Hydrologist - 9315

The Environment Agency run a national flood forecasting service and are also investing £2.5billion between now and 2021 that will reduce flood risk to 300,000 homes across the UK. We are also currently setting out a new vision for flood hydrology for the UK and will be working to implement changes to move towards that vision.

Working closely with other teams, you can expect to be involved in any of the following:

• Drive improvements in operational flood hydrology in both forecasting models and flood estimation and characterisation.
• Provide expert hydrology support to local modelling and forecasting teams
• Lead strategic projects to improve operational flood hydrology nationally
• Provide technical input into national R&D projects
• Review complex hydrological analyses
• Train and mentor less experienced members of staff
• Liaise with local hydrometry teams to improve data quality
• Raise the profile of hydrology as a science within the Environment Agency by speaking at meetings, writing briefings, etc.

There are also opportunities to work in incident management, becoming one of the monitoring and forecasting duty officers who provide forecasts for flood warning and response. We'll supply all the training and support you need.

The National Flood Hydrology team is a small dispersed national technical specialist team that drives national improvements in the hydrological modelling for flood forecasting and flood estimation. We have a real opportunity to make changes that affect the science of flood risk for England in both forecasting and flood estimation

We are looking for someone who is keen to see improvements to the way things are done.
Through experience to date you will be able to demonstrate the following:

• A solid understanding of hydrological processes
• A degree (preferably masters) in hydrology or a closely related engineering or scientific discipline
• Understanding of the Flood Estimation Handbook (FEH) methods and rainfall-runoff models.
• Ability to analyse complex hydrological problems and review modelling techniques
• An understanding and experience of data collection, quality analysis and processing
• A questioning mind with the confidence to constructively challenge the status quo
• Delivery of work by planning, tracking, gathering and maintaining data/information
• Ability to develop and maintain good relationships with internal and external customers
• Good organisational skills and an ability to take the initiative and work both alone and as part of a team
• Excellent communication skills

Closing Date: 2nd December 2018 at 23:55 hours

Please note that that your answers to the capability questions will be used to determine interview selection.

Everyone starting in a new role with the Environment Agency will be welcomed into the team and given all of the training and support you need to succeed.

There are also fully funded opportunities to develop further academic/professional qualifications.

The Environment Agency offer an extensive range of employee benefits

For further information on this role, the employee benefits and the work of the Environment Agency, please download the candidate pack.

For any questions relating to this role, please contact: anita.asadullah@environment-agency.gov.uk

This vacancy is for a permanent position.

Please tell us about a time that you have applied hydrological methods to try to solve a complex problem around flooding. What were the key elements that led to the success or failure of the work? How did you make decisions about the work?

Please tell us about a time that you have developed and implemented an improvement to the way things work. What were the main challenges and what did you learn?

We use non real-time hydrological models (flood estimation methods) and hydrodynamic models to estimate the level of flood risk in communities. We use model outputs to make decisions about interventions and spending. Please briefly outline a few of the main benefits and limitations of basing such decisions on model outputs.

How would you describe to a lay person how rainfall-runoff models can be used in flood forecasting? What other information would you ideally want to know before preparing this answer?