Marine Lead Adviser

Marine Lead Adviser in the Natural England Wessex Area Team

Do you have a passion for nature and the environment? Do you want to make a real difference and secure significant environmental gains in the present and the future? Do you enjoy working in a team? Can you see yourself advising communities and customers to maximise gains for the Natural Environment?

We have a vacancy for a Marine Lead Adviser in the Wessex Area Team. The role will deliver our marine work with a focus in the seas off Somerset and Dorset. This exciting key role is vital to the delivery of Natural England’s marine vision in this area. You will be working on some of the most biodiverse marine sites in England and should be ambitious to recover marine nature.

If this appeals to you, a career at Natural England offers rewarding opportunities to secure environmental improvements and play your part in creating a better future for people and nature.

The priority work Natural England is delivering includes:

• Establishing a Nature Recovery Network to help wildlife thrive
• Monitoring environmental changes to identify and help reduce the effects of climate change
• Working with farmers and landowners to develop greener food production methods
• Advising on plans for new developments to maximise gains for nature and
• Providing ways for people to better connect with nature, including green social prescribing.

We are the Government’s Adviser for the natural environment, playing a vital role in delivering the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, an ambitious vision which brings new opportunities to protect and enhance and to achieve real outcomes for the environment.

Find out more about the work of Natural England here.

Role description 

The role will cover the subtidal and intertidal marine areas and will involve monitoring marine ecosystems, the provision of both statutory and discretionary advice to regulators and developers relating to the potential impacts of planned or licensed activities in and around marine protected areas, and partnership work to deliver improvements to marine and coastal habitats. The successful candidate will join the Wessex Coast and Seas Team working flexibly, collaboratively, and proactively with others to deliver the Team’s marine work plan. The role could also involve the mentorship, guidance, and leadership of Adviser-level staff.

The successful candidate will be proactive, flexible, adaptable, and creative, with a commitment not only to creating resilient landscapes and seas through conservation of marine flora and fauna, but also to meeting Natural England’s vision of connecting people with nature. A thorough understanding of legislation around marine species and ecosystem conservation is essential. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate experience of nature recovery work within the marine environment, their ability to solve complex problems and to enthusiastically build strong and productive stakeholder relationships.

The Marine Lead Adviser role will cover:

• Protected sites casework: Providing statutory advice to regulatory bodies on the impact of plans and projects on across multiple protected sites designations and advising on impacts to seascapes and the wider environment.
• Fisheries: Advising fisheries regulators on the impact of fisheries within and outside Marine Protected Areas and working with regulators to ensure our inshore fisheries are sustainable, well managed, and compatible with nature recovery.
• Marine Protected Area conservation advice and condition assessment: Updating conservation advice packages for Marine Protected Areas, assessing evidence on site feature condition, and reporting against condition targets set in conservation advice packages.
• Nature recovery: Working on NE and stakeholder-led projects on marine nature recovery, covering habitat restoration, improvement, and creation, and contributing to the development and implementation of the marine biodiversity net gain approach.
• Marine monitoring and evidence: Building an organised and accessible evidence base which meets our standards for marine evidence, by collecting data through the monitoring of Marine Protected Areas to both assess their condition and inform their future management, whilst contributing to the marine Natural Capital Ecosystem Assessment.
• Income generation: Identifying and delivering on opportunities to improve the potential for commercial income to the area team, through the provision of discretionary advice to developers to achieve better outcomes for nature and through other work with partners, to secure external funding for projects that align with Natural England’s vision.
• Priority place working: Building strong relationships with partners and customers to identify and develop opportunities to achieve shared outcomes with different organisations and groups, informing and influencing these via the sharing of knowledge and evidence. Leading internal marine representation in a multi-disciplinary working group with a place-based focus.
• Developing yourself and others: Participate in relevant internal technical networks, showing leadership & sharing best practice with others to support development of strategic approaches to challenges, and promote skills development across the wider team.

This role may involve working outside, and regular travel including to sites, with occasional overnight stays.

Benefits

Wherever possible Natural England accommodates requests for both full-time and part-time hours and other flexible working patterns to help employees achieve a good work/life balance and maintain their health and wellbeing.

Natural England provides excellent opportunities for career progression, training and development tailored to your role. From induction to ongoing learning and development, everyone in Natural England is supported to develop their skills and capabilities. Everyone has 10 days to devote to personal learning and development, as well as an additional 3 days to volunteer.

You will have access to Civil Service Pension and benefits arrangements and generous leave allowances (33 day per year pro rata), as well as flexible working, to help you achieve a work-life balance that works for you and us.

You will have access to a range of benefits including discounts on shopping vouchers, cycle to work scheme, and childcare vouchers. You can also join the Civil Service Sport club which offer discounts on a range of sports and leisure opportunities as well as social events.

Natural England is a fantastic place to work, where difference is celebrated.

We’re committed to fairness and equality for all, so you feel valued for who you are and what you do. Our shared values help us work together to benefit the communities we serve. Our thriving employee-led diversity networks support our inclusive culture and contribute to our Diversity Action Plan.

Locations

Natural England is adopting hybrid working – which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Full time staff are expected to attend their associated office for a minimum of one day a week.

Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.

Wessex Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area. View a map of our office locations here.

Pay

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

How to Apply

We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.

If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview.

This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process:

• Technical Skills (Practitioner)
• Work Delivery (Practitioner)
• Personal Effectiveness (Practitioner)
• Creating resilient landscapes & seas (Practitioner)

When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your doing so.

Please note that STAR format is not required when answering the Technical Skills & Knowledge competency. Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.

Competencies

Technical skills and knowledge (STAR format answers not required) 

Essential

• Relevant degree and / or experience of working in the marine/coastal environment.
• An understanding of the ecology for a variety of marine / coastal habitats and species.
• Knowledge of the impacts of activities / pressures on marine and coastal environment.
• Experience of / capability in interpreting evidence in relation to habitats, species, activities, condition, etc.
• Experience of data analysis, environmental monitoring, and the use of evidence.

Desirable

• Previous experience of working with marine / coastal stakeholders.
• Knowledge of legislation relating to the marine and coastal environment.
• Driving licence

Work Delivery

• Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines
• Understand and apply relevant policy, legislation, governance frameworks and strategies to your work

Personal Effectiveness

• Share expertise and knowledge with people and networks so that you can develop together
• Use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques that engage your audience

Creating resilient landscapes & seas

• Identify appropriate solutions for avoidance, mitigation and compensation of environmental impacts and meeting shared outcomes; and identify opportunities for enhancing the natural environment
• Understand how natural processes, land / sea management and use impact the conservation and management of geodiversity, the marine and historic environments

Wessex team contact

Tim Hall, tim.hall@naturalengland.org.uk, 07760 998 171