Wildlife Disease Senior Specialist (Ref: 5455)

East Midlands (England), East of England, London (region), North East England, North West England, South East England, South West England, West Midlands (England), Yorkshire and the Humber

This position is based nationally

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

The Role

 You will be based in the Science Directorate, which is a team of specialists who support the organisation in their ambitions to be evidence-led and driven by science.

 We lead on the development and application of natural, economic and social science and evidence to underpin and enable the achievement of environmental outcomes both within Natural England and externally.

We are looking for an enthusiastic wildlife disease specialist to join the species team in Natural England and to work alongside our principal specialist in wildlife health to deliver advice across the organisation. Understanding the impact of disease on the health of wildlife populations is an important work area which this role will help Natural England respond to.

Key Tasks and Accountabilities

• Working with the principal specialist to provide technical leadership for the organisation’s science and evidence requirements for wildlife disease and wildlife health.
• Ensuring that the best available science and evidence is synthesised into impactful operational products and advice
• Undertake analysis (qualitative and quantitative) of the evidence base to inform and support the provision of advice internally and externally
• Communicating Natural England’s advice and position on wildlife health to a range of audiences, internally and externally
• Bringing new ideas and innovation, gained from networking and horizon scanning externally, to improve Natural England’s work on wildlife health
• Undertaking/providing advice on disease risk assessments in wildlife (e.g. species reintroduction, translocations of species impacted by development)
• Identify strategic research and development requirements to support advice wildlife disease and wildlife health. Working in collaboration with other bodies to expand the evidence base.

The ideal candidate will be qualified to at least BSc level in an biological discipline, or, can demonstrate equivalent experience. A veterinary qualification is desirable, but not essential.

The role may include advising on/analysing evidence in relation to Natural England’s work on badgers and bTB, therefore knowledge on this topic would be desirable (but not essential).

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 our staff 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 geographical area. Full time staff are expected to attend their associated office for a minimum of one day a week. 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

Pay

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

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
• 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

You do not need to answer in the STAR format)
• Excellent knowledge of wildlife disease and disease risk management (Expert)
• A clear understanding of the science and evidence base, how to apply the evidence to provide advice on wildlife health and identify evidence gaps (Practitioner)
• An understanding, or direct experience of, applied science in relation to field work and managing disease in wildlife (Practitioner)

Competence 2 – Professional competency

Detail 

Personal effectiveness

Description 

• Test and challenge others in a constructive and evidence-based way providing scientific scrutiny, challenge and assurance to casework and other delivery that is practical and, where appropriate, cross-disciplinary (Expert)
• Research, produce and contribute to specialist products such as articles, think pieces, peer reviewed papers, reports and conference presentations for general and technical readerships, both internal and external (Expert)

Competence 3 – Professional competency

Detail 

Putting People at the Heart of the Environment

Description 

• Build relationships and effective networks both externally and internally to bring in fresh perspectives, approaches and evidence to raise the profile of both your individual specialist work and that of Natural England (Expert)

Competence 4 – Professional competency

Detail 

Work delivery

Description 

• Identify and apply the most appropriate data and methodologies for your analysis, utilising reproducible analytical pipelines and data science approaches where appropriate (Practitioner)
• Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines (Expert)

Please refer to Job Description

Alongside your salary of £33,736, Natural England contributes
£9,142 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

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Job contact :

• Name : Fiona Neale
• Email : fiona.neale@naturalengland.org.uk
• Telephone : 07879 430 358

Recruitment team

• Email : defra-recruitment-enquiries@gov.sscl.com