Environment Officer A - 20712

We are the Environment Agency. We work with government, local councils, businesses, and communities to make our environment cleaner, safer, and healthier for people and wildlife. We deal with the effects and causes of climate change, perhaps the most serious long-term threat to the environment that we face.

As an environment officer in one of our operational teams, you will make a real difference on issues such as water quality, pollution, waste site regulation, water company regulation, agriculture and water resources.

Using excellent communication skills, you will influence and persuade people and businesses to take actions to improve and protect the environment. You will make routine site inspections, manage major pollution investigations, and deliver desk-based regulatory work.

A typical week may involve:

· Site visits to conduct audits/inspections; advising how people and businesses can
improve the environment and taking enforcement action where environmental
regulations have been breached
· Investigating/handling pollution incidents
· Preparing statements and giving evidence in court
· Prioritising and progressing multiple projects and pieces of work
· Participating in out of hours incidents as part of a standby rota responding to environmental emergencies.

We are looking to recruit several Environment Officers to work across our area.

You will be part of our passionate, dedicated, and enthusiastic Environment Management Team.

Working both outdoors and indoors in either a Waste team; focusing on operators and companies in the waste sector or a Land and Water team; overseeing water companies and agriculture.

Our offices are in Abbey Wood, Tonbridge, West Malling and Canterbury.

You will possess great communication skills/experience of dealing with people from different backgrounds. Your passion for the environment will help you influence/persuade others to achieve the best outcomes for our area. Occasionally, this could involve dealing with difficult and sometimes challenging situations and people, so you will need to be both resilient and tenacious.

You will enjoy working both outdoors and in an office environment.

You will be:

· Well-organised, able to prioritise effectively
· A great team worker who works well independently
· Accurate in recording data and managing records
· Keen to learn about environmental regulation and enforcement
· I.T. and computer literate

We provide all the training you need, so if you have these qualities and would like to have a career working in a role that helps you make a difference to our environment, we welcome your application.

A full UK driving licence is essential.

The Environment Officer role is a career grade position with a starting salary of £23,446 which will increase as you move through the training.

Please read the candidate pack for further information about the role, salary and benefits we offer.

The Environment Agency are committed to having an inclusive workforce and we welcome applicants from all sections of the community.

If you would like to find out more about these roles please contact:
jon.griffin@environment-agency.gov.uk (tel: 0208 4747450 ) or joanne.casey@environment-agency.gov.uk (tel: 0208 4746188)

Interviews are scheduled to take place in early February 2022. Start dates from April 2022.

If you do not anticipate being available to start work from April 2022 you can still apply as we hold a reserve list for these jobs.

Using an example, describe how you have used a range of communication methods to present your views to an audience in a convincing way.

• Tell us about the audience.
• What were the messages?
• How did you communicate the messages?
• What considerations did you make to ensure each message landed well, and
• How did you alter your communication style to suit the audience?

Your examples do not have to be work-related, so please use the best examples from any area of your life.

Describe a time when you persuaded someone to do something that they didn’t initially want to do. Explain the process you went through and how you sought to understand the other person’s point of view.

• What was the situation?
• What were the challenges you faced?
• How did you influence / change their mind?
• What happened?
• What did you learn and is there anything you would do differently in a similar situation in
the future?

Your examples do not have to be work-related, so please use the best examples from any area of your life.

Please provide an example where you have found potential problems and identified effective solutions by analysing all relevant information, seeking to develop alternatives and taking sound and timely decisions.

• What were the problems?
• How did you identify the best solution?
• What was the result?
• Could you have done anything differently?

Your examples do not have to be work-related, so please use the best examples from any area of your life.

Full UK Driving Licence