Senior Environment Officer (Water Resources)

Closing date: 2 April 2023 | Salary: £37,308-£40,806 (Grade 6) | Location: North-West Wales (Dolgellau).

Contract type: Permanent

Work pattern: 37 hours per week plus participation in out of hours environment management standby rota and revised standby rota arrangements.

Post number: 200212

As an organisation we support flexible working. This role allows hybrid working (a mix of home and office working) and a working pattern suitable for you can be discussed on appointment if you are successful.

You will be contracted to a NRW office within the place base, of which you will be required to attend for regular meetings, training and for one-to-one meetings with your manager. These will be planned in advance.

Job description

The post resides in the Dwyfor and Meirionnydd Environment Team but is Place based in North-West Wales. The applicant can be home based or in the nearest office to their home. They will be contracted to the Dolgellau office where they will be required to attend for regular meetings, training and for one-to-one meetings with the Team Leader. These will be planned in advance.

To ensure an appropriate balance of skills in the team, this role requires a technical specialism in Water Resources, especially Hydro Power schemes. A large part of the work will be to oversee the North-West area’s delivery of Water Resources inspections and regulation. To help deliver this work we are looking of an individual with experience in either regulatory work or water resources; or an understanding of either mathematics or interpreting technical drawings.

In addition, the role will be expected to spend a proportion of their time delivering the required support on environmental incidents and participation in an environment management out of hours standby rota for North-West Wales, the role requires the individual to train to hold a NRW Warrant at Regular Enforcer level warrant to undertake work covering the Water Resources Act, and the Environmental Permitting Regulations.

Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (SMNR) – our Organisations’ purpose - lies at the heart of everything we do. Everyone in NRW has a role to play in achieving SMNR and within that NRW’s role in ensuring ecosystems resilience underpins wider wellbeing in Wales.
The post holder will play a leading role at place to improve wellbeing through the sustainable management of natural resources through the team remit.
They will focus on the more complex issues/case work and provide specialist advice in the context of Environment Management, Protected Sites, Fisheries and Biodiversity.
Will work closely with Team Leader to ensure an effective delivery of Environment Team remit at place that maximises NRW, SMNR and Wellbeing objectives.
They will support the Team Leader in relevant partnership working and stakeholder engagement.

Responsibilities

Your responsibilities include:

Represent NRW in discussions with partner organisations.
Act as technical mentor and advisor to team members.
Closely assist Team Leader in the planning and delivery of compliance programme and enforcement.
Take appropriate actions to collect evidence for enforcement purposes, in accordance with defined procedures.
Where non-compliance is identified, determine and implement the most appropriate intervention option.
Co-ordinate the technical development of team members.
Play a key role in identifying opportunities for new Management Agreements and Partnership Projects to deliver NRW priorities at place.
Play a senior role in supporting a resilient and competent NRW Incident Management Service that follows NRW process.
Required to take part in incident response activities

Qualifications, experience and knowledge

Knowledge and experience of the following:

Experience of project development and management. (desirable)
Overall understanding of the sustainable management of natural resources, with focused expertise in a distinct area of the Environment Team remit.
Ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders and the public, explaining issues and gaining support by influencing.
Good knowledge and experience of regulatory and enforcement processes.
Hold a current full UK valid licence to drive NRW fleet vehicles. (cars and vans)

Welsh language requirements:

Essential Level 3 – Able to communicate with confidence in Welsh in some work situations.

Desirable Level 4 – Fluent in spoken Welsh, the candidate will be expected to develop their Welsh language skills to this level following an agreed training programme

Competencies

Please note - Applications to this role will be assessed based on the following competencies, both at shortlisting and interview. Please give examples of how you demonstrate these competencies when completing your application form.

Essential Knowledge and Skills	Able to undertake practical or technical tasks or work, requiring specialist knowledge/ expertise. Expert in a range of subjects relating to their specialism and able to act as the local expert or specialist lead for a small area, in an advisory capacity. Demonstrates substantial experience and specialist knowledge in their field, with the ability to manage projects, including the project budget and team. Possess analytical, influencing, persuading, supervisory and mentoring skills, together with project management skills.
Evaluation of Information	Able to interpret the function’s operational delivery plans and understand their context in the wider NRW strategy. Able to interpret developments in their area of expertise, contributing to business planning and the design and delivery of team-work programmes. Demonstrates the ability to analyse and interpret a wide range of complex information, extracting key points and able to communicate them to individuals at all levels and contribute to the development of policy.
Decision Making and Autonomy Requirements	Ability to lead and project manage specific areas of work, taking responsibility for managing project budgets and teams, and for the success and delivery of the project. Able to decide how best to achieve results, with guidance from peers, requiring the need for some degree of judgment and creativity which may lead to changes in established procedures/ practice in the work area. Post holders will be delivering often significant programmes of work, which may require the need to alter priorities due to conflicting demands. Responsible for making independent decisions at an operational level, with input from line management and peers, together with an understanding of NRW policy and the range of options available and their potential implications for the business. Understands the consequences of taking wrong decisions, which would have an adverse effect in relation to external stakeholders, such as partner organisations, lenders, service users etc. Decisions taken may concern a broad range of matters, the outcome of which may not always be immediately clear or apparent; and are likely to be wider than the immediate function or department. Problems encountered may also relate to the work of other parts of the organisation and could be variable and diverse.
Communication and Relationships with Others	Ability to interact and link with other roles across the business, fostering and maintaining good relationships and networks, engaging the organisation in delivering polices and work plans in the most efficient way. Communication with others will be at an operational level both internally and externally and will typically be specialist in nature. Able to act as an advisory or functional specialist, providing advice, which may be technical, specialist or detailed; tailoring the method, style and level of communication appropriately for the audience. Demonstrates effective communication and persuasive skills with the ability to lead projects, which may include facilitating and presenting at internal or external meetings, giving advice and input as required. Able to produce documents, reports, programs, contracts, with some complexity; containing advice, guidance or opinion; which would have detrimental consequences if incorrect or poorly drafted. Ability to research and gather information and data from multiple locations or sources and apply professional judgment in how the information should be interpreted.
Responsibility for Resources	Will have a small budget for delivery of a specific project and/or responsibility for checking the validity of forms and documents as part of a process or procurement of goods and services.

Benefits of working for us

This role will offer a range of benefits, including:

agile and flexible working (role dependent)
Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 26.6% to 30.3%
28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days
generous leave entitlements for all your life needs
health and wellbeing benefits and support
weekly well-being hour to use at your choice

See full details for all the employee benefits you will receive.

How to apply

Please send a completed Application form to Applications@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk using the post number as the email reference

Before completing your application, please read our Guidance on completing a job application form

Application closing date: 2 April 2023.

Interviews will take place through Microsoft Teams.

If you have any queries about the role, please contact Arfon Hughes at 03000 655304 or Arfon.Hughes@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk

Natural Resources Wales embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunity. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition.

We welcome and encourage applications from groups currently underrepresented, including women, black and ethnic minority groups and people with a disability. We have a guaranteed interview scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

We put the principles of human rights, equality, fairness, dignity and respect at the heart of our values.

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