Principal Ecologist

Are you looking to progress your career by working on Britain's biggest construction project?

Balfour Beatty VINCI is working with a range of organisations to design and build 90km West Midlands stretch of HS2 - Britain's new high speed railway. Our work is essential to enable HS2 trains to travel between London and Birmingham. It's an incredibly exciting time to join us - we're at peak construction with work really ramping up on a broad range of assets including bridges, tunnels and viaducts. Plus you'd join 9,000 people across 72 nationalities working on this exciting section of HS2 across the region.

We currently have an exciting opportunity to join our team as a
Principal Ecologist
within the
Sustainability function
. This role will be based on various sites in the west midlands, travel will be required.

We are looking for passionate and driven ecologists to further strengthen our Ecology Team and are looking for Senior/Principal level ecologists to support the BBV Construction Sublots, BBV

Ecology Team, Ecology Technical Specialists and Ecology Junior personnel with:

• Providing technical expertise and guidance on ecological design delivery, particularly on the integration of ecological mitigation into civil engineering and landscape design, with a view to achieving the project goal of No Net Loss of Biodiversity.
• Ensuring the delivery of ecological design and delivery works in accordance with contractual requirements, including HS2 Technical Standards, legislation, policy and best practice guidelines.
• Providing inspiration and technical guidance to the BBV Natural Capital Team.
• The production and/or assurance of high quality ecological reports and deliverables.
• The design, implementation, monitoring and review of protected species mitigation.
• The assurance of the design and delivery of habitat creation and enhancement measures, including adaptive management based on the outcomes of monitoring data.
• Driving of initiatives for identification and safeguarding of retained habitats.

Experienced required

• Proven and extensive experience of undertaking and implementing the design and delivery of ecological mitigation, enhancement and management for construction projects, particularly NSIPs.
• Thorough understanding and experience of implementing ecological best practice, standards and guidance.
• Strong project management experience and organisational skills.
• Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Ideally educated to degree or masters level in an ecology related subject.
• Excellent understanding of ecological legalisation for development and HS2.
• Full driver's licence and flexibility to travel.
• Protected species licence holder; desirable to be a mitigation licence holder.
• Excellent understanding of the utilities/construction/engineering operating environment.
• Literate in MS Office – Word, Excel, Outlook & GIS.
• Good interpersonal skills and experience of overseeing junior personnel.
• Excellent communication skills and a solution-driven attitude when hosting and contributing to meetings.
• CIEEM Membership or meet the criteria.
• Experienced with communicating with Natural England on projects species licences.
• Skills in working collaboratively to obtain the best outcome for the project.
• Determination to see tasks through to completion with excellent planning.

Please note candidates will need to have a current valid right to work in the UK to be considered for this role.

Benefits of working with us

• Car/ car allowance

• Flexible working available for some roles

• Free parking

• Travel allowance for eligible candidates

• Family friendly leave policies

• Excellent pension contributions

• Healthcare

• Health risk assessments

• Access to employee assistance programmes

• Access to annual flu vaccinations

About Balfour Beatty VINCI

Balfour Beatty VINCI is a long-established joint venture between two powerhouses for the delivery of critical infrastructure across rail, transport and other iconic projects in the UK and beyond. We started working together over 30 years ago to deliver the Channel Tunnel, as members of the TransManche Link consortium. In the Midlands, it is Balfour Beatty VINCI's role to design and build the route, ready for tracks and signalling to be installed. Our work with HS2 Balfour Beatty VINCI have been awarded a 90km section of the HS2 project from Long Itchington in Warwickshire to the centre of Birmingham and then on to Handsacre in Staffordshire.

Overall, we will be building the following across all our sites:

• 9.3km of viaducts

• 62 overbridges

• 35 cuttings

• 56 culverts

• 62 embankments

• 2 twin bore tunnels and 2 cut and cover tunnels

• 28 underbridges and 11 underpasses

Diversity and Inclusion

Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) is delivering equal oppo te our ability to support our people effectively. We care about being inclusive and that means we encourage applications from people with diverse set of backgrounds and experiences. BBV is a Disability Confident Leader and we welcome applications from candidates with a disability.

Flexible working

We recognise and respect that people work in different ways and we are open to discussing what flexibility you may need during the recruitment process, balanced against our project requirements. rtunities for everyone that is part of the team and for people that are yet to join us. We are an inclusive employer and welcome people from all backgrounds to come and join our team, including people with different physical abilities and neuro diversities. We are working to represent the communities Balfour Beatty VINCI works in through our workforce. We have embedded Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (ED&I) Champions across our sites and are guided by strong accreditations that ensure we demonstrate our ability to support our people effectively. We care about being inclusive and that means we encourage applications from people with diverse set of backgrounds and experiences. BBV is a Disability Confident Leader and we welcome applications from candidates with a disability.

Flexible working

We recognise and respect that people work in different ways and we are open to discussing what flexibility you may need during the recruitment process, balanced against our project requirements.