Senior Assistant Scientist Operational Support - 33558

The Environment Agency are fully committed to having an inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. 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

We have an opportunity for  2 x Grade 3 Sample Registration coordinators in the Operational Support team at Monitoring Laboratories’ Starcross Site.

The posts will be a fixed term contract of 6 months, 37 hours per week. There are 2 working patterns available Tuesday to Saturday and Sunday to Thursday both having  06:00 start-time

You will be required to carry out the registration of samples received into the laboratory from both the EA and external customers. The post draws upon a diverse range of transferrable skills and you will be expected to deliver a wide-ranging workload to specific timescales. Working closely with other teams, you can expect to be involved in any of the following:

• Supporting the laboratory teams to deliver their analysis programmes.
• Working closely with Customer Services teams, Facilities and Bottle Dispatch colleagues to achieve shared outcomes.
• Apply knowledge in troubleshooting registration issues.
• Actively promoting health, safety and wellbeing. Ensuring provision of safe working practices in line with Environment Agency guidance
• Works with senior team members to deliver team priorities and environmental objectives. Delivers to clearly specified objectives, standards, and service levels.
• Assisting with laboratory pollution incident response when required
• To work with other supervisors to provide support and supervision to the Ops Support team members.
• Required to use standard IT packages efficiently to deliver work and able to learn specialised systems as required.
• Promote inclusion by respecting differences in our workforce and work to build a supportive & engaging workplace.
• Understanding colleagues and partners requirements. Interprets and communicates the work of the Environment Agency.

The Monitoring Laboratories Service provides the Environment Agency with analytical data from environmental samples.

Operational Support provides support to the Monitoring Laboratories Starcross, to enable it to carry out analysis efficiently and effectively and in compliance with Health & Safety and quality standards. The team, of 20 staff, fulfil several functions including sample registration, general administration, building management, lab support, and bottle dispatch.

Excellent communication and time management skills are essential. Ideally, you will have an understanding of working in a laboratory setting and enjoy work in a busy team environment.

You will be able to demonstrate the following:

• An understanding of the impact of pollution and reasons for monitoring via environmental sampling.
• Awareness of laboratory quality control procedures and the team’s role in ensuring these are maintained.
• Ability to develop and maintain good relationships with internal and external customers.
• Delivery of work by managing workload and resources.
• Customer focus, attention to detail and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work on your own initiative and as part of a team to make decisions and achieve planned outcomes.
• Good organisational and IT skills, including MS Office.

The key things we’re looking for are transferrable skills and capabilities, so do not be put off applying if you don’t have a degree or experience in this sector.

Everyone that joins us is required to undertake training and participate in incident response duties when the need arises. Responding to incidents is an essential part of working for the Environment Agency.  Full training will be available to support you.

This is a non-hybrid role is based at Starcross Laboratory and occasional travel for meetings and training maybe required.

We use a competency-based recruitment process based around your experiences and the STAR (Situation, Target, Action and Result) model for structuring answers. Please search online for more detailed information.

Your answers to the capability questions will be used to determine interview selection.

Interviews will be at Starcross and Face to Face.

Interviews are scheduled for the week beginning 18th May 2026

Please contact andrew.welham@environment-agency.gov.uk