1. GSE Careers Profiles
About this leaflet
There is no ‘typical’ career path for a scientist or engineer in the Civil Service
How you choose to develop your own career is up to you, depending on your
own personal career goals, your area of expertise, and what motivates you.
This leaflet is designed to help you think about where a career in the Civil
Service could take you and explore the wide range of opportunities for people
with a science or engineering background to display and develop their
expertise and experience, and build their careers.
It is also worth looking at the GSE “Planning your career” guide, which
contains advice drawn from the wider selection of interviews we conducted as
part of our review. This aims to provide guidance on the kind of behaviours
and thinking that should help you develop your career.
Introduction to roles for scientists and engineers in the Civil Service
There are around 12,000 scientists and engineers in government carrying out
a huge range of occupations, from radiation health and safety to brain
electrophysiology, cloud physics, or agricultural processing.
Scientists and engineers play a wide range of roles in government, whether in
the monitoring and regulatory environment, operations and service provision
or policy spheres. Science and engineering roles in government may demand
depth of knowledge and expertise in particular disciplines or sectors as well
as an ability to engage across a wide range of disciplines. Your preferences in
this area can help guide your career choices:
• the Practitioner, who provides specialist advice or services and is likely to
become or remain a deep expert in their field;
• the Integrator, who manages science or engineering programmes or
works closely with researchers, and whose expertise depends on
understanding both policy or operations and the wider landscape of
science and engineering expertise and knowing how to engage with both;
and
• the Informed Advocate, who works in policy or operations and retains a
lively and informed interest in science or engineering.
Introduction to the career profiles
The following six profiles represent a selection of the possible professional
functions and identities that constitute the science and engineering community
in the civil service. They demonstrate both the wide range of jobs open to
someone entering the civil service with a science or engineering background
and the diversity of career paths that can be followed in reaching senior
positions.
The short profiles aim to provide an insight into the motivations and key
decisions of successful senior civil servants. The career timelines illustrate
how they got to where they are today and the kind of experiences and training
helped them achieve this.

2. Katherine Riggs
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Katherine joined the civil service after a degree in environmental science and
a PhD in soil chemistry. She initially joined Defra as a soil chemist to manage
the R&D programme on soils. This made use of the knowledge she had
gained during her degree and PhD. After becoming interested in the
translation of science into policy, she applied for the policy fast stream – as an
external candidate. Having achieved it herself, she now encourages scientists
to try to make the move across to policy. She acts as a mentor to support
scientists trying to achieve this and sits on the fast stream panel.
Since coming in through the fast stream she’s had a range of posts which
have used her scientific background to varying extents, including on animal
health and welfare and food policy which made use of her scientific
knowledge, as well as in corporate roles and EU negotiations. She worked on
the Foresight report on food security. As part of that she had to read large
volumes of technical material and advise how to best communicate it - an
experience she considers her scientific background to have been particularly
useful for.
Although she now works predominantly in policy making roles, she feels that
science has underpinned her career.

3. Katherine Rigg’s Career Timeline
Environmental Science Degree
Soil Chemistry PhD
Soil Chemist, Defra
Fast stream (external)
Science Policy Team
Food Security Foresight Report, GO-
Science
Defra
= Learning,
development and
training opportunity

4. Clive Tarver: Director ISTAR
Ministry of Defence
Clive is currently Director ISTAR in the Ministry of Defence’s procurement
organisation, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S). Following an
Engineering Degree from the University of Cambridge, Clive joined the MoD
through their Science and Engineering Fast Stream and has remained with
the department since.
The appeal of engineering is what originally took him to the MoD. Although he
hasn’t done much pure engineering since leaving the fast stream it has
affected his career choices and Clive has continued to seek out engineering
related roles. He has worked in the Ships Support Agency, Special
Communications Integrated Project Team and a selection of posts to broaden
his experience. These included Head of the MoD External Relations Unit in
Whitehall, Private Secretary to Chief of Defence Procurement and Support
Director in the Defence Procurement Agency. He’s been part of the senior
civil service since 2007 and moved into his current post in 2011.
He tries to maintain professional links through IMechE and IET, and would
describe engineering as his career anchor and as a key part of his identity –
although he would now identify portfolio, programme and project management
as his primary area of expertise. The main motivators behind his career have
been job satisfaction and retaining a healthy work/life balance. The nature of
the work he’s sought out has ensured that his work has remained interesting.
Clive personally feels that there has been loads of fabulous support available
for his career development. This began with the fast stream, and included
science and engineering related experience provided by the MoD, such as
courses at Cranfield and Shrivenham. The MoD also sponsored him to take
an MBA at Warwick Business School. More recently, he’s benefited from a
Band B development scheme, and found the executive coach this provided to
be particularly valuable.

