Water Resources Senior Permitting Officer - Grade 5 - 20238

We’re looking for 1 permanent and 4 Fixed Term Contract Senior Officer who will be based in the Water Resources permitting team
We are the Environment Agency. We protect and improve the environment. We look after the water and air environment, and land quality, promoting sustainable land management and helping protect and enhance wildlife habitats. We work closely with businesses, enabling them to operate whilst complying with relevant environmental regulations.

The National Permitting Service has accountability for delivering the majority of the Environment Agency permitting/licencing responsibilities. This is achieved by working with external applicants and the internal organisation, therefore offering technical challenges and significant opportunities.
As a Senior Officer you’ll provide high level advice, support and coaching to team members ensuring decisions are made on sound technical grounds in line with best practice. We are looking for a technical leader, therefore encouraging applications from related Water Resources disciplines to nurture and grow our technical skills as well as your own.
Crucially you will have good communication and be a collaborative team player. Essentially making our processes more efficient, improve ways of working, make risk based decisions and continuously drive down our end to end times for our customers.

You’ll join a small evolving permitting team, of new and established team members dealing with a range of permitting activities, providing a great opportunity to further your career. With a real mix of experience, we deal with small farm holdings up to Nuclear power stations. Supporting businesses throughout England whilst crucially delivering for the environment. Enabling fish passage, wetland and habitat creation, reducing abstraction in sensitive areas and delivering drought permits to protect the environment.

A successful Senior Officer will need experience in Water Resources or wider related Environmental Management and ideally a degree (or equivalent) in a Science or humanities subject as well as experience of assessing a range of complex permits.
Experience of Water Resources or a related subject
Drive for risk based decision making/continuous improvement
Good communication, organisation and planning skills
A good team player and strength in positive collaborative working
Good coaching skills and the ability to explain complex issues to people with a range of experience
Technical Leadership to support the National Permitting Service business aims
Excellent customer relation skills
Ability to develop technical and personal skills within a team
A thorough knowledge of relevant legislation
The ability to work collaboratively with others both internally and externally
Experience of dealing with sites of high public interest or complex applications is desirable as is a thorough knowledge of relevant legislation.

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people, people with a disability, people with gender diverse identities and from varying socio-economic backgrounds.
All assessments and interviews will be carried out using an online platform such as MS Teams.
For further information, please contact:
Paul Radcliffe, Permitting Team Leader
paul.radcliffe@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Harnesses others to deliver results on time, to required standards and in line with organisational processes and procedures.

Describe a situation when you have had to get high quality results from others to ensure the delivery of a piece of work on time.

Please note your answer will be used for shortlisting purposes. You may find researching the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result) useful when answering this question.

Finds and delivers optimal solutions by effectively analysing all the information, probing to develop alternatives and taking sound and timely decisions.

Describe a time when you have faced a significant work-related problem, what actions did you take to overcome it and what were the results?

Please note your answer will be used for shortlisting purposes. You may find researching the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result) useful when answering this question.

Presenting a case in a convincing and attractive way that will win people over, encouraging them to follow plans willingly; often succeeding where logic and reason alone would fail.

Describe a time when you have successfully influenced others to achieve a desired outcome. How did you convince them this was the right approach and what were the results?

Please note your answer will be used for shortlisting purposes. You may find researching the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result) useful when answering this question.