Senior Biodiversity Specialists

Closing Date

Job Title: Senior Biodiversity Specialists

Location: Flexible (within our region) hybrid, approx. 2 days a week in an office (NB Regular weekly travel across the region required)

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37 hours per week

Salary: circa £55,000 depending on skills and experience

The Environment & Innovation team is at the forefront of Southern Water's drive to enhance and protect the environment. Deploying the latest innovative solutions and working in partnership with our customers and stakeholders, the team takes a holistic approach to managing water quality and flow across the region. Currently delivering a £50million portfolio which rapidly expands to over £2 billion over the next 10 years. This is a fast-paced team that is now expanding to continue to deliver a larger programme of sustainable and innovative solutions.  We are developing an exciting new team led by the Environment Strategy Manager, who are together responsible for driving environmental ambition and delivery across the business. Together this team will have responsibility for our Biodiversity and Inns programmes. 

Job Overview

We are currently recruiting two brand new Senior Specialists into our team – an Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) and an Ecology expert. 

The role holders will support the Principal Biodiversity & INNS Specialist as part of an in-house team to deliver the company's Biodiversity and Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) and/or deliver the company's Biodiversity Performance Commitment and Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP). Successful implementation of our WINEP programmes directly influences our Environmental Performance Assessment star rating. These roles will manage a small delivery team.

• Subject matter expert on Ecology or INNS, conservation delivery partnerships and how they relate directly to our business.
• Support the delivery of key programmes of work, including Biodiversity, INNS, land management of our estate and the delivery of our WINEP programme. 
• Supporting the Principal Biodiversity & INNS Specialist to technically manage implementation, monitoring and reporting of biodiversity / INNS initiatives and projects. Responsible for undertaking technical evaluation / recommendations on environmental nature-based measures needed.
• Engagement with key stakeholders and partners, environmental NGOs and catchment partnerships, as well as other Water Companies to promote our programme. Representing Southern Water on technical environmental partnerships.

About You

• Demonstrable applied expertise of project delivery in ecological/botanical monitoring, biodiversity enhancement projects, estate management, and innovative conservation delivery.
• Proven experience of project delivery of INNS/Biodiversity or Ecology projects.
• Experience managing delivery of technical work via sub-contracted consultancy teams.
• A strong track record of stakeholder engagement and management.
• Experience of managing and mentoring a small team.
• Great communicator and ability to engage and deliver complex presentations in a clear and concise way to a variety of senior, technical, non-technical and public audiences.
• Ability / willingness to travel across the region regularly (weekly) to attend site visits and meetings.

Package

This role will be full time Monday to Friday with a hybrid approach to working between one of our offices, sites and home.  We are offering a salary of circa £55,000 as well as other benefits including:

• Generous pension up to 11% company contribution
• 25 days annual leave
• Life assurance equal to 4x salary
• Salary sacrifice electric car scheme (after 6 months service)
• Health Cash Plan
• Full funded eye tests
• Two paid volunteering days a year 
• Occupational health service
• Discounts with over 800 popular retailers
• Digital GP service
• Study support may be available for job-related qualifications  
• Competitive maternity leave and flexible return to work options
• Cycle to work scheme

Join our Environment & Innovation team and see how far your career could progress with a company committed to career progression, training and development opportunities, our customers and the environment.

Does this opportunity excite you but you're not 100% sure if you meet all the requirements for the role? We will also be hiring a range of other Biodiversity Specialists across the team so please apply if you are interested in these types on roles. 

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, because delivering water for life is our core purpose. To achieve this, we need 24/7 support in place to resolve incidents quickly and efficiently. All our employees understand the importance of out-of-hours incident support – because when problems appear, fixing them is our top priority. That's why our people join together and support when and however needed to make sure our customers get the service they deserve. Joining the Southern Water family means you'll become part of our incident support team. During your interview, your manager will speak to you about any incident support rotas that apply to your position.

Privacy Statement:

Please note: If you are an existing Southern Water employee, you will need to confirm within your application that your Manager is aware of your application.

All applicants must be eligible to live and work in the UK. You will need to provide evidence of eligibility (e.g. a passport or long birth certificate and proof of NI) and current proof of address (dated within the last 3 months), will be required as part of the recruitment process. If you do not meet these criteria, your application will not be considered.

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