5. Clive Tarver’s Career Timeline
= Learning,
development and
training opportunity
Engineering Degree, Cambridge
Science and Engineering Fast Steam
Band B2 – Business Manager (Ships
Support Agency)
Secondment - Script Writer (Balkans
Secretariat)
Team Leader (Special
Communications Project Team)
MBA – Warwick Business School
Head of MoD External Relations Unit
Private Secretary to Chief of Defence
Procurement
Support Director (Defence
Procurement Agency)
IPT Leader Marine Electrical Systems
Director Corporate Information
Director Infrastructure
Head of Air C2 Programme Delivery
Group
1992
2000
2002
Devonport Naval Base
Special Projects Procurement
2004
2007
Director ISTAR
2008
2009
2011
Band B Development Scheme
Roles taken to
broaden
experience
Executive coach
was particularly
valuable

6. Kären Clayton
Health and Safety Executive
Kären joined the civil service as an Assistant Scientific Officer in the MoD.
She subsequently gained experience working in industry with BAe before
moving to HSE, who recruited her for her knowledge of explosives. She is a
chartered chemist and also a mentor for both GSE and HSE. She studied part
time after starting at the MoD, and continued doing so for several years.
The jobs that Kären has taken have been driven by a desire to take risks and
pursue change. She has been eager to avoid doing the obvious or taking jobs
where there is an entrenched way of doing things. She hasn’t carefully
planned her career, and has taken jobs opportunistically. Science has played
a role in her career by opening up opportunities that may not otherwise have
been available.
Her role as a production manager at BAe, and the business management
course she did while in that post, helped to take on a variety of more diverse
roles at HSE. In her current role she is a policy maker and a programme
manager, supporting the director. Previously she has worked as the Head of
Process safety, as Head of HSE’s Biological Agents Unit, where she worked
on issues such as foot and mouth outbreaks; she has also worked on a
review of the HSE communications approach.
Kären believes that there were several key decisions she made for her career.
The first of these was the decision to continue studying while working. The
second was the decision to go back to work quickly after having her son. She
felt that had she not done this she would not have been able to return on a
promotion. Finally, she considers the decisions to take on roles outside her
discipline at HSE, often where things needed sorting out, to be key points in
her career; the key training and development opportunities she had assisted
this transition

7. Kären Clayton’s Career Timeline
Assistant Scientific Officer, MoD
Part Time Study
Production Manager, BAe
Business Management Course
HSE Explosives Inspector
Contract Manager for HSE Incident
Contact Centre
Senior Professional Administrative
Training Scheme
Project Manager HSE
Communications Review
Head of Process Safety, HSE
Head of Biological Agents Unit, HSE
Preparing for Top Management
Programme
Director Corporate Specialists
Division, HSE
= Learning,
development and
training opportunity
Director Long Latency Health Risks
Divisions

8. Stephen Nicklin
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
Steve is presently a senior fellow at DSTL and CONTEST advisor on
Explosives Detection and Diagnostics. He studied Cellular Pathology at
university, and a PhD in immunology at Bristol. In addition to authoring and
reviewing numerous internal reports Steve has also published widely in peer
reviewed scientific journals. He has edited 2 books on immunology and holds
a number of patents relating to detection and degradation of explosives.
Early in his career he was expected to do and deliver science due to his
science background, but found that within a large organisation there are
numerous opportunities. Within Dstl if you have the ability, inclination and take
the training, moving into management or supporting roles is no problem.
Steve feels that moving back into science from management is more of a
problem if you do not maintain your currency in science – so it’s important you
decide what you want to do. He believes it is up to the individual to work
around any barriers in their way, and retrain if necessary – change is always
good.
Currently specialising in detection and diagnostics, he continues to work
closely with academia, industry and international partners, developing and
advising on science and technology to support UK forces. The most important
driving force behind his career decisions has been the desire to never be
bored and to never turn his back on an opportunity. He said a pivotal moment
for him was when he successfully applied for a position in Dstl on a whim after
he became bored with his job at the time after being there for several years.
He has a love for doing science, and messing about with ideas, and needed
to be working in a laboratory setting to enable this. However, as his career
developed, he moved towards more management oriented roles where he
was responsible for leading and developing a group of 40. At this point he
guided his projects, which were done by members of his group or in academia
and industry. He was then encouraged to apply for the Dstl fellowship scheme
– which provides a non-managerial, technically focussed, route to senior and
influential positions within the organisation – in recognition of his contribution
to science, staff development and collaboration. It’s not possible to be both a
fellow and a group leader, and Steve chose to follow the fellowship route.

