Marine Bioacoustician

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 358617**Salary**:

- £36,585 - £41,834- A Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%**Job grade**:

- Higher Executive Officer- B2**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Type of role**:

- Science**Working pattern**:

- Full-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Aberdeen, Scotland, AB11 9DBAbout the job

**Job summary**:
Do you want to play an important role in tackling the climate change emergency by helping to enable the sustainable development of offshore wind in Scotland?

In January 2022, Crown Estate Scotland announced the successful applicants to the ScotWind offshore wind leasing round to commence a new phase of offshore wind farm construction in Scottish waters helping Scotland meet its Net Zero targets, become carbon neutral by 2045 and tackle the climate emergency. The Scottish Government is responsible for identifying where the ScotWind projects will be located, administering the related offshore planning consents, and ensuring that projects are delivered in an environmentally sustainable manner. The Renewables and Ecology Team (R&E) in the Marine Directorate provides specialist scientific advice to regulators and policy makers to support this.

The Marine Bioacoustician will provide scientific advice on underwater noise related to offshore renewable energy projects and other policy and management related areas. You will help to build the evidence base relied upon by decision makers, to ensure that our advice continues to be supported by the best available evidence. You will also work to collect, process, and analyse underwater acoustic data to support statutory reporting, as well as contributing to work to better understand the impacts of underwater noise to the marine environment.

The R&E team currently has around 25 staff who provide advice within government on the potential environmental impacts of marine energy on key receptors including birds, marine mammals, fish and fisheries, benthic habitats, and diadromous fish. Our specialists also provide advice on other Scottish Government policy priorities, such as marine protected area management and regulation of other marine activities.

**Job description**:

- Provide scientific advice to regulators and policy makers on underwater noise and bioacoustics, informed by the best available evidence.
- Work within the team to collect, process, and analyse underwater acoustic data to provide outputs on noise levels and detection of marine species.
- Support the Senior Marine Bioacoustician in contributing to work streams around management of underwater noise in Scotland.

**Person specification**:

- A sound understanding of the possible impacts of underwater noise on marine mammals and other marine species, and current research relating to underwater noise.
- Demonstrable experience in specialist software used to manage, manipulate and analyse sound data, for example Matlab, Python, R or PAMGuard.
- The ability to work independently with good organisational skills and effectively manage projects.
- Excellent analytical skills and the ability to make sense of complex information and make informed decision.

**Benefits**:

- Alongside your salary of £36,585, Scottish Government contributes £9,877 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

**Selection process details**:

- Sift and Interview dates TBC- Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.**Security**:
- People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.**Nationality requirements**:
This job is broadly open to the following groups:

- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)**Working for the Civil Service**:

- The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
- We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).-
**Diversity and Inclusion**:

- The Civil Service is committ