29873 - Biodiversity Technical Specialist

We have an exciting opportunity for a Biodiversity Technical Specialist to join our Nuclear New Build (NNB) Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) Team.

The successful candidate will work across the multiple projects that sit under the NNB programme, including Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, and future NNB projects.

This is an excellent opportunity to help contribute to the UK's net zero target and our responses to the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis.

The post would be suited to anyone with experience Habitat regulations, ecology, conservation and environmental protection. The work will be technically challenging and high profile, with evidence-based decisions being made to tight timescales.

As the Biodiversity Technical Specialist, you'll work with area and national specialists, Natural England, the Marine Management Organisation, and Natural Resources Wales. There will be direct engagement with industry to influence their proposals to help achieve high standards of environmental protection.

You'll provide advice and guidance to nuclear developers before they apply for environmental permits to construct and operate the stations. You will then assess their permit applications under the Habitats Regulations, using your skills to interpret and assess the supporting evidence and data.
The team
We are the Nuclear New Build (NNB) Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) Team. We deliver an important service to ensure that European sites are protected when issuing environmental permits for construction and operation of new nuclear power stations, under our duties as competent authority under the Habitats Regulations.

We are a small friendly, nationally dispersed team of based in the Nature Recovery department of the Environment & Business (E&B) Directorate.

You'll likely to have a background in biodiversity, ecology or air quality, preferably with experience of environmental impacts on protected habitats and species.

You'll be able to analyse, present data clearly and communicate it to internal and external audiences. It's preferable for you to have some knowledge of air quality impacts.

You will need:

-knowledge of the impact that activities such as water discharges, water abstractions, or aerial emissions have on terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecology and how these impacts could be mitigated
-a good grasp of presenting and interpreting data using GIS and Office365 tools such as Word and Excel
-good communication, relationship-building, and team-working skills
-experience of influencing and persuading, dealing with challenging conversations and working with external stakeholders.
-good work planning skills, including the ability to handle multiple priorities and deliver to tight timescales

The Environment Agency are fully committed to having an inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. We don't just talk about diversity; we seek it, embrace it, and live it, for the benefit of our staff, our communities and our environment.