Defence Mission and work to protect the Defence estate and personnel from crime, terrorism, espionage, and sabotage threats.

The MGS has over 2,700 employees. MGS Security Officers are often the first point of contact for employees, visitors and contractors on sites and we pride ourselves on our professional, customer-focused culture. Behind our operational workforce is a range of head office roles which support our security professionals to develop and execute the organisations strategy, managing its budget and resources, leading, and developing our staff, maintaining relationships with stakeholders, monitoring and evaluating our performance and identifying new opportunities.

All are working towards our Vision to be recognised as an outstanding provider of security services and our five Values underpinning this Vision include:

Integrity - Always do the right thing. Respect yourself and others. Treat people fairly. Vigilance and Preparedness - Keep careful watch for risks and incidents. Be ready to act. Professionalism - Know the job thoroughly. Seek continuous improvement. Maintain high standards. Helpfulness - Always be ready to assist people. Leave a lasting positive impression. Teamwork - Working with colleagues who are collaborative, respectful, open and trustworthy, who are passionate about excellence and protecting Defence.
There are plenty of opportunities for development, access to funded professional qualifications and specialist training. We are a growing organisation with opportunities to progress your security careers and if you align with our Values, we'd love to hear from you!

As the Area Operations Manager for MGS, you will have Operational Managers as direct reports, assisting you with the operational requirements at the units where MGS Security Officers are based. Your main responsibility is to lead in all aspects of operational delivery for your Area of Responsibility (AoR) ensuring the required security tasking is delivered to a high standard and visiting these sites on a regular basis which may include overnight stays.

The key duties are as follows:

Responsible for leading audit and assurance throughout the MGS footprint to support and maintain the NSI Gold Standard. Maintaining an appropriate level of visibility within the AoR and implement good communication regimes. Deal promptly with complaints and HR casework, ensuring all Operational Managers (OMs) are following MOD Policy in taking care of absence, recruitment, complaints, and misconduct. Review and authorise unit Joint Business Agreements (JBAs) and working patterns/rosters within AoR on an annual basis. Ensure that accurate and efficient use is made of the Department's resources by implementing and conducting an effective system of audit and assurance including the accuracy of performance and output returns. Ensure service delivery is maintained at agreed levels and provide regular assurance to the Regional Manager by communicating with OMs and reviewing the information entered on the Performance and Operational Reporting Tool (PORT) and operational output returns. Maintaining operational output returns and continual maintenance of the Multi Tracking Tool (MTT) on a weekly/monthly basis. Ensuring effective Employee Relations within AoR, engaging, and working with the recognised Trades Unions, involving, and consulting with them as appropriate. There is an on-call process that covers the Regional Operational Area, this is an additional task that is optional to the successful candidate.

Person specification

All new starters will participate in a mandatory two-week residential Foundation Course, followed by on-the-job training. Additionally, we offer an annual programme of mandatory online training, along with a dedicated Workforce Development Team to support you with your training needs.

The successful candidate will have line management/ area management experience.

The successful candidate will also have a full driving license as driving to sites is mandatory for this role.

Licences

Full UK Driving License required as site visits are required in this role.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of 37,720, Ministry of Defence contributes 10.927 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

We enable our people to work at the right place, with the right people, at the right time. We believe that if we look after our people, they will be passionate about delivering great things for our customers.

Please follow the link to visit the Discover My Benefits site which showcases the benefits and discounts offered when working as a civilian for the MOD:

https://discovermybenefits.mod.gov.uk/civilian/

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

Apply and further information

To apply, please visit our website using the apply button provided.

Closing date 05/01/2026.

Application sifting is scheduled to take place?on week commencing 5th January 2026.

Interviews are due to take place via Microsoft Teams and will be conducted week commencing 19 January 2026.

Please note the above dates are subject to change.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact:

Name: MGS RH Email: MGS-RH@mod.gov.uk
Recruitment team

Email: DBSCivPers-ResourcingTeam3@mod.gov.uk
Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Permanent

Pay: 37,720.00 per year

Benefits:

Company pension Enhanced maternity leave Enhanced paternity leave Paid volunteer time
Work Location: In person