Salary: Area Manager B development £67,792 – competent £74,360 plus 20% Flexi Duty and 14% Area Manager Allowances.Working Pattern: Full time, average of 42 hours per week.Location: Your primary office location will be County Hall in Chichester, and you will also have the flexibility to work from other stations throughout West Sussex. Additionally, there will be opportunities for you to work remotely from home, as deemed appropriate for your work responsibilities.Interview and Assessments: Incident Command assessments are scheduled for w/c 29 September 2025 and interview from w/c 6 October 2025West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service is on a journey of continuous improvement demonstrating our ability to deliver services that benefit the community. We are proud to have opened the new Horsham Fire Station and Training Centre, where the state-of-the-art facilities place a real emphasis on the continued development of our staff. As we look ahead, we remain committed to continuously improving our organisational culture supporting our mission to empower and support our people to be the best they can be, to deliver to the highest standards when serving our communities and to uphold the values of our fire and rescue service.As the Area Manager for Service Delivery, you will be responsible for managing a budget of over £20 million. Your role will involve ensuring the smooth day-to-day operation of the service response.You will collaborate with the Service Executive Board to ensure an effective, efficient, and sustainable Fire & Rescue Service aligns with our vision, values, objectives, and obligations.You will provide strong leadership to promote inclusion, diversity, and high performance across the Service and its partners. Your responsibilities will include leading a department to effectively manage resources and reduce risk while developing Service strategy, policies, and processes.You will be required to command operational incidents at Level 4/Strategic level and be a member of the Gold Level Command rota within West Sussex.Please read through our to find out more about our Strategic Priorities.What we need from youAs an inclusive leader, you will have the proven ability to motivate and empower others, with a clear understanding of the impact of change and decision making on individuals.You will be passionate about continuous improvement, be comfortable working in ambiguous situations across the wider county council and have experience of working in a political environment.You will have demonstrable experience of working in a strategic, leadership role within a Fire and Rescue Service and of successfully leading change to improve outcomes for residents and staff.You will have a strong focus on performance, be able to drive efficiencies and work collaboratively to build partnerships and relationships both internally within WSCC and externally to achieve collective outcomes.You will have considerable experience of effectively managing a wide variety of operational incidents at a strategic level and of contingency and emergency planning.Please see the attached job description for the specific Key Skills, Qualifications and Experience required for this role.How to applyTo be eligible to apply you must be a substantive and competent Group Manager (or higher grade) who has demonstrated competence against the requirements of the NJC Group Manager role map.To apply click the Apply Online button at the bottom of this page and upload the following documents.1. Current CVYour CV should demonstrate how you meet the qualifications section of the job description, provide a full employment and education history, including reasons for any gaps.2. Covering LetterUsing evidence-based examples your covering letter should explain how you demonstrate the required key skills and experience in the job description. Your letter should be no more than three sides of A4 long, use font style Verdana, size 11, with normal margins and single line spacing.3. Incident Command certificateUpload your Incident Command certificate and if the qualification was attained more than two years ago, also upload evidence of your most recent re-validation.What happens nextOnce the advert has closed, our shortlisting panel will review applications. Candidates who have demonstrated they meet the criteria will be invited to the next stage. Depending on the number of applications, this may involve a virtual exercise to further discuss your key skills and experience.After the virtual exercise review, those who have strongly demonstrated the key skills and experience will be invited to participate in the final stage of the selection process. This stage will include a strategic co-ordinating group (SCG) and media assessment, presentation to a stakeholder panel, and main panel interview.Appointment to this post will be subject to a security check, satisfactory references, full medical and fitness assessment.Further informationThe reference number for this role is CPP01195.Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to this advert as you will not have the opportunity to download it again once the advert has closed.Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to us. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our page.We are immensely proud you are considering joining us as an Area Manager and are here to support you. If you need any support throughout the process or would like to speak to someone, please email us atTogether we will make West Sussex a safer place and have an everlasting impact on our community. We look forward to receiving your application.Safeguarding StatementWSFRS is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and all employees must share this commitment.Fire & Rescue Service roles are listed in Schedule 1 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order and as such it is our policy to require all applicants to disclose any criminal convictions (both spent and unspent held in the UK or overseas) including driving offences, cautions and/or reprimands. As part of the application process, you will be required to list the dates and details of any sentences if applicable. The information you provide will be treated as strictly confidential and will be considered only in relation to the appointment for which you are applying (please refer to the Guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Exceptions Order 1975 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for more information).Legislation enables Fire & Rescue Services to be eligible for a Standard level Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check for employees of their Service, including volunteers. You are also required to inform us of any pending or incomplete investigations of a safeguarding nature that are ongoing, or that arise during this period of application and pre-employment. A table of rehabilitation periods for the most common sentences and disposals, and example scenarios can be found hereAvailable documents
