Hydrologist - 27864

We are looking for a Technical Leader to help us monitor, analyse, forecast and report on the water environment covering a diverse range of watercourses across the West Midlands. We work on today’s hydrological challenges, whilst making sure we are preparing and adapting to the future challenges of Climate Change. The person in this role will ensure we adopt best practice techniques in a consistent way so that the organisation makes the best use of the available evidence to make sound cost-efficient operational and strategic decisions.
You will help the team to manage hydrological data sets, operate and maintain hydrological models, complete flow naturalisation and drought analysis and support abstraction licensing. You will work with specialists across other areas building consistency in approach as well as widening the access to specialised skills and extensive experience. You will also contribute at a national level to the strategic development of the hydrology service.

Responding to incidents is a central part of what we do. You will be required to have an incident role and make yourself available to respond to incidents, or provide business continuity support during an incident. This may attract an additional payment and full training and alternative working arrangements will be available to support you with your incident role.

We are looking for an enthusiastic, self-motivated applicant, who sees that providing great leadership is as important as using their specialist technical knowledge to protect people and the environment

The Team consists of 11 Hydrologists who provide technical expertise and advice on water resource management and regulation across the West Midlands. This includes important issues such as no deterioration of watercourses under the Water Framework Directive, Catchment Abstraction Management Strategies, the Water Industry National Environment Programme, water company water resource management plans, assessing drought plans, restoring sustainable abstraction, and determining water resources licences.

You will demonstrate the following:

• A solid understanding of hydrological processes
• A degree in hydrology/geography or another closely related subject; a relevant post-graduate qualification is desirable
• In depth understanding of water resources
• Ability to deliver work by planning, tracking, gathering and maintaining data/information
• Ability to support and coach less experienced team members
• Ability to analyse complex hydrological problems and review modelling techniques
• Understanding and experience of data collection, quality analysis and processing
• 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 with the ability of turning technical detail into compelling arguments for the respective audience.
• Membership of an appropriate professional body is desirable

We strive to reflect the communities we serve and welcome applications from all backgrounds regardless of race, sexual orientation, and religion.

You’ll have access to our great benefits package, flexible working arrangements and extensive training to develop your career. Please see the candidate pack for more information.

We do not accept CVs and so your answers to the below competencies will be used for selection. Please see the competency dictionary within the candidate pack - you may find it helpful to use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action and Result) approach to answering the questions.

Please contact Heph Neate: heph.neate@environment-agency.gov.uk or Oliver Nyland: oliver.nyland@environment-agency.gov.uk if you require further information about this role.

In this role you will have to deliver a large workload to a high standard under difficult time pressures. Please provide an example of when you have had a challenging hydrological goal and the steps that you took to achieve it. Please explain how you planned and prioritised your work while tracking and measuring your outcomes. Please also tell us about any issues you faced and how you overcame them

Please tell us about a time you’ve coached or supported a member of your team in completing a technical hydrological task. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? How were you able to assess how your coaching enabled your colleague to progress with the task?

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