Environment Officer (Conservation)

Team / Directorate: Wrexham and Flintshire Environment Team / Operations

Starting salary:  £36,246 rising to £39,942 per annum through annual increments being paid each year (pro rata for part time applicants)

Contract type: Permanent 

Work pattern:  Part time
(Part time, annualised hours, compressed hours or term time working considered - discussions at interview stage welcome)

Interview Date: 22/08/2025

Post number: 200398 ENV

The role

Love the outdoors? Passionate about protecting nature and making a difference? This could be the job for you.

We're looking for someone who thrives on working with people, solving real-world environmental challenges, and getting hands-on in the field. Based in stunning North East Wales, this role focuses on managing and restoring some of the region’s most important protected sites.

You’ll work across a variety of habitats, with a particular focus on Grasslands and Heathlands – so if you’ve got experience in these areas or are keen to build it, we want to hear from you. You’ll also play an active role in tackling pollution, supporting incident response, and delivering high-impact environmental campaigns that protect our coastal waters and rivers.

This is a dynamic role with real variety – one day you might be out surveying a site, the next you’ll be collaborating with communities, landowners, or partner organisations to drive positive environmental change.

If you're ready to make a difference where it matters most – in the heart of nature – we’d love to have you on board.

As an organisation we support flexible working. You will be contracted to the NRW office at the above location and a suitable hybrid working pattern will be agreed on appointment. Any regular face to face meetings or training will be planned in advance.

For informal enquiries, please contact Elizabeth Felton at Elizabeth.Felton@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk.

Interviews will be held on Microsoft Teams. 

Successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check. Appointments are normally made within 4 to 8 weeks of the closing date.

About us

The Wrexham and Flintshire Environment Team covers a broad range of operational and regulatory work, you will be working alongside people who are focused on regulating the water industry,  people who are managing contracts to improve the condition of a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and people who are striving to improve the condition of our watercourses. Everyone in the team plays an important role in the response to Environmental Incidents, this can range from damage to a protected site, to a spill of chemicals from an industrial premises.

What you will do

• Work with a wide range of internal and external customers including permit holders, landowners, businesses, public bodies, recreation groups, volunteers and third sector organisations to enable others to achieve SMNR. 
• Establish, maintain and advise partners to support the development of partnership projects and plans through from concepts to implementation. These projects will deliver outcomes aligned with place priorities. 
• Assess compliance with relevant legislation, permit or consent conditions. Where non-compliance is identified, determine and implement the most appropriate intervention option to ensure a return to compliance as quickly as possible. Take appropriate actions to collect evidence for enforcement purposes, in accordance with defined procedures. 
• Draft valid consents and assents for operations affecting protected sites. For all work areas produce required advice, investigations, documentation and reports to agreed quality standards to support operational and management decisions, protected site notification, public enquiries, court cases etc so that information, evidence and NRW interests are accurately and effectively presented. 
• Within your area of expertise, provide professional local advice and responses to consultations from planning and permitting teams. Maintain working relationships with these teams through regular liaison. 
• Monitor progress of work, which may include interpretation of data, contractor management, project delivery or compliance with management agreements or statutory legal notices. Identify and support any remedial actions to ensure outcome delivery. 
• Play a role in a resilient NRW Incident Management Service that follows NRW process to ensure effective, timely and safe response to incidents.
• Undertake health and safety duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post
• Be committed to Natural Resources Wales Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy, together with an understanding of how it operates within the responsibilities of the post
• Be committed to your own development  through the effective use of your personal development plan (known as Sgwrs).
• Any other reasonable duties requested commensurate with the grade of this role.

Your qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills

In your application and interview you will be asked to demonstrate the following skills and experience using the STAR method.

1.    A good working knowledge of environment management, agriculture, fisheries, conservation or biodiversity, with focused experience in one of these distinct areas of the team remit. 
2.    An understanding of how these multi-functional teams can contribute to the sustainable management of natural resources.
3.    Ensure continuing professional and personal development, expertise and competence through formal and informal learning and certification. 
4.    Strong and effective self-management and organisational skills. 
5.    The ability to influence, negotiate and gain cooperation of others. Experience of dealing successfully with difficult people / situations is important. 
6.    The ability to use specialised IT systems, such as GIS or NRW customised applications. 
7.    Able to work well as part of a team.

Welsh language level requirements

• Essential: Level A1 – Entry level (able to use and understand simple, basic phrases and greetings, no conversational Welsh)

Please note if you do not meet the A1 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 

This role will offer a range of benefits, including:

• Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 28.97% (successful internal staff will remain in their current pension scheme)
• 28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days
• generous leave entitlements for all your life needs
• commitment to professional development
• health and wellbeing benefits and support
• weekly wellbeing hour to use as you choose

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

Please keep reading

We’re passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from under-represented communities. We embrace equality of opportunity irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.  

We are committed to equal opportunities and we guarantee interviews for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

We want to attract and retain talented and highly skilled staff, so we make sure that our pay scales remain competitive. We advertise the full pay scale on our job descriptions. Appointed candidates start at the first point of the pay scale and annual increments are paid each year.

We want our staff to grow professionally and personally. From leadership development to access to further and higher education courses, our staff have opportunities to expand their knowledge on variety of topics, stay current in their field and continue to learn as their career progresses.  

We are a Bilingual organisation which complies with the Welsh Language Standards.  Welsh language skills are considered an asset to NRW, and we encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills. 

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