Main Purpose of Job:

Corporate Services is the “engine room” of the Embassy, providing a broad range of essential services to support delivery of British Government objectives in Japan. We provide services to around 200 staff from 7 government departments (Partners Across Government – PAGs) in Japan and provide the lead for Corporate Services policies across both posts in the Japan Network (the Embassy in Tokyo and the Consulate-General in Osaka).

We are currently looking for a Security Manager to join our Corporate Services team. The selected candidate will report directly to the Head of Corporate Services, with work direction from the Post Security Officer within the senior management team. The Security Manager is responsible for managing security for the embassy offices, UK diplomatic staff and their families, country-based staff when at work, and all those on our premises.

The role includes ensuring that appropriate security measures are implemented at the British Embassy offices and that embassy buildings, assets, and information are protected. The security team ensure staff are receiving and following correct security advice and procedures and that staff working in the mission offices have the required security clearance to access buildings, information, and maintain access control.

The role requires an individual who is flexible across all of these areas and who can demonstrate high standards of professionalism and deliver a high-quality service. The jobholder will need to be willing to work flexibly to help others, take on different tasks where work pressures may be heavy, cover leave absences, attend to emergencies, assist in providing security at events and provide support during high level visits. This can involve occasional security related calls in the evenings and weekends.

Whilst the role is based in Tokyo, the jobholder will be part of a security team which covers all of our Japan Network and may therefore occasionally need to work remotely from our Osaka office on a range of security tasks.

The role is ideally suited to someone who:

• Enjoys being part of a busy team but can work independently with little supervision and able to help cover for the head of department and others in their absence.
• Has experience influencing behaviours and persuading others and is adept at building and maintaining good working relationships.
• Is confident in working with the Japanese police and other emergency services both in developing our security arrangements and responding to incidents.
• Is a good communicator and people-person, who takes pride in good service and enjoys working in a busy team.
• Has some crisis or emergency management experience, or has managed a variety of security situations, working to keep people safe.

What the Jobholder will be Expected to Achieve:

• Responsibility for the day-to-day management of security at post.
• Provide thorough security briefings for new diplomatic staff and their spouses/partners, for country-based staff (CBS), and for official visitors in line with agreed timetables. Coordinate CBS security clearances during the recruitment phase and confirm clearances for visiting staff. Ensure staff and official visitors are adequately trained and have attended the required security training.
• Manage and organise tasks required in the security team to support the overall objectives of the group including report gathering, information analysis, responding to incidents, access control measures, supporting officers in official visits and events, managing contractors, tracking progress, and maintaining good records.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with the Japanese Police, other emergency services, and with security leads in other embassies in Tokyo. Use these relationships to gather regular and relevant information that will support our security preparedness, and ensure we have robust agreements with Japanese authorities on incident response and proactive mitigation of risks and threats.
• Lead the response to any recommendations resulting from security audits, ensuring that remedial action is agreed and implemented within applicable timelines. Facilitate any security-related visits to Japan, suggesting and arranging meetings and briefings, and identifying the most impactful areas of focus for each visit.
• Coordinate upgrades and repairs of security assets, working with our FM provider and other estates teams, in line with procurement policy and check security works before sign off. Review the KPIs for our guarding contract and meet directly with management teams of both the FM and guarding providers. Ensure SOPs are in place and regularly reviewed and oversee extra guarding or security requirements as needed.
• Arrange and carry out various incident drills in line with FCDO protocols that will generally involve guarding contractors, and the wider mission as needed.
• Assist in preparing for all events and VIP level official visits to Japan (and at times supporting the Osaka team) – and work together with the visits officer and other staff ensure all security protocols are in place to ensure the safety and security of the visit.
• Coordinate the budget and finance duties for security work; raising requisitions, receipting, and invoicing security works and ensuring spreadsheets are kept updated on the security budget forecast and spend.
• Report and record incidents and any breaches of security informing the ROSM/PSO as required at the earliest opportunity and ensure incident reporting to London is completed and escalated in a timely manner. Support the PSO in the management of the post security committee, collating agendas, taking minutes, and following up agreed actions. Help to maintain post security regulation documents and update assurance reports on the IT systems.
• Conduct property assessments and security equipment checks at residences, offices, and marker hotels. Ensure any defects are addressed in compliance with security requirements. Organise any contractors outside the scope of our FM contract related to property security works or for urgent repairs.
• Manage security related requests from staff and diplomatic families, ensuring that issues are addressed in line with agreed standards and deadlines, and communicating with staff and residential occupants where required.
• Carry out security administration duties, including regular updates to the regional overseas security manager (ROSM) and attending meetings with other teams, internal record-keeping on security items, compiling and maintaining asset registers, assisting with the mission’s travel risk assessments.
• Deliver professionally other tasks and new work as delegated by the ROSM and or Post Security Officer on an ad hoc basis, often outside the above areas, in order to support the work of the Embassy and Consulate-General.

Resources Managed (Staff and Expenditure):

• Matrix management and work direction for two AO IT and Security Officers in Tokyo
• Management of ad hoc budgets provided to fund security works at post

• Enjoys being part of a busy team but can work independently with little supervision and able to help cover for the head of department and others in their absence
• Has experience influencing behaviours and persuading others, and is adept at building and maintaining good working relationships
• Is confident in working with the Japanese police and other emergency services both in developing our security arrangements and responding to incidents
• Proficiency in Japanese and English (written and spoken, minimum of C2 level in one and high B2 level in the other on the CEFR framework*)
• Is a good communicator and people-person, who takes pride in good service and enjoys working in a busy team
• Has some crisis or emergency management experience
• Has evidence of working at pace and managing multiple projects at the same time

Language Requirements:

This role requires written and spoken proficiency in both English and Japanese. Fluency (minimum of C2 level for CEFR framework*) in one language and business level (minimum of high B2) in the other.

* Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for Languages sets the following mastery or proficiency levels:

• C2: Can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read. Can summarise information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation. Can express themself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations.
• B2: Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in their field of specialisation. Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

For more information, please click on the following link CEFR. Please bear in mind in case you are invited for an interview your languages skills are going to be assessed.