Area Incident Team - Senior Team Leader - 14308

We are seeking enthusiastic experienced individuals who are committed to delivering a 24/7 first class incident management service for your local Environment Agency Area. Working with a team of incident experts and support staff, you will be accountable for ensuring the team deliver a resilient and effective response to incidents and you will play an important role in delivering a tactical incident management role during the working week. You will be responsible for management of the team work plan including managing change; the health, safety and wellbeing of your team members and ensuring the team develop and maintain their technical capability in both incident planning, support, recovery and response.

You will influence within local and national forums and with partners to ensure we are as prepared for incidents as we can be. This will be through activities such as shaping and assuring our own work to deliver against our incident management strategy, and contributing to other local multi-agency strategic and tactical planning. You will play a key role in managing relationships to ensure our response to incidents is delivered in a co-ordinated way and that we deliver against our responsibilities as a category 1 responder.

You will lead a new team that will shape/deliver the planning/preparation and response to many types of incidents, ensuring our response is resilient and we maintain our professional standing as a Category 1 responder. This will include the tactical first response during office hours to the full range of incidents within the Environment Agency remit and that the Area can respond/escalate effectively as an incident progresses whilst managing our reputation with professional partners and Government.

We’re looking for an experienced leader with transferrable skills/capabilities. This is a new team and you will help to recruit/shape it and will have the skills to do this.

You will have a collaborative “can-do” attitude and commitment to creating an inclusive culture.

To be responsive to our incident response requirements, you will be able to:

• Lead the tactical command of incident response during office hours
• Provide guidance to Area/National/external partners
• Lead a team of technical experts
• Collate/communicate situational awareness
• Manage health, safety and wellbeing matters for incidents
• Build and ensure resilience for incident response for the whole area
• Organise/prioritise between preparation for and response to incidents
• Communicate complex issues and influence senior managers, with the ability to listen/adapt.
• Gather/evaluate complex qualitative and quantitative information/evidence,
• Prioritise your own, your teams and the Environment Agency’s response during incidents as events develop.

The Environment Agency are fully committed to having an inclusive workforce reflecting the communities we serve. We welcome flexible working patterns for all our vacancies, including job share.

You will be welcomed into the team and given training/support as needed and will be provided with all the equipment required for your role.

This role is required to undertake tactical incident management roles during your normal working hours. You will be encouraged to undertake out of hours standby and response which is additionally rewarded. If successful, your line manager will discuss arrangements with you depending on your role and circumstances.

If you have any questions relating to this role, please contact EANWC@environment-agency.gov.uk.

PLEASE NOTE: Your answer will be used for interview questions - please draw out your skills and experience in your response.

Incident response activities are a major part of the Environment Agency’s remit. Simple and effective communication is an important factor in delivering an effective response.

Please describe an instance when you have communicated a major decision or plan to external partners or senior management where their understanding and consent was crucial to deliver an effective response to a situation.

PLEASE NOTE: Your answer will be used for interview questions - please draw out your skills and experience in your response.

As a leader you will need to inspire and empower others to deliver activities in a timely manner and to a high standard, sometimes this may be against a backdrop of competing priorities.

Please give an example that demonstrates how you have provided visible leadership to achieve an improvement or significant outcome

What was the situation?
How was the improvement or outcome measured?
What did you learn?

PLEASE NOTE: Your answer will be used for interview questions - please draw out your skills and experience in your response.

You will be working with a variety of teams to maintain and improve incident response standards within the EA. You will be required to lead your team to deliver a critical work programme and effectively manage emerging risks.

Describe an example when you have achieved a significant result, what did you do and what did you learn?

PLEASE NOTE: Your answer will be used for interview questions - please draw out your skills and experience in your response.

Staff welfare and wellbeing in a prolonged and high paced environment is the Environment Agency’s number one priority.

As team leader you will be responsible for ensuring your team’s welfare and wellbeing is prioritised at all times including during fast paced incident response situations.

How would you manage HS&W within the team and promote awareness and good practice?

What would your priorities be?
How would you ensure your team feel prepared and confident to deal with incidents?