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
Job Summary
This position is based nationally
Job Description
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 and application of data science, statistics and geospatial analysis to maintain and expand our evidence base.
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.
Data Science Services and the Analysis Directorate is part of a National team. National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office. View a map of our office locations here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/natural-england-office-locations
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.
- Leading and Managing People.
- Work delivery.
- Personal Effectiveness.
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.
Job Description
This is a significant leadership role, collaborating across Data Science Services to drive improvement and delivery. This role will work alongside other Senior Data Scientists within the team to lead Earth Observation (EO) projects and programmes, and the wider development of EO skills in the team and across Natural England. They will help lead staff who act as a centre of excellence within the organisation for developing and integrating EO. They will also lead and manage some of the projects being undertaken. through overseeing business planning, staff resources, financial aspects and technical leadership to develop methods and data products and delivery of products.
A wide breadth of EO work is undertaken, including drone data capture and processing, monitoring dynamic coastlines, wildfire mapping and habitat mapping. This work is undertaken using data from drone, manned aircraft and satellite platforms, from a range of different sensors such as Aerial Photography, Multispectral and LIDAR.
The role may encompass providing technical advice and support in relation to NE's Enforcement work, to include analysing and evaluating data and producing evidence to support enforcement appeals, enforcement notices and court cases. This could involve providing written witness statements and verbal evidence to help the court understand complex or technical issues.
Where appropriate, the post-holder will do this through identifying, understanding and following the instructions, policies, procedures and standards relevant to their work. They will manage and deliver their workload to meet agreed targets and deadlines and also consider the value for money and return on investment of activities, including when to seek income from our products and services. Communication of results of this work is then vital and the postholder will be expected to develop, present and share clear messages about their data / evidence, using language and techniques appropriate to the audience so the dataset's implications are understood and it can be used effectively. The postholder will also be expected to help train, coach and mentor others in the use of Earth Observation-derived evidence.
The Post Holder Will:
- Lead and manage EO projects. Through overseeing business planning, project design/management, staff resources, equipment / software resources and financial aspects.
- Lead and contribute to EO Analysis. Provide technical leadership to develop methods and data products, support colleagues in problem solving and carrying out analysis tasks. Including for mapping and monitoring using a variety of tools including standard EO software and Python scripting, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques.
- Maintain and develop relationships with customers and partners. Engage with key stakeholders and end users to share knowledge on EO approaches and products, build partnerships on common problems and understand customer needs for EO data products/support.
- Lead capability building, documentation and quality assurance. Work to build technical skills training and developing good practices for creating reproducible analytical pipelines and standardised products. Including through documentation of methods and quality assurance approaches.
Where appropriate, the post-holder will do this through: identifying, understanding and following the instructions, policies, procedures and standards relevant to their work. They will manage and deliver their workload to meet agreed targets and deadlines and also consider the value for money and return on investment of activities, including when to seek income from our products and services. Communication of results of this work is then vital and the postholder will be expected to develop, present and share clear messages about their data / evidence, using language and techniques appropriate to the audience so the dataset's implications are understood and it can be used effectively. The postholder will also be expected to help train, coach and mentor others in the use of Earth Observation-derived evidence
Competencies
Competence 1
Professional competency
Detail
Technical Skills and Knowledge
Description
Highly desirable to meet most requirements:
- A Masters degree in a relevant discipline (i.e. Environmental Science, Geography, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or Earth Observation/Remote Sensing) with EO/Remote Sensing modules taken, or equivalent experience.
- Knowledge of Data Management, including the creation of metadata, licensing and data storage, Discoverability and DPIAs (Data Protection Impact Assessments).
- Strong experience of using and analysing data from a range of EO sensors and platforms; such as drone Aerial Photography, Multispectral and Thermal data, Manned Aircraft based Aerial Photography, Multispectral and LIDAR data and Satellites like Copernicus Sentinels 1 & 2, WorldView and Planet data.
- Highly Confident in the use of GIS and EO analysis tools (such as ArcGIS Pro/ArcGIS Online/QGIS, ERDAS Imagine, eCognition, PIX4D, R and/or Python) to visualise, manipulate and transform Earth Observation data, including with AI techniques (Machine Learning, Deep Learning, etc)
- Strong experience of using EO techniques in natural environment applications such as land cover and habitat classification, land cover change detection, in terrestrial and marine environments.
Competence 2
Professional competency
Detail
Leading and Managing People
Description
Set clear plans and expectations for your team, explain reasons behind decisions, be clear on the outcomes to be achieved, and make things happen by sharing and delegating work to the right people.
Competence 3
Professional competency
Detail
Work Delivery
Description
Understand and apply relevant policy, legislation, governance frameworks and strategies to your work.
See the big picture so you can set your team’s work within the context of the organisation’s vision, mission and aims, and help them understand how their work relates to and supports this.
Competence 4
Professional competency
Detail
Personal Effectiveness
Description
Make and explain objective decisions which combine your professional judgement and evidence
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.
Description
Make and explain objective decisions which combine your professional judgement and evidence
Person specification
Please Refer To Job Description
Alongside your salary of £37,950, Natural England contributes £10,994 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 employer contribution of 28.97%
Selection process details
Please Refer To Job Description
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
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.
Contact point for applicants
Job Contact :
- Name : Helen Trapp
- Email : helen.trapp@naturalengland.org.uk
- Telephone : 07768570148
Recruitment team
- Email : defra-recruitment-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk
Further information
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/natural-england/about/complaints-procedure
https://networkrecruitment.tal.net/vx/appcentre-7/brand-4/spa-1/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/8/opp/6109-6109-Senior-Data-Scientist-Earth-Observation-Analyst/en-GB
