Principal Telemetry Engineer

Contract type: Permanent

Work pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week. The post holder will also be required to undertake the role of Telemetry Duty Officer. This is a rota’d duty officer role, on standby duty, 24/7, approximately one week in every eight and requires out of hours working to respond to any system or other incidents affecting the telemetry service.

Post number: 202695

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

This is an exciting opportunity to join our National Hydrometry and Telemetry team and lead the development and maintenance of our business critical Telemetry services.

Our Telemetry service underpins our flood and water management services by providing critical near real-time data, alarms and intelligence to enable us to monitor, forecast and warn of flooding. It also provides river flow data critical to our management of water resources including reservoir regulation schemes, drought management and pollution response.

As our principal role leading the telemetry system and services, you will lead the future planning, development and management of NRW’s telemetry system, and service, with an immediate focus on supporting implementation of our £5 million in-flight Telemetry replacement project.  As our specialist technical expert, you will lead for all aspects of telemetry in NRW from field communications through to main system functionality and provision of near-real time data to internal and external customers via our API data portal.

You will work in a team which is responsible for the policy, strategy, data and systems which enable Natural Resources Wales to ensure that hydrometric data is available to those who need it, when they need it, to an agreed level of accuracy and resilience.   

You will work with colleagues from other teams across NRW and partner organisations including the Met. Office, Water companies, and the other UK Monitoring Authorities. Part of your role will be working to understand customer needs and manage a system which is efficient, consistent and at times innovative as we look to use Telemetry for new challenges associated with our response to the climate and nature emergencies. You will get to work with experienced specialists from across our organisation including flood risk management, water resources and hydrology, hydrometry, fisheries, water quality, ICT and digital communications to deliver Telemetry services for an organisation with a significant and world leading environmental remit.

The post holder in this role will be required to undertake the role of the Telemetry Duty Officer. This is a rota’d duty officer role, on standby duty, 24/7, approximately one week in every eight. These additional duties are eligible for standby and overtime payments.

Responsibilities

Your responsibilities include:

• Provide leadership as the specialist technical expert for the setting and implementing of NRW’s policy, strategy, guidance and operational plans for flood analysis for telemetry systems and services.
• Provide leadership as the specialist technical expert to staff at all levels for work area, including on the provision of expert advice, guidance and briefings.
• Provide leadership as the specialist technical expert for the development and provision of telemetry systems and services, evidence and research management and data custodianship for work area.
• Lead on ensuring that NRW’s telemetry and associated systems are maintained, managed and optimised to fulfil required critical business services NRW staff, external partners and business systems.
• Lead on, develop and implement specialised telemetry system components and complex configurations.
• Lead and project manage specific complex issues such as the provision of expert advice, guidance, evidence, plans, and technical briefings to staff at all levels including undertaking horizon scanning to ensure that future risks/issues and opportunities are identified and where appropriate harnessed applying evidence at a highly technical level.
• Build and maintain relations with key stakeholders, including at Wales, UK and international levels to ensure that NRW fulfils its roles and duties in this area, and ensure NRW adheres to best practice, complies with appropriate technical and data standards and can maintain operational and strategic compatibility with partner organisations.
• As the NRW’s lead specialist for telemetry, work with Business Board Sub-Groups, EPP policy leads and Operations staff to ensure that our functional responsibilities, strategic approaches, technical developments and long-term plans for telemetry are fit for purpose and implemented.
• Required to take part in incident response activities.

Qualifications, experience and knowledge

Knowledge and experience of the following: 

1. Expert knowledge of telemetry and the complex range of drivers and potential challenges to effective delivery including experience of managing a wide-area telemetry / SCADA system.
2. In-depth and up to date advanced specialist knowledge and proven ability to deliver in the following technical areas:

• Instrumentation and measurement systems, equipment and standards;
• Windows server based systems;
• Computer networks and network services;
• Programming and scripting languages;
• Data exchange and encapsulation methods.

3. Experience of building networks and relationships with partner organisations and agencies at a national and UK level and able to communicate with and influence people at all organisational levels, internally and externally.
4. Working in a programme and project management environment with Project Management experience and/or qualifications.
5. Pragmatic and forward thinking with an ability to innovate to develop solutions to complex issues.
6. Exercises sound judgement and willing to be held to account for decisions, actions and choices made personally thus instilling confidence and gaining respect.
7. Excellent written and oral communication skills and presentation skills.

Welsh language requirements:

Essential Level 1 – able to pronounce Welsh and use basic phrases

Desirable Level 3 – able to communicate with confidence in Welsh in some work situations.

Please note if you do not meet the level 1 requirement i.e., ability to understand basic phrases and ability to pronounce Welsh names correctly, then NRW offers a variety of learning options and staff support to help you meet these minimal requirements during the course of your employment with us.

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
• standby and overtime payments for out of hours duty role work

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

How to Apply

Please send a completed CV and Personal Statement stating how you match the criteria for the role toApplications@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk using the post number as the email reference

Application closing date 2 April 2023

Interviews will take place during April through Microsoft Teams.

If you have any queries about the role, please contact Alison Hanson, Hydrometry & Telemetry Team Leader at alison.hanson@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.