Dio - Senior Marine Biologist

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

- 260925**Salary**:

- £41,000- + Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27% and additional benefits**Job grade**:

- Senior Executive Officer**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- MOD - Defence Infrastructure Organisation - COO - Technical Services - Environmental & Protection Services**Type of role**:

- Environment and Sustainability
- Science**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Compressed Hours**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Catterick, DL9 3LR, Whittington, WS14 9PY, Westdown, SP3 4RSAbout the job

**Job summary**:
Do you want to work for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and play a key role in keeping our country safe through caring for the Defence estate and those that depend on it? DIO manages the Defence estate, one of the UK’s largest and most diverse property portfolios, enabling the armed forces and Defence civilians to live, work, train and deploy. From net carbon-zero accommodation to runways for the F35 fighter jets, our outputs are unique in the UK and across the globe

**Job description**:
**The Challenge**

This is an exciting time for DIO and Technical Services, as the Sustainability and Environment teams expand to respond to the challenges of Net Zero Carbon, embedding Climate Resilience, and delivering Social Value through our procurements. Sustainability and Environment carries a high profile in the organisation, and we have a key role in delivering the new MOD Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy and the revised Greening Government targets.

Environment Support and Compliance (Ecology & Natural Capital), one of the constituent teams of SHEPS, delivers specialist advice across the MOD estate. The customer base is diverse but includes all TLBs, DIO MPP (Major Projects and Programmes) and DIO Regional Delivery teams as required alongside delivering in house corporate projects and the Conservation Stewardship Fund. The Environmental Support and Compliance (Ecology & Natural Capital) team delivers advice on biodiversity and natural environment, woodland creation, ecological assessments and natural capital projects.

**Main Responsibilities**

The Ecology and Natural Capital team provides the MOD's in-house expertise in the conservation of the natural environment. The Defence rural estate covers 225,000 ha of the UK, with many designated sites, including Marine Conservation Zones and European Marine Sites.

The Marine Biologist will play a meaningful role in influencing MOD activities throughout the UK. A core part of this role will involve providing advice and support to capital infrastructure projects at the MOD naval bases in Devonport (Plymouth), Portsmouth and the Clyde. The role is responsible for leading collaboration with external partners including consultancies, statutory agencies, NGOs and universities amongst others. The role will also be responsible for provision of specialist technical advice to a variety of external and internal partners and to make a difference to the management of the marine environment. A core part of the role will involve providing technical advice and support for infrastructure projects at the MOD Naval Bases at Devonport (Plymouth), Portsmouth and the Clyde.

The role is expected to lead on casework from the Major Projects and Programmes team whom require advice, support and assurance from Technical Services to the DIO MPP PM on the direction to consultants on the optimum solution for defence. Each of these projects are critical infrastructure investments for Defence (some millions of pounds) and require a large amount of statutory environmental approvals and negotiations with statutory bodies whilst working within a multi-disciplinary team. The advisory support required by these projects includes a wide range of technical expertise including: marine species mitigation, coastal erosion and flood defences, marine toxicology and underwater sound studies.

**About DIO**

View our YouTube video to see more about our work

**Person specification**:
Leadership and Management - 10%
- Operate as the single DIO Technical Services point of contact for all marine biology/ecology case work.
- Knowledge of marine legislation in all four devolved nations.
- Promote effective working relationships with wider DIO and key customers within MOD (e.g. Naval Command, DE&S, Qinetic etc) and within the DIO team.
- Manage and prioritise workloads to contribute to business outputs.
- Demonstrate a personal commitment to the DIO Guiding Principles.
- Plan and undertake appropriate personal development.
- Ensure local compliance with mandatory requirements e.g. H&S training.

Technical Advice and Policy - 10%
- Provide advice on the delivery of the MOD’s legal and policy obligations to support objectives across the defence estate for the marine environment.
- Carrying out marine ecol