Water Quality Planning Specialist

Help us to protect and improve the quality of our country’s water.

The work of the Environment Agency is vitally important to everyone in England. From air and water quality to conservation and ecology, we’re responsible for protecting wildlife and creating better places in which to live. With a focus on mitigating climate change and improving the environment wherever possible, we’re an ambitious organisation that is not afraid to take the boldest approaches, and it’s against this progressive background that you could develop a profoundly interesting career.

We provide technical advice on water quality related topics such as water quality modelling, wastewater flow and urban drainage via our technical teams, and are currently looking for five Water Quality Planning Specialists to join us and apply their skills, expertise and specialist knowledge to our work. The first two posts will focus on nutrient management, and will assess the impact of nutrients on water quality and help to identify potential solutions. The third and fourth posts will focus on how the sewerage network operates, including wastewater flow and urban drainage work areas, and the fifth role will work on water quality planning for river catchments and lakes, assess the impact of discharges on water quality and identify potential solutions.

As a specialist you’ll have the responsibility of being a technical leader, provide timely answers to technical questions from colleagues, coordinate the response and retain an overview. We’re a dispersed team of technical experts who specialise in all aspects of water quality planning and modelling. We make the best use of technology to communicate and work virtually, meeting face-to-face when the need arises, an approach that allows us to be flexible on our workplace locations. Training and mentoring support will be provided.

To be successful in any of these roles you’ll be qualified to at least degree standard (or its equivalent) in an environmental discipline, and be experienced in manipulating and analysing large data sets and using numerical models to help make decisions. You should also have excellent communication and organisational skills, the ability to explain complex information in simple terms, and the skills to use GIS and statistical packages. Experience of water quality modelling (rivers, lakes, marine) would be desirable, as would an understanding of the water industry.

We offer a generous benefits package that includes flexible working, 25 days of annual leave pro-rata, an award winning pension fund, enhanced maternity and paternity leave and a wide range of health, wellbeing, travel and transport benefits. We strive to reflect the communities we serve and continue to develop diversity throughout our workforce. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups.

For more information on the work of the Environment Agency and what you can expect working for us, please explore: https://environmentagencycareers.co.uk/

You can also contact helen.proffitt@environment-agency.gov.uk or kate.stobart@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Interviews will be held early December using MS Teams and will use competency-based questions. For information on these competencies and the indicators associated with them then please see the Environment Agency capability dictionary: https://en.calameo.com/books/004433680aab41adf893b

 APPLY HERE.

Closing date: 13 November 2022 at 23:55 hours.