Conservation Adviser

What you’ll be responsible for

As a Conservation Adviser you will be responsible for providing expert technical advice in relation to our biodiversity and conservation and governance of net benefit for biodiversity / biodiversity net gain commitments associated with our capital programme. 


Your responsibilities will include: 
 

1. Providing expert advice in relation to conservation, ecology and related statutory and legal obligations and the delivery of our Biodiversity Action Plan.  This will include advising on the need for specialist ecology advice in support of capital and operational plans.
2. Managing the production of conservation plans and Habitats Regulation Assessments and the management of species licensing handover plans to operations. You will also ensure that commitments are tracked to ensure compliance with the company legal requirements. 
3. Raising awareness within the company of our statutory Biodiversity obligations, including guidance on INNS and protected species, through our internal Source and common reference information pages as well as liaising with Dwr Cymru’s internal communication teams. 
4. Assisting in the delivery of our Environmental Monitoring Framework contract including writing project and research scopes and building strong relationships with framework providers to enable effective project delivery
5. Providing a governance role over our Biodiversity Net Gain / Benefit being implemented in our capital programme and ensure baseline studies are being undertaken in line with best practice and the mitigation hierarchy is followed. You will establish monitoring protocols and procedures to track our conservation efforts and assess against our legal obligations and manage the company’s bio-bank of potential sites.
6. Developing educational materials to raise awareness of the company’s obligations both internally and externally and support our outreach education programmes. 
7. Promoting the company’s work on the protection and enhancement of the natural environment by developing strong relationships with Environmental Regulators, environmental NGOs, other stakeholders and local communities.
8. Providing oversight of our license obligations for species. 
9. Support the periodic review process to ensure that all Biodiversity and Ecology requirements and the necessary funding are included.
10. Undertaking any other duties as required to meet the needs of the business.

Who you’ll work with

Internal

• The Environment Services team
• The Wastewater and Water asset management teams
• Capital Delivery
• Water and Wastewater operational teams
• Visitor Attraction / ECare team
• Dam Safety
• Estates
• Water Catchment team
• Energy team
• Engineering Consultancy Service and Capital Alliance

External

• NRW, the EA and Natural England
• Independent Environmental Advisory Panel
• Relevant eNGOs and other interested stakeholders
• Local Community groups

About you

Qualifications, Knowledge, Experience & Skills 

• An ecology or environmental science degree, or equivalent professional qualification
• Membership of a recognised environmental or conservation professional body such as CIEEM
• At least 5 years’ experience of working in ecology, licensing or conservation service delivery, monitoring or investigations
• Experience of collaborating with stakeholders or eNGOs 
• Experience of formal reporting and planning processes 
• A detailed understanding of key environmental legislation such as Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, The Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 and the Environment Act (Wales) 2016.
• The drive and ability to exchange appropriate technical Information with relevant people at the right time, including non-technical audiences. The desire and skills to seek first to understand as well as to be understood. 
• The enthusiasm and ability to always project a positive and professional image of DCWW with all contacts and stakeholders.
• The readiness to take responsibility for projects or issues and to be accountable for their timely delivery and quality. 
• The ability to gather, understand, analyse and interpret information & concepts, verbal or numerical, about people or situations, quickly.
• The ability to maintain effectiveness with changing environments, tasks, responsibilities, or people. 
• The ability to travel as the job requires

Good to know

• A full UK drivers licence is required for the role 
• The ability to travel as the role is required 

For more information on the role please contact Fergus.Obrien@dwrcymru.com

Benefits

As well as a market competitive salary, 33 days annual leave (pro rata, including public holidays), we offer a range of employee benefits and rewards including:
 
 
•    Variable pay schemes (your salary band will remain the same, but performance depending, you could receive an incremental within-band increase and a yearly incentive)
•    Option to buy additional annual leave up to 5 days per year
•    Enhanced employer pension contributions – Up to 11% employer contributions
•    Enhanced family friendly policies
•    Progression opportunities, including the ability to apply for funded training and coaching and mentoring programmes
•    Reduction on gym memberships and high street shopping
•    Cycle to work scheme
•    Free on-site parking at all our sites
•    Discount off all Welsh Water visitor attraction centres and gift shops
•    Car-leasing scheme
•    Health CashBack scheme
•    An employee assistance programme for employees and their immediate family
 
 
Whilst also working for a not-for profit company that truly cares about earning the trust of customers everyday, and about looking after our beautiful environment.
 
 
Please note, we may close this role sooner if required. We may also extend the original closing date depending on interest.
 
 
Due to the nature of the industry, we require satisfactory references, post offer medical clearance, and a criminal records Basic Disclosure check on all new employees joining the business.

 For some roles there may be additional checks and security clearance required, and this offer is subject all checks being satisfied. You will receive further information on how to complete these checks via email once you have accepted this offer.
 

Who we are

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water keep 3 million people healthy each day with safe, reliable water, and take away wastewater to clean, before returning it safely to our beautiful rivers and seas.

To be able to deliver high quality, essential services which help to protect the health of our customers, colleagues and our environment, we need the right people to deliver on our vision.  This is achieved by living our core values and demonstrating the core behaviours that underpin them.  The security of our people, assets and information is key to us, so we are looking for people who understand and comply with the company’s required security objectives.

We know that the most successful teams are the most diverse teams. Equality, diversity and inclusion provide the very foundation to our culture at Welsh Water. We want every individual to feel confident, proud and able to bring their whole selves to work. 

To ensure an improved representation in our workforce, applications are particularly welcome from minority groups including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people, Females, LGBT+, Non-binary and people with disabilities. Together we continue to build a workplace that not only celebrates the diverse voices of our colleagues but also represents each customer we serve.

In essence, ours is a company based on trust, openness, respect, commitment and honesty. A company that our colleagues are proud to work for.