9. Steve Nicklin’s Career Timeline
= Learning,
development and
training opportunity
BSc Cellular Pathology
PhD Immunology, Bristol
Head of Immunology and
Immunotoxicology Department,
Team Leader, Biological Detection –
Explosives Detection Group, DERA
Section Head of Biological Detection
Bid and Assignment Manager for ED
Applied Research Programme
Technical Consultant
Technical Manager (Capability)
DERA Fellowship
Senior Fellowship
Senior Fellowship status reconfirmed
Capability advisor to CTS & TC
Technical Advisor to Centre for
Defence Enterprise
1978
1991
1994
Postdoc at Wellcome Research Lab
Immunology Department, BIBRA
2001
2004
2006 -
2009 -
Group Leader for Explosives
1975
1978
1981
1987
2006
1998
1998
1997
1995
Provided input to Bioremediation1999

10. Zoë Dayan
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Zoë joined the Civil Service directly at Grade 7 after extensive experience in
industry. She began her career as a control and electrical engineer
specialising in chemical manufacturing processes. She spent 10 years
working at ICI and AstraZeneca, where she was involved in plant design,
installation and maintenance and then operations and supply chain
management.
The decision to join the civil service was a pivotal move for her career. She
made it because she wanted a change from the operational management
environment. She was attracted by an advert from the Department for Trade
and Industry because it suggested that her background in the chemicals
industry was desirable. Zoë had no ‘5 year plan’ for her career, although did
make the choice to move away from being a practitioner, at least for a while.
While she would consider her current area of expertise to be policy delivery,
Zoë has found her specific engineering background to be useful in roles in the
materials and metals sector team, research sustainability and carbon
emissions trading policies. The general business understanding and analytical
skills she developed through her engineering training and experience have
also been useful throughout her civil service career. She believes that the
engineering mindset is valuable and can sometimes give her a different
approach from her colleagues.

11. Zoë Dayan’s Career Timeline
Sponsorship by ICI.
University course
ICI – Engineering (5 years)
Gained Chartered Engineering status
AstraZeneca – Operations Management
(2 years)
DTI - Direct Entry G7, Strategy
DTI – Materials and Engineering Sectors
DTI /BERR - research sustainability
BIS – Better Regulation Executive
= Learning,
development and
training opportunityYear teaching English to Czech
Engineers

12. Laurence Bryant: Director Weapons
Ministry of Defence
Laurence is currently the 2* Director of the Weapons Operating Centre within
the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation in the MOD. As the
Director, he heads a team of 1784 personnel who procure, deliver and
support weapons to the British Armed Forces. In addition he is the Head of
Profession for Weapons, Ordnance, Munitions and Explosives, a chartered
engineer and a certified project manager.
Laurence joined the MoD as an apprentice at the age of 16, attracted to
engineering by the combination of a good, solid job in the civil service and his
enjoyment for the practical side of engineering. With the exception of a two
year secondment to industry he has stayed with the department since. He
remains proud of his engineering background and continues to find it useful in
his current role.
Particularly since his early 30s, he has sought a move from quality control in
to programme and project management. He hoped this would allow him to
develop wider skills and have a larger remit – something he considers to be
more challenging and rewarding. He took a Naval Ordnance course at
Shrivenham before moving to Scotland where he worked in weapons testing
with torpedoes. He then pursued an MSc in guided weapons, again at
Shrivenham, before securing a project management role with Sea Wolf.
He considers this MSc to be a pivotal moment in his career as it anchored him
to working in weapons and directly led him to Sea Wolf, where he was for the
next 8 years with the exception of his secondment. Since then he has worked
in a number of roles, including deputy team leader of the Ground Based Air
Defence programme and then UK Military Flying Training and Simulation
Team Leader, before becoming Deputy to Director Combat Air and moving
into his current role in 2012.

13. Laurence Bryant’s Career Timeline
Apprentice
Quality Control Role
Naval Ordnance Course
(Shrivenham)
Weapons Testing (Scotland)
MSc Guided Weapons (Shrivenham)
Project Management (Sea Wolf +
others)
Secondment
Deputy Team Leader
Team Leader (FsAST)
Team Leader (UKMFTS)
Deputy to Director Combat Air
Gateway Team Leader
Director Weapons
1996
2000
2002
2004
2006
2009
2012
= Learning,
development and
training opportunity
MSc was pivotal,
anchoring Laurence
to weapons