Senior Ecologist

Do you want to work for a company whose purpose is to improve society by considering social outcomes, and to transform businesses, communities, and opportunities for its employees?

We are an employee-owned company with close-knit regional teams that work together on some of the UK's biggest projects and are looking to recruit a senior ecologist to join our Cardiff team. We are working on varied projects across the public and private sectors covering infrastructure, commercial, residential, and energy, that are interesting and technically challenging. Our team sits within the Environment and Social division and work alongside our colleagues in nature-based solutions, ecosystem services, natural capital, GIS, planning, EIA, social, archaeology, air quality, noise, and landscape.

Our Environment and Social division hold environment forums and numerous knowledge-sharing webinars on a range of topics such as biodiversity net gain and climate change, bird surveys, environmental impact assessments and development consent orders, and floating wetlands for water treatment amongst other topics. We pay our ecologists in line with their engineering colleagues with the ability to earn performance-based bonuses throughout the year.

In collaboration with ecology colleagues and other environmental disciplines, you will be responsible for supporting a variety of multi-disciplinary projects for a range of clients, with a key focus on leading a range of ecological surveys, managing field data, and the delivery of technical reports. Project dependent, the role can span all stages of a project's life cycle, from design conception to implementation; giving opportunities to positively influence scheme design.

We thrive to give our ecologists a mixed experience of projects and tasks and challenge you to achieve the best of your ability. You'll have the opportunity to support the development of the Cardiff team with space for line management and training / mentoring junior ecologists. Whether you are an experienced senior ecologist looking for fresh opportunities or an ecologist looking for that step up to a senior position, we would be pleased to discuss with you what interesting roles we have in the Wales ecology team and how these may assist your career goals and aspirations.

Essential:

• Experience in the UK ecological consultancy market, with a strong external-facing, client-orientated approach

• A degree in Ecology (or a directly related subject)

• Full member of CIEEM or equivalent body (or at least eligible)

• Strong knowledge and experience in the interpretation of wildlife legislation, key policy, and guidance, to advise clients and manage ecological projects

• Experience in overseeing the design of, and leading, ecological surveys including Phase 1 habitat surveys and protected species surveys

• Proficiency in report writing skills, displaying high standards with attention to detail and ability to write accurate and concise reports

• Experience in writing preliminary ecological appraisals, impact assessments, technical notes & method statements

• Willingness to travel throughout the UK

Desirable:

• A masters or higher degree in Ecology (or directly related subject)

• Experience in people management and training / mentoring junior ecologists

• Quality assurance of reports from colleagues/peers

• Experienced in the production of Ecological Impact Assessment and Habitats Regulations Assessment reports

• Natural Resources Wales protected species licence(s), ideally for dormouse and / or bats

• Experience in using the UKHab classification and the DEFRA biodiversity net gain metric plus any experience of the Net Benefits for Biodiversity approach in Wales