Flood Risk Asset Performance (Enforcement) Officer - 32331

Flood Risk Asset Performance (Enforcement) Officer - 32331
1
East Midlands
Lincoln
DEFRA GRP CERES HOUSE, LN2 4DW
Staff Grade 4
Permanent
Environment & Sustainability
Full Time
£34,320

04/01/2026, 23:55 hours

Basic Check
This is a brilliant opportunity to join an Asset Performance team at the UK’s largest environmental organisation — the Environment Agency. We’re responsible for managing flood and coastal risk flood defence assets across Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, helping protect thousands of homes and businesses from flooding.
As part of a team of Asset Managers, you’ll be part of a proactive team inspecting, maintaining, and refurbishing vital infrastructure — from kilometres of riverbanks to sluice gates and flood storage reservoirs. Your enthusiasm and problem-solving mindset will help us deliver on our priorities and keep communities safe.

You’ll lead on our enforcement matters, ensuring our assets remain in excellent condition.

In this role, you’ll be the face of the Environment Agency, investigating and resolving alleged illegal activity that could compromise flood defences. Most cases are resolved through constructive conversations, but some may require formal legal action. Either way, your ability to engage effectively and navigate legislative processes will be essential.

Public safety around our assets is paramount, and you’ll help assess risks where public access is possible — full training will be provided. You’ll also contribute to managing our asset data, ensuring it’s accurate and reliable to support future investment decisions.

We don’t just talk about diversity; we seek it, embrace it, and live it, for the benefit of our staff, our communities, and our environment. As an organisation we strive to reflect the communities we serve and continue to develop diversity throughout our workforce. We welcome applications from all backgrounds regardless of race, sexual orientation, or religion.
Asset Performance Teams manage flood and coastal erosion risk assets to reduce the impact of flooding. We do this by managing the whole lifecycle of our assets, including effects of climate change through planning, delivery, maintenance, and decommissioning. Enforcement activity is a crucial step.

We work as a team, supporting each other to ensure tasks are carried out and our targets are met. You’ll get support and advice from the team and the wider organisation.
We are seeking applicants with a passion for enforcement. You’ll ideally have some appreciation/understanding of engineering, but this is not essential.

You’ll have a background and previous experience in enforcement. Preferably with a formal qualification or be able to demonstrate significant enforcement knowledge and work experience.

You’ll have excellent communication skills, good at influencing/persuading people and be able to defuse situations. You’ll remain calm under pressure and be able to adapt your style.

Confident with records management and IT systems to store, access and manage this data and information.

Our incident roles are linked to the priorities of Asset Performance, and our teams operate an on-call roster for out of hours incident response work. We would be actively looking for new members of staff to support our ‘Flood Incident Duty Officer’ roster both in and out of hours. Further information on incident response can be found within your candidate pack.
Your office base location will be Ceres House, Searby Road, Lincoln LN2 4DW. However, you will also spend time outside across the Greater Lincolnshire area. This role will be hybrid with time in the office, on site across Lincolnshire with very occasional travel to Northamptonshire, and where appropriate some time at working at home. As such, a Full UK Driving Licence is essential.

Interviews will likely take place in January 2026, but is subject to change linked to operational needs/response. This will be face to face in our Lincoln office and will be a formal capability based interview with an exercise and/or technical assessment.

For further Information please contact Team Leader - Asset Performance - South Humber & East Coast (SHEC) Paul Dutchburn on paul.dutchburn@environment-agency.gov.uk
Achieves Results
In our enforcement work there are likely to be many cases and conversations running at the same time across our work area where priorities may change.
Using a work based example, please tell us about a piece of work/project you have delivered which you are proud of and completed against tight deadlines and in line with other priorities
Illegal Activity Detection and Enforcement
Using a work-based example, please tell us about a time when you had to manage some illegal activity/enforcement work, and talk us through the processes you carried out to satisfactorily resolve the matter?
Communicates Effectively
Having an effective and constructive conversation can often resolve many of the issues impacting on our flood defence assets. However, this may have a financial impact on people or change plans they have in place.

Using a work-based example, please tell us about a time when you have communicated a difficult message to someone.
Works in Teams
In this role you will be 1 of 2 people undertaking flood risk enforcement work supporting several teams throughout our geography.

Tell us about how you would build relationships within your team and with wider teams, using a examples, if possible, of how you have previously done this.
Full UK driving licence
If you are applying from the Civil Service please note that the Environment Agency is not a part of HM Civil Service and you would not be a Crown Servant in the event of being appointed. Therefore, you will not be eligible for continuous service. For applicants who currently work in local government or other bodies listed in the Redundancy Payments (Continuity of Employment in Local Government etc) (Modification) Order 1999, you may be eligible for continuous service for the purpose of calculating any future redundancy payment. If you are unsure of your status then you should contact your own HR Team.

We are fully committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. We welcome flexible working patterns for all our vacancies, including job share, so please include clearly any information regarding your preferred working arrangements on your application.

We also have a Guaranteed Interview Policy to support those with a disability who are seeking employment. We have committed to guaranteeing an interview to anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

The Environment Agency, as a Non-Departmental Public Body, is committed to providing value for money and utilises Central Government frameworks and contracts for all external recruitment needs. For this reason, we are unable to engage with the market directly through post, email or phone calls . Should you wish to become a support supplier on one of these frameworks or contracts please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/become-a-crown-commercial-service-supplier/becoming-a-supplier-through-the-crown-commercial-service-what-you-need-to-know for more information.

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Although the Environment Agency is a non-departmental public body sponsored by Defra, we subscribe to and align with the candidate guidance on the use of artificial intelligence found on the  Civil Service Careers website. Please review for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

This Vacancy is closed to applications.