Agri Environment Evidence – Senior Adviser – Ref : 5536

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

The Evidence Services Team provides scientific and evidence leadership, services, and support to help Natural England operate as an evidence-led organisation. The Team provides access to evidence and services to others in Natural England, particularly the management of a range of evidence projects and a range of data and analytical services. We lead work to implement our Monitoring Strategy and develop new approaches and tools. We also provide evaluation, capability building, communications and programme management functions for the organisation’s Science & Evidence Programme. 

 

Job description   

Key tasks and principal accountabilities:  

The successful candidate will take responsibility for:   

• Leadership of individual projects within the Agri-Environment Monitoring and Evaluation Programme, and input into Technical Steering Groups of a range of projects including developing project specifications and invitations to tender.   
• Working with the Agri-environment Evidence Programme Manager and Principal adviser to further develop the Programme, including developing and reviewing proposals for future projects.   
• Functional leadership and capability building of the Agri-environment sub-team; working with Team Leaders to develop the skills and experience of team members and providing feedback to support individual performance reviews.   
• Strategic development of the Agri-environment Evidence programme, including leading how the programme uses a new technology, for example eco-acoustics, eDNA or earth observation.  

• Competent in the use of IT, particularly spreadsheets.   
• Responsibility for knowledge transfer, and internal and external communications activity, related to individual projects and contribution to knowledge transfer for the programme.   
• For individual projects, develop and review plans for data management, analysis, and synthesis.   
• Ensuring that Evidence Standards are met and adhered to throughout the programme.   
• Close liaison with Team Leaders in Evidence and other teams over meeting changes in priorities and managing risk; organising and deploying resources to drive continuing improvement of outcomes and deliver value for money within the programme.   

• Support project contractors so they have the information they need to deliver successful projects. This may include collating information from Natural England/Rural Payments Agency software, for example Genesis, Customer Records Management and Siti-Agri.  
• The post holder may also be asked to work on projects outside this programme and they will be required to show flexibility in managing other work should team priorities or resources change.   

 

Competencies

 

Competence 1   

Professional competency

 

Detail  

Technical Skills and knowledge

 

Description   

A track record in successful project delivery and simultaneous management of multiple complex projects with multiple stakeholders.   
Experience in environmental monitoring and/or evaluation and its planning and project management.  
Good experience of working with and functionally leading others to achieve joint outcomes and innovation (Desirable).  
Knowledge of Agri-environment Schemes (Desirable)

 

Competence 2   

Professional competency

 

Detail  

Work delivery

 

Description  

Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines. (Expert) 
Understand evaluation and apply it to your work at an appropriate scale to identify the impact of our evidence or interventions and opportunities for improvement (Practitioner) 
Identify priority evidence needs and seek ways to meet them (e.g., through funding or partnerships) (Practitioner)

 

Competence 3   

Professional competency

 

Detail   

Personal Effectiveness (Practitioner)

 

Description   

Understand the full context of each case or project you work on and use interpretive, evaluative, analytical, and problem-solving skills to make informed decisions about it.  (Expert) 
Share expertise and knowledge with people and networks so that you can develop together (Practitioner) 
Be ambitious, identify and adopt ways to make improvements in your team and organisation and inspire others to act (Practitioner)

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).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available.
You may want to save a copy for your records.

Job contact :

• Name : Heidi Pearce
• Email : Heidi.pearce@naturalengland.org.uk
• Telephone : 07775009047

Recruitment team

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