SPA Senior Ecologist

Anglian Water Services; Peterborough; Hybrid; GBP 44,000 - 51,000; Full time

Job description

Role: Senior Ecologist

Location: Peterborough, with flexible hybrid working options

Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent

Salary: circa £44,000 depending on experience

At Anglian Water we are working to meet tomorrow’s challenges today, by planning and delivering significant infrastructure for our region to address future challenges such as securing water supply for future generations, reaching net zero, adapting to climate change and protecting and enhancing our region for generations to come.

Why This Project Matters

This critical role will require the development of the ecology and biodiversity aspects of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) strategy and technical management of ecology and biodiversity delivery teams. We are looking for a highly motivated leader who has experience in setting up high performing multi-disciplinary ecology teams, preferably across multi-partner organisations and is known as a leader in their field of expertise.

About the Role

You will be instrumental in supporting the Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA) construction programme by ensuring that SPA is compliant with nature conservation legislation. You will help minimise delays and reduce cost by ensuring a strategic approach to ecology enabling works and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG).

You will work with our subject matter experts in AW and its alliances, to develop policies, standards and work instructions, manage relationships with regulators and investigate ecology incidents and near-misses to provide an end-to-end ecology service.

Key Responsibilities

The successful person will be accountable as an ecology and biodiversity leader with the ability to grow and lead a team to deliver ecological impact assessments, BNG, HRAs, mitigation design, protected species consents and other deliverables, to support planning submissions and construction for the SPA across Anglian Water’s catchment.

• Develop and direct the ecology and biodiversity approach for the SPA Program for AMP7 Delivery and AMP8 Consenting and Delivery.
• Discipline team development and leadership, including mentoring.
• Manage and develop the existing project strategies, ensuring best practice and consistency in approaches to survey, assessment and mitigation strategies across the project.
• Produce consistent, highly technical, high-quality ecology and biodiversity ES chapters, HRAs and BNG assessments.
• Align inputs and outputs with all other discipline leads and teams, project designers and construction teams to achieve end-to-end integrated delivery.
• Manage and develop the existing Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) strategies for SPA that align with AW BNG strategies, to meet statutory and OFWAT obligations.
• Track the implementation legislation for BNG on Major Projects through to adoption, tracking changes being made during this process, and keeping the Project informed of the implications of these.
• Support the Project Delivery Teams by ensuring that supply chain ecologists are developing compliant, pragmatic and proportional solutions and mitigation to enable the successful delivery of the SPA capital delivery programme.
• Support the wider SPA Team in developing and maintaining a robust supplier allocation process, based on geographical location, knowledge, capability and performance.
• Provide direct ecology support to strategic and complex parts of the programme, supporting the wider team with consenting and permitting requirements.
• Work with Anglian Water to manage and develop the licensing strategy, manage the application and ongoing management of European Protected Species licences.

What You’ll Need

Essential Skills & Experience:

• Ideally educated to degree level in a relevant topic or have demonstrable working experience.
• Experience of planning the delivery and the day-to-day management of a large and complex EcIA.
• Chartered or full accredited membership (or working towards) of an appropriate professional institute or body.
• Experience of leading teams on high-value and large-scale projects.
• A solid understanding of England’s BNG policy (including where it applies to National Policy Statements) and legal framework including the Defra Statutory Biodiversity Metric.
• Experience of applying the BNG approach to Major Project / NSIPs across the project lifecycle.
• Experience of working with regulators and key stakeholders.
• A track record of delivering projects to time, cost quality standards across all stages of project lifecycle.
• Team-oriented leader with the ability to work closely with peers; delegate, motivate and empower individuals and teams.

As a valued employee you’ll be entitled to:

• Competitive pension scheme – Anglian Water double-matches your contributions up to 6%.
• Personal private health care.
• Annual bonus scheme.
• Business need cash for cars scheme.
• Opportunity to volunteer to do unpaid work in the community.
• 26 days leave, rising with service + Bank Holidays, with the option to swap Christmas and Easter holidays for those celebrated by your religion.
• Life Cover at 8x your salary.
• Personal Accident cover – up to 5x your salary.
• Flexible benefits to support your wellbeing and lifestyle.
• Lots of great benefits including 20% off new EE mobile contracts, discounted cinema tickets and a Cycle2Work scheme.
• Free parking at all offices, site and leisure parks.
• Excellent family-friendly policies, such as 26 weeks full pay for maternity/adoption leave, as well as 4 weeks paternity/partner pay. Opportunity for shared parental pay.

Apply Now

If you’re ready to make a difference and join a team committed to excellence, apply today!