Do you have a passion for nature and the environment? Do you want to make a real difference and secure significant environmental gains in the present and the future? Do you enjoy working in a team? Can you see yourself advising communities and customers to maximise gains for the Natural Environment?
If this appeals to you, a career at Natural England offers rewarding opportunities to secure environmental improvements and play your part in creating a better future for people and nature.
The Priority Work Natural England Is Delivering Includes
- Establishing a Nature Recovery Network to help wildlife thrive.
- Monitoring environmental changes to identify and help reduce the effects of climate change.
- Working with farmers and landowners to develop greener food production methods.
- Advising on plans for new developments to maximise gains for nature, and
- Providing ways for people to better connect with nature, including green social prescribing.
We are the Government’s Adviser for the natural environment, playing a vital role in delivering the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, an ambitious vision which brings new opportunities to protect and enhance and to achieve real outcomes for the environment.
Find out more about the work of Natural England at www.gov.uk/government/organisations/natural-england
About The Team
The Chief Scientist Directorate (CSD) provides scientific and evidence leadership services and support to help Natural England operate as an evidence-led organisation. The Data Science Services (DSS) Team, within the Analysis Team of CSD, provides access to evidence through the provision and management of data and digital systems, and through application of data science, statistics and geospatial analysis to maintain and expand our evidence base.
Job Description
Role Description
This role will be responsible for developing and implementing good data design to meet business needs and promote quality and efficiency. The role will provide technical leadership, build capability, improve ease of access to our data, and enable the development and delivery of (spatial and non-spatial) analytical projects across Natural England.
The Post Holder Will
- Resolve problems that involve detailed investigation and analysis and the exercise of judgment in making recommendations or determining appropriate action.
- Apply project management principles and tools to ensure delivery of high-quality outcomes to internal and external customers.
- Liaise with colleagues/ customers/stakeholders to scope analysis requirements and design provision accordingly.
- Provide functional and technical leadership and capability building of colleagues; working to develop their skills and experience.
- Manage work requests and delivery planning, co-ordinate work delivery teams and set best practice and standards.
- Interpret business needs to design appropriate data models and metadata systems
- Support the management of data dictionaries.
- Promote good data governance, developing relevant standards, supporting compliance, and working proactively to ensure the organisation designs architecture that considers data.
- Advise on the likely impact of emerging trends in data tools, analysis techniques and data usage.
- Work with others to make sure that the organisation’s systems are designed in accordance with the appropriate data architecture.
- Champion good data design across the organisation, supporting projects with their flow mapping and rationalisation.
Benefits
Wherever possible Natural England accommodates requests for both full-time and part-time hours and other flexible working patterns to help employees achieve a good work/life balance and maintain their health and wellbeing.
Natural England provides excellent opportunities for career progression, training and development tailored to your role. From induction to ongoing learning and development, everyone in Natural England is supported to develop their skills and capabilities. Everyone has 10 days to devote to personal learning and development, as well as an additional 3 days to volunteer.
You will have access to Civil Service Pension and benefits arrangements and generous leave allowances (33 day per year pro rata), as well as flexible working, to help you achieve a work-life balance that works for you and us.
You will have access to a range of benefits including discounts on shopping vouchers, cycle to work scheme, and childcare vouchers. You can also join the Civil Service Sport club which offer discounts on a range of sports and leisure opportunities as well as social events.
Natural England is a fantastic place to work, where difference is celebrated.
We’re committed to fairness and equality for all, so you feel valued for who you are and what you do. Our shared values help us work together to benefit the communities we serve. Our thriving employee-led diversity networks support our inclusive culture and contribute to our Diversity Action Plan.
Locations
Natural England is adopting hybrid working – which means that our staff will work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographic area. Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.
National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area.
View a map of our office locations here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/natural-england-office-locations
You will become an active member of the relevant local leadership community, the group of senior Natural England staff in each of the localities across England who we ask to provide support and co-ordination for the local group of staff.
How To Apply
We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.
If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview.
This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process:
- Technical Skills and Knowledge
- Personal Effectiveness
- Putting People at the Heart of the Environment
- Work Delivery
When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your doing so.
Please note that STAR format is not required when answering the Technical Skills & Knowledge competency.
Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.
Competencies
Competence 1
Professional competency
Detail
Technical Skills and Knowledge
Description
- Experience working with a range of large scale spatial and non-spatial data types in both structured and unstructured formats (Essential)
- Solid understanding of the concepts and principles of data modelling and experience of producing data models across multiple subject areas. (Essential)
- Experience of identifying problems and implementing appropriate solutions (Essential)
- Experience in a relevant field (e.g., environmental science, ecology, geology, historic environment, climate change) (Desirable)
- Technical background in data science and multi-layered data sets (spatial and non-spatial) (Desirable)
Competence 2
Professional competency
Detail
Personal Effectiveness
Description
- Be ambitious, identify and adopt ways to make improvements in your team and organisation and inspire others to act (Practitioner)
- Share expertise and knowledge with people and networks so that you can develop together (Practitioner)
- Apply new technology to improve the way we deliver our work (Practitioner)
Competence 3
Professional competency
Detail
Putting People at the Heart of the Environment
Description
- Listen to and understand our diverse partners and customers so that you achieve the best outcomes for them and your organisation (Practitioner)
- Nurture trusting partnerships and collaborate to achieve pragmatic outcomes that help deliver organisational vision, mission and aims (Practitioner)
Competence 4
Professional competency
Detail
Work Delivery
Description
- Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines (Expert)
- Handle data responsibly, understand your role in good governance, and comply with delegations, policies and procedures (Practitioner)