Post Title: Ecosystems Analyst

Team: Ecosystems Analyst

Ref No: 2022142

Grade: H (HEO)

Type of appointment: Permanent

Location: Peterborough or Aberdeen

Salary: £28,958                                        

This post will have a base in either Peterborough or Aberdeen.

JNCC has adopted a hybrid working approach, allowing colleagues to benefit from time in the office, with the flexibility also to work from home. Employees are expected to work from our office base for 1 – 2 days a month as a minimum, this will vary by team and the exact balance will depend on the nature of your role. We can provide more details at the interview and offer stages.

Who are JNCC?

Established in 1991, we’re the UK’s statutory advisor on issues affecting the natural environment across the UK and internationally. Our primary role is advising all four Governments of the UK. We also work with private sector organisations to support decision making on the sustainable use of marine waters and natural resources around the UK. JNCC is led by the Joint Committee, which brings together members from the nature conservation bodies for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and independent members appointed by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under an independent Chair. Support is provided to the Committee by approx. 270 people who bring together scientific and technical expertise, extensive knowledge of policy at global, European and national levels, and skills in working with other organisations. Staff are based in two main offices in Peterborough and Aberdeen.

Why JNCC?

We’re small enough (c.270 staff) that your voice is heard by everyone including the CEO, but big enough that we have all the skills, resources and people you’ll need to get the job done. All our staff are passionate about conservation and making a difference to the world we live in. We have a very flexible, inclusive and welcoming organisational culture. Our Executive Management provides employees with the freedom and tools you will need, and our friendly team will assist you in your role. 

JNCC is committed to maintaining employee health and wellbeing, whether it is physically, emotionally, financially or socially, and offers a range of benefits to support employees in this. Such benefits include the option to join the Civil Service Pension Scheme, professional and personal development opportunities as well as an exciting job in a unique environment. 

Hours of work:                     Full-time

Normal minimum hours of attendance for the post are 36 hours per week over a 5-day period, Monday to Friday.

Flexi time is available. This post may also be suitable for job share.

Annual Leave:

The annual leave allowance is 25 days per year, rising to 30 days per year after 5 years service.  There are also 12 days public and privilege leave.  Part-time staff will receive this on a pro rata basis.The annual leave allowance is 25 days per year, rising to 30 days per year after 5 years’ service. There are also 12 days public and privilege leave. Part-time staff will receive this on a pro rata basis.                  

Short Summary: Post background

The Ecosystems Analysis Team helps JNCC’s stakeholders meet the challenges of managing our environment and the benefits it provides.  Recent projects have included: working with partners to improve diversity and inclusion in citizen science monitoring; modelling and mapping ecosystem services in the UK and overseas; creating ‘apps’ to help land managers consider the trade-offs for nature based solutions, developing an indicator to show the environmental impact of UK consumption overseas;  using machine learning to identify potential areas of peat restoration from EO imagery; and building an ‘app’ to aid remote habitat change detection for restoration, net gain and other applications.  The team is inter-disciplinary, bringing together skills in citizen science monitoring, rapid analysis and model deployment, and earth observation applications.

The post would contribute to projects across the work of the team and to projects lead by other teams in JNCC, bringing technical evidence skills and insight into integrating evidence on land use and land use change in the UK, mainstreaming biodiversity into Official Development Assistance, and contributing innovative solutions to country monitoring programmes.

JNCC’s Ecosystems Analysis Team brings together three elements:

• A set of long-term partnerships with organisations undertaking species surveys in terrestrial, coastal and freshwater ecosystems using networks of volunteers.
• An analysis and modelling capability producing rapidly deployable models. These include a range of models focussed on predicting outcomes from changing land uses and environmental pressures.
• An earth observation data processing and analytical capability which is migrating from an initial focus on spatial mapping of habitats to detecting change within spatial frameworks of habitats.

This post sits within the analysis and modelling element of the team. As the post holder, you will use your analysis and modelling skills to help ensure that environmental decision making is based on the best possible evidence and data. You will work primarily with spatial datasets, mostly using scripting languages (e.g. R, Python) to develop efficient, repeatable methods and models, but also GIS packages (e.g. QGIS, ArcGIS) to inspect data and generate maps. As a team we use technologies such as R Markdown and GitHub to develop reproducible analytical pipelines, and we increasingly make use of the R Shiny package to develop interactive web apps to maximise the accessibility of our outputs to our customers.

Job Description:

Post Duties

·       Collate and analyse information from stakeholders to help identify their analytical evidence needs.

·       Research options for tackling analytical challenges, drawing together internal and external sources of expertise .

·       Carry out a variety of analyses, working with JNCC colleagues with specialist technical skills where appropriate.

·       Maintain a current overview of relevant methods and research in analytics

·       Design and produce decision support tools to aid data and model interpretation by a non-technical audience, document analysis in research reports or published research, and provide summaries for a policy audience, working collaboratively with others.

·       Manage work packages or smaller projects for the team or other teams in JNCC, focussing on projects that will require some analytical output, ensuring that staff resources are used effectively and that we work efficiently alongside external contractors.

·       Contribute to the quality assurance processes of team and analytical outputs.

·       Maintain JNCC’s information asset standards, including data acquisition, establishing efficient processing chains (e.g. within R), and ensuring data are placed in suitable repositories.

Technical

To be a successful candidate you will be/have:

• Educated to degree level in a science or relevant subject, or equivalent experience

• A logical analytical approach?to?understand complex scientific or societal issues and to identify the data and models likely to help inform them

• Able to use R, Python, or a similar scripting language to manipulate data and automate processes.  (Note that the team generally uses R, and there is an expectation that any team member will be able to provide quality control checks on code produced in the team.)

·       Able to use GIS software and packages, including manipulating, interpreting, and mapping datasets and spatial databases; automating functions and establishing links to databases.

Experience (Responsibilities)

To be a successful candidate you will have:

·       Relevant experience in applying analytical techniques to spatial problems (Note: An understanding of the relationship between biodiversity, ecosystems, sustainable development and benefits to society is not required but may be helpful)

Behaviours

•  Making Effective Decisions
•   Managing a Quality Service
•   Seeing the Big Picture
•  Communicating and Influencing

In the event that we receive a large volume of applications we reserve the right to conduct the sift based on the Lead Behaviour of Making Effective Decisions

Please see the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf

Nationality requirements 

This job is broadly open to the following groups: 

• UK nationals 
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK 
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland 
• nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the?European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) 
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service 
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service 
• certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals 

Closing date and interview date

The closing date for this post is 23:55 on Sunday, 12 February 2023

The anticipated interview date is week commencing Monday, 27 February 2023

Apply here