Aquatic Ecologist Graduate

Graduate Aquatic Ecologist

**Business Line**: Environment & Buildings + Places

**Locations**: Nottingham, Leeds and Basingstoke

**Salary**: Competitive

JOB SUMMARY

AECOM's nationwide Water Environment team is expanding, and we are looking to recruit a Graduate Aquatic Ecologist to work out of our Nottingham or Basingstoke office (or Leeds).

The Graduate Aquatic Ecologist will support the delivery of consultancy and advisory services, including a wide range of fieldwork and site work opportunities, to both internal and external clients to a high level of technical quality and to programme and budget.

The individual we are looking for will be an ambitious team player with a strong aptitude for client care, project delivery and contributing to the development of innovative, cost effective solutions in a working environment that is collaborative, stimulating and demanding.

At AECOM Aquatic ecologists work with architects, engineers, planners, economists and other environmental specialists on important projects. Together we provide the full range of ecological services including habitat and species surveys, impact assessment, advice on biodiversity mitigation, offsetting and enhancement, and management planning for biodiversity.

This role would involve processing aquatic freshwater invertebrate samples in the laboratory, developing the skills to analyse to family/species level and estimating abundance, organising and undertaking benthic macroinvertebrate surveys in freshwaters, assisting with fieldwork and sample collection (potentially macroinvertebrate, phytobenthos, fisheries, water quality etc) for freshwater projects when required, Assisting with data entry, analysis and processing (potentially macroinvertebrate, phytobenthos, water quality etc) for freshwater projects, contributing to survey reports and ecological appraisals and liaising with project managers and clients.

To be successful in this role you’ll need to be ambitious team player with a strong aptitude for client care and project delivery. We’re looking for someone who is self-reliant, thrives on challenges and is happy to work closely with colleagues in other disciplines.

You’ll be supporting the delivery of consultancy and advisory services - to a high level of technical quality, to programme, and to budget. You will operate ethically and with integrity, while prioritising safety and security in all that you do.

Ecology is part of AECOM’s Environment business which provides environmental management services for feasibility, impact analysis and operational compliance as well as remediation, restoration and re-use of impacted property.

JOB RESPONSIBLITIES
- Supporting the delivery of existing and new contracts for the collection and analysis of aquatic survey data including fish, macroinvertebrates, crayfish, macrophytes, riparian mammals, River Habitat Survey etc.;
- Working as part of the existing network of AECOM ecologists and water scientists within the UK and Ireland;
- Good knowledge of current environmental legislation, including the Water Framework Directive;
- Compliance with internal business management procedures, including in relation to health and safety and technical quality of all advice and outputs;
- Contribute to maintaining internal and external client relationships, including providing urgent ecological response and / or advice as required;
- Collaborating with colleagues in wider AECOM teams on multi-disciplinary projects;
- Assisting with other administrative duties which add value to the management and development of the team.

TRAINING

Our Graduate Development Programme (ADVANCE) along with our huge scope of projects across the globe will challenge and inspire you to make a real difference to the world we live in. Our GDP forms a core part of our business strategy globally, designed to develop the best talent across numerous disciplines to lead our business into the future. We have more than 750 graduates on our programmes across the UK and Ireland from more than 40 different disciplines, each making a tangible difference to the environment in which we live and work.

We’ll provide you with all the tools and support you need to achieve your professional development ambitions, including Chartership with the relevant international professional institution (we have graduates working towards more than 30 professional institutions in the UK and Ireland). We’ll push you to achieve the highest standards and expect our graduates to pass their professional review first time. You will be assigned a mentor to support and guide your development, and you will take regular training modules throughout the programme. There’ll be on-the-job technical development and classroom training where required, and the opportunity to work on live client projects with significant multi-disciplinary exposure.

Professional institutes you may work towards are The Chartered Institute for Water and Environmental Management (C