Environmental Monitoring Officer 2 (Analysis and Reporting)

The role

We are looking to recruit a freshwater ecologist or environmental scientist to join the Analysis and Reporting Team in Devon & Cornwall Area to help deliver our monitoring and investigations programmes. The role will be supporting other officers in their front line work and contributing to a wide range of environmental monitoring, data assessment and reporting tasks as undertaken within the team. 

The role would benefit from multifunctional skills to contribute to in-the-field surveying, assessment and investigation of ecological status and chemical and microbiological water quality, and potentially fish population dynamics.

The team

The Analysis & Reporting Team works closely with our sampling and hydrometry colleagues within Area Environmental Monitoring to monitor and assesses the environment, providing a wide range of information on water quality, fish populations and ecological status to client teams across the Environment Agency and to external organisations.

The work of the team includes European Comunity (EC) directive non-compliance investigations, environmental assessment & improvement project management, data assessment & reporting, freshwater macroinvertebrate and diatom analysis, macrophyte surveys, lake surveys, fish population surveys, river habitat surveys, transitional waters surveys and the use of instrumentation to remotely monitor and sample the environment.

We have particular focus in the areas of bathing waters, mine waters, diffuse pollution and salmonid fishery management. 

The various data and information we collect and assess are used to assess the state of the environment, to inform our understanding of the environment in order to determine business priorities & environmental improvements necessary to meet the requirements of the EC Bathing Waters Directive, EC Water Framework Directive; EC Shellfish Waters Directive and other statutory drivers.

Experience/skills required

Candidates will ideally be educated to degree level in an ecological, environmental or related discipline and have experience of collecting, analysing and reporting on data from the freshwater environment.

 

You'll need experience in:

• macroinvertebrate analysis to family and/or species level;

• freshwater diatom digestion and analysis; 

• freshwater macrophyte surveys; 

• river habitat surveys; 

• water quality monitoring; 

• statistical analysis and reporting of ecological and environmental data;

• planning and co-ordination of water quality and ecological investigative surveys;

• small projects management;

• knowledge of environmental legislation.

Other key requirements for this job include good time management, excellent team working skills, good attention to detail, the ability to deliver against deadlines and excellent computer skills.

Additional useful information 

The role will involve a combination of office, laboratory and field work with the field work involving travel to any locations in the Cornwall and West Devon.

 

There will eventually be some lone working in this role at which point it will be necessary to be able to drive and to be able to swim.

For further details please contact Peter Long, Analysis and Reporting Team Leader, on 01208 265107.

 
You can also download the candidate pack for more information.

 

Civil Service site candidates please note this is a fixed term contract and not a secondment.

 

Please note that this vacancy will close at 23:59, on the closing date stated above.

 

If you are applying from the Civil Service please note that the Environment Agency is not a part of HM Civil Service and you would not be a Crown Servant in the event of being appointed. Therefore, you will not be eligible for continuous service. For applicants who currently work in local government or other bodies listed in the Redundancy Payments (Continuity of Employment in Local Government etc) (Modification) Order 1999, you may be eligible for continuous service for the purpose of calculating any future redundancy payment. If you are unsure of your status then you should contact your own HR Team.

 

We are fully committed to having an inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. We welcome flexible working patterns for all our vacancies, including job share, so please include clearly any information regarding your preferred working arrangements on your application.