Freshwater Ecologist Environmental Monitoring Officer - Chalk – East Anglia - 28826

Job description

We seek an experienced Environmental Monitoring Officer (Ecology) who will be based at either our Brampton Laboratory, near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire or our Ipswich Laboratory.

In East Anglia we want to create a diverse workplace where people are respected, valued and listened to. We’re all different, and by embracing Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) we can become an equal opportunity employer where jointly we all grow and learn together. It is our ambition to champion diversity through building a workforce as diverse as the communities we serve.

We are enhancing our efforts to restore chalk streams, and this is an exciting opportunity to contribute to an innovative national programme focused on achieving sustainable abstraction and healthy rivers across chalk catchments. Fundamental to this will be extending the monitoring and assessment of the impacts of water abstraction.

You will work as part of a virtual pan area team to undertake environmental monitoring and assessment across chalk catchments. Most monitoring sites will form part of the national Water Resources Permitting and Planning Network. It will focus on headwater sites including those which periodically dry, and river reaches experiencing elevated flows from existing groundwater support schemes. This work will boost our understanding of the ecological impacts of abstraction and provide an underlying evidence base at both local and national scale.

You will support chalk stream environmental monitoring and assessment by:
• undertaking macro-invertebrate (mixed-taxon level) identification of chalk stream samples (based at either the Brampton Laboratory, near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire or our Ipswich Laboratory)
• undertaking macrophyte and River Habitat Surveys.
• undertaking data management/analysis and interpretation across all freshwater monitoring disciplines
• liaising with other teams and external partners
• supporting investigations into impacts of environmental pollution incidents.

The posts are full-time although requests for other work patterns will be considered.

The team

The post will be based and managed in the Area Analysis & Reporting (A&R) teams. Each A&R team collects specialist ecological evidence and provides analysis and interpretation of this evidence to inform decisions on effective environmental outcomes.

The pan area virtual team will consist of a Senior Environmental Monitoring Officer and 3 Environmental Monitoring Officers geographically dispersed across chalk areas. This team will work closely with colleagues in national teams.

Experience/skills required

It’s essential that you will be:
• an enthusiastic and self-motivated person with a genuine passion for the environment
• qualified to at least degree level (or equivalent) in a relevant discipline (e.g. ecology or environmental sciences/biology), with relevant practical experience specialised in freshwater ecology
• experienced in freshwater ecological surveys and laboratory work
• able to analyse macroinvertebrate samples to mixed taxonomic level, and / or undertake lowland river macrophyte surveys and River Habitat Surveys (accreditation desirable)
• experienced in analysing, interpreting and reporting river ecology monitoring data, specifically with respect to anthropogenic pressures

You will have good communication and influencing skills, adaptable, self-motivating and able to take decisions to manage workload to tight deadlines

The post-holder will be required to undertake fieldwork and must hold a full driving licence and be a confident swimmer.

The candidate pack and generic role profile should be read along with the advert.

Contact and additional information

The role will be based either in our Brampton Office, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE28 4NE or our Ipswich Office, IP3 9JD with travelling to field locations for which transport will be provided.

You'll be provided with all the equipment you'll need.

We offer a fantastic benefits package including flexible working, 25 days annual leave, and an award-winning Pension Fund.

Responding to incidents is a central part of what we do. Please see the candidate pack for more on how you will support with this.

If invited to interview, these will be in person at either Brampton or Ipswich (tbc). They will consist of competency questions and you'll also need to complete a laboratory based ID assessment.

Please note all applications must be made directly via the Environment Agency jobs recruitment portal. We do not accept CVs or applications outside of our recruitment system. Please click the apply externally link to view the full job advert, recruiting manager contact details and candidate pack.