We are looking for candidates with an interest or experience in field survey to join the Natural Capital & Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) project team. This is an entry level role in a supportive and growing national team, working on an innovative new project. The role will have a strong training element and will give successful candidates a good opportunity to develop their skills and progress their career in this field.
The role
Your role will be working alongside and supporting field surveyors with planning and carrying out a range of field surveys and testing of protocols. The field team are our people on the ground - developing and delivering the England Ecosystem Survey including soil and Peat surveys and ground truthing our Earth observation data.
During the main survey season the role will be predominantly field-based and involve supporting the organisation, and carrying out, a range of habitat surveys across England. Survey scope is likely to include botanical surveying on a range of habitats (mixture of lowland, upland, freshwater, coastal etc) and will include data collection associated with assessing landscape features. It will also include soil surveys, which may partly extend into the winter months. Training will be provided on survey methods, and you will be working alongside our experienced field ecologists on site. Equipment will include a mixture of traditional and Geographical Information System-based recording/collection tools to enable georeferenced data collection and spatial mapping. Survey season length will vary each year depending on habitat and purpose. Off season you will be working alongside project staff to focus on planning and preparing updates to methods, and development of training materials ahead of the following year’s survey season.
Key tasks and accountabilities
The NCEA is a new Defra Group evidence programme which in the long term aims to deliver high quality national and local evidence to assess the state and condition of biodiversity, ecosystems, and natural capital assets across our terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. In 2023/24, we are continuing to explore approaches to understand how best we can identify the condition of environments and ecosystems, identify detrimental changes and improvements, calculate the value of interventions and to develop, test, implement and evaluate policy.
Natural England will deliver elements of the terrestrial and marine parts of the pilot, building our skills and capacity in: Earth observation; data management; analysis and modelling; project and contract management; specialist expertise (habitats, marine, landscape, soils, evaluation, natural capital etc); and ecological survey co-ordination and survey on land and at sea.
Additional information
This role will require frequent travel throughout England and overnight stays will be required. Natural England will reimburse all costs incurred when travelling on organisational business – including travel, accommodation and subsistence. Surveyors typically spent 50% of their time out in the field.
Successful candidates will be based at one of Natural England’s offices and will be expected to regularly undertake field work across England. Preference will be given to candidates located in the North West/ /East Anglia/North East given the existing locations of others in the teams.
The successful candidate will be required to show flexibility in managing and adapting to other work should team priorities or resources change
Benefits
At Natural England, we want everyone to thrive. We’re as committed to creating an inclusive culture as we are to protecting our environment, and welcome applications from a wide range of communities. You’ll get 33 days of annual leave, benefit from flexible working patterns, including flexi-time, and have access to the civil service pension scheme.
We offer a generous learning and development package including a tailored personal development plan, access to apprenticeships, self directed and external learning, and encourage membership with relevant bodies to help with your future career
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code 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. The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria
Further information about the role is available by contacting
stephen.marsh@naturalengland.org.uk
24/02/2023, 23:55 hours
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This Vacancy is closed to applications.
