Biodiversity Advisor

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 are looking for an experienced and knowledgeable individual to head up our work on protected species. In particular, you will be responsible for administering and managing our "protected species organisational licence" which allows us to carry out certain activities that impact protected species without direct oversight from Natural England (NE).

You will build and maintain a community of registered users who are able to use this licence. You will produce and update guidance and work with external providers to source the training needed to be considered as a registered user. You will report on the use of this licence to NE and work with them to update the terms of the licence so that it continues to meet our needs.

You will provide protected species advice to colleagues across the EA with varied experience and will seek opportunities to improve the way the EA uses this licence and interacts with protected species more broadly, minimising impacts on both species and our operations in the process.

You will also help us learn from any mistakes we make by assisting in the review of internal incidents relating to protected species, reporting your findings and using these to produce Environmental learning from Experience Notices (ELENs) that will minimise similar or worse mistakes being made in the future.

The team

Biodiversity Services is a dispersed national team in Nature Recovery, and part of the Environment and Business (E&B) Directorate. We work with operational, technical and project teams across the country, supporting people to deliver better biodiversity outcomes that create a better place.