Fire Safety Officer – Protection

Overview

Contract: Fixed Term / Permanent

Working Hours: 37 hours per week

Salary: £38,220.00 – £40,777.00 (Grade 7, Green Book)

Location: TBC

Closing date: 4 February 2026

* We are open to discuss flexibility over hours; however the expectation is that, as a hybrid role, your work will be balanced between home and Service facilities. You will be expected to attend the Service premises for at least 3 days of a 5-day working week. Hybrid working will not normally be available until such time that your skill level allows.

This role is a fixed-term opportunity. If the role is extended or made permanent, the extension or permanent position may be offered to the successful applicant ahead of any further recruitment process.

Do you share our passion for making our communities safer? Can you provide practical advice on how to make our buildings and work spaces safer places? Are you excited to learn more about making Essex a safe place to live, work and travel, putting your knowledge and skills into practice in a diverse and challenging county?

If so, then the right opportunity for you has arisen within our Protection team (formerly known as Fire Safety). As part of our Prevention and Protection strategies we are committed to undertaking more safety audits than ever before, and we are looking for the right people to represent us in the community, providing the right advice and responses to fire safety challenges.

The role will involve working within the Community, inspecting a variety of buildings, providing advice to the responsible person and where necessary taking enforcement action, assessing statutory consultations including a requirement to assess the design of new or extended buildings against the Building Regulations to ensure the design is compliant. You may be required to deliver fire safety training to our operational firefighter teams.

• Carry out fire safety audits in accordance with ECFRS Risk Based Intervention Programme
• Carry out statutory consultations on a wide range of premises ranging from low to very high complexity
• Alleged fire risks
• Protection support to operational colleagues

This role will be perfect for you if you are passionate about (or learning about) fire safety and are motivated by what you can bring to ECFRS and the people of Essex.

You will have experience of managing your own workloads as well as being part of a team, you must have excellent time management and prioritising skills as you will be required to meet statutory deadlines.

We would love to find someone that has strong interpersonal skills and experience of working with people from all walks of life with an aim of achieving a common goal.

You will be required to attend formal courses both in person and remotely, that on successful completion will eventually culminate in you obtaining a Level Four Diploma in Fire Safety. It is a requirement that you sign a pre-learning agreement prior to undertaking your formal training.

To be eligible to apply for these opportunities, you must:

• Hold a full driving licence.
• Whilst considered desirable, the provision of associated qualifications in Fire safety are not essential for this role. Any successful candidate will be enrolled on the Level 3 Certificate in Fire Safety, which upon completion will subsequently be followed by completion of the Level 4 Diploma in Fire Safety.
• Level 3 standard of education (e.g. A-Level) or equivalent experience, demonstrating a high level of numeracy and literacy.
• Should candidates who are successful in being offered a role subsequently not be able to attain qualification (where courses have been reasonably available), the Service’s Performance Management policies will be applied, which could result in redeployment.

If you are an internal candidate, you must have discussed your application with your line manager and confirmed there are no outstanding issues of conduct or performance. This will be verified prior to shortlisting.

You will be required to submit a CV detailing a minimum of five years employment and/or education history, along with a supporting statement of no more than 750 words…