Catchment Planning Specialist

2

London, South East

Welwyn Garden City

Alchemy, Bessemer Road, AL7 1HE

Staff Grade 5

Permanent

Full Time, Part Time

Environment & Sustainability, Operational Delivery

£39,635

The Environment Agency are fully committed to having an inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. We don’t just talk about diversity; we seek it, embrace it and live it, for the benefit of our staff, our communities and our environment. We are looking for someone who will live and breathe this ethos, helping us achieve our goal.
Everyone starting in a new role will be welcomed into the team and given all the training and support needed. As part of your comprehensive induction, you will be provided with all the equipment required for your role.
Are you looking for an opportunity to help protect and enhance our water environment?
Do you enjoy working with environmental information and data?
We’re looking for a motivated individual with excellent communication, organisation, planning and data manipulation skills to lead on improving our catchment evidence base for the Hertfordshire and North London (HNL) area.
As the Catchment Planning Specialist, you'll use evidence and data, working closely with our technical specialists and with local interest groups, to prioritise a programme of investigation work and environmental improvements. You'll lead information delivery to senior managers and provide solutions to complex issues.
You'll secure delivery of actions by planning work in an integrated and coordinated way, providing timely, technical input to plans, reports and other communications. You'll also influence ways of working for internal delivery teams to support integrated outcomes. This will involve building and maintaining sound, influential relationships with both internal and external customers / partners.
Responding to incidents is a central part of what we do. You will be required to have an incident role or provide business continuity support during an incident. This may attract an additional payment and full training will be available to support you.

The team is made up of environment Planning Specialists and officers who focus on water quality and river basin planning activities. Working with area and national colleagues, we collate, analyse and share data to produce environmental evidence. This informs and drives our area priorities, maximising benefits for people and the natural environment.
HNL is an exciting area to work in – we have chalk rivers, multiple nationally significant infrastructure sites, and diverse communities to serve.

We are looking for candidates who:

• have a good understanding of current environmental issues affecting the South East
• have an interest in using environmental data and evidence to help plan and deliver multifunctional environmental benefits
• have proven communication skills including understanding, analysing and translating data and information into evidence that can be used to inform and influence decisions by technical and non-technical audiences
• are able to bring people together, inspiring collaboration and information sharing
• are able to work under their own initiative and as part of a multidisciplinary team

Experience in catchment/river basin planning, mapping software and the Water Framework Directive will be an advantage.
We support membership of an appropriate professional institute, e.g. CIWEM, and encourage ongoing learning and development.
We encourage you to refer to our "EA capability dictionary" which can be viewed by searching online using any web browser.

The roles will be based in our Welwyn Garden City office, although we currently work flexibly with a mixture of office and home working. We are fully committed to having an inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. We welcome flexible working patterns for all our vacancies - our flexible working practices support a healthy work/life balance and offer numerous choices to help accommodate the demands that various personal commitments may present. Training and learning opportunities are available for those wanting to progress their career.
Face to face interviews will be held at our office in Welwyn Garden City in May.
For further information about the role please contact Sandra Spinks (sandra.spinks@environment-agency.gov.uk) or Harriet Corbett (Harriet.Corbett@environment-agency.gov.uk)