Normal minimum hours of attendance for the post are 36 hours per week over a 5-day period, Monday to Friday.

Flexi time is available. This post may also be suitable for job share.

Annual Leave:

The annual leave allowance is 25 days per year, rising to 30 days per year after 5 years service.  There are also 12 days public and privilege leave.  Part-time staff will receive this on a pro rata basis.The annual leave allowance is 25 days per year, rising to 30 days per year after 5 years’ service. There are also 12 days public and privilege leave. Part-time staff will receive this on a pro rata basis.                      

Short Summary:

JNCC are looking for a maternity cover of 6 months, possibly longer, for a Senior International Biodiversity Officer to join the International Implementation Team.  You will work under the guidance of JNCC’s International Implementation Team Leaders, with a range of other specialists, both within JNCC and internationally.  Using your knowledge of tropical marine biodiversity, monitoring and management, you will manage delivery of a significant programme of work to support the UK Overseas Territories with conserving their coral reef ecosystems and implementing Coral Reef Action Plans.  This will require skills in building and sustaining partnerships and managing complex and sometimes politically sensitive projects and teams.  This is an exciting area of work that requires a strong project manager with excellent communication skills, a passion to work collaboratively, and an ability to make connections to other programmes and activities locally, regionally and globally.

Post background

The International Implementation team has long established partnerships with the UK’s Overseas Territories (OTs) and has more recently developed partnerships in South America and Southern Africa. These partnerships provide technical assistance and build capacity in partner Territories, countries and organisations enabling them to improve resilience against disaster risks, manage biodiversity, understand and respond to climate change impacts, improve food security, support sustainable livelihoods, and more.

The team implements a wide variety of on-the-ground projects with local partners covering marine, terrestrial and coastal environments. Projects aim to maximise access to data, exchange knowledge and build technical capacity. The team collaborates with governments, communities and other stakeholders, taking into account the economic and social value of nature at national and community levels.

Current/planned projects include:

• Implementation of coral reef action plans with the OTs, including response plans for stony coral tissue loss disease.

• Natural capital valuations and development of asset registers and indicators to inform to inform nature conservation investment and decision-making

• Ridge to reef land use modelling and planning decision support tools to aid biodiversity conservation.
• ‘Nature-based solutions’ to mitigate hurricane and other disaster-related risks in the OTs.

• Post-Covid ‘green recovery’ and sustainable livelihoods initiatives with the OTs.

• Advice to Defra and FCDO on high-impact investment strategies for nature-based solutions in the OTs and ODA-eligible countries.

The work of the team supports and advises UK policy and departments in respect of the Overseas Territories and use of Official Development Assistance in the Territories and Latin America.

Job Description:

Post Duties

Responsibilities will include:

• Overseeing the planning, management, reporting and delivery of contracts, projects and key outputs, including EQA and GDPR requirements;

• Providing expertise on the monitoring of tropical marine habitats and impacts from human activities on coral reef ecosystems, in particular.

• Providing advice to government departments on coral reefs, and contribute expertise to International Coral Reef Initiative Ad-Hoc groups on coral restoration and indicators;
• Contributing to the development and testing of indicators for monitoring and assessment of tropical seabed habitats;

• Taking an active lead in developing and managing new opportunities for joint working with Defra, other departments (e.g. FCO), agencies (e.g. Cefas, MMO, EA, UKHO and MCA) and other suitable partners;

• Identifying new funding opportunities, preparing funding applications and liaising with other JNCC teams to identify and make best use of staff resources across the whole organisation to deliver OT work;

• Line-managing and supervising a small team to deliver the work described above and contribute to the running of the International Implementation Team as a whole;

• Support the wider work of the Team as appropriate, including providing senior technical input into projects as required.

The work will be largely office based, but there will be a requirement to travel to the Overseas Territories (potentially for several weeks at a time) to attend meetings, workshops and facilitate delivery of the work with partners and government officials.  The post-holder will be required to work with colleagues in JNCC’s Peterborough and Aberdeen offices and may also be required to attend meetings elsewhere in the UK.

Technical

To be a successful candidate you will be/have:

·         Educated to degree level or equivalent qualification in a relevant subject and/or relevant recent practical work experience.

• Knowledge and understanding of tropical benthic marine biodiversity and its spatial and temporal variation, ideally with a broader understanding of coastal ecosystems.
• Knowledge of human activities, their pressures and impacts upon marine habitats and species and a broad understanding of marine management practises.
• Knowledge of data management processes and the use of databases to analyse, interpret and recognise patterns and trends in data to draw key conclusions.
• Knowledge of ecology and nature conservation policy and practise in the UK Overseas Territories, ODA countries and/or internationally.

Experience (Responsibilities)

To be a successful candidate you will have:

·         Experience of managing complex projects with multiple partners, including tracking budgets, technical and financial reporting to funding bodies and relationship management.

·         Expertise in tropical marine habitat monitoring and management, and how human activities impact upon coral reef habitats and species is essential.

·         Proven ability to work independently in an international environment with a well-developed set of the communication and diplomacy skills to work with a wide range of overseas-based technical specialists, senior civil servants and politicians.

·         Experience managing small multi-disciplinary teams.

Behaviours

• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service

In the event that we receive a large volume of applications we reserve the right to conduct the sift based on the Lead Behaviour of Working Togethether.

Please see the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf

Closing date and interview date

The closing date for this post is 23:55 on Sunday, 15 May 2022

The anticipated interview date is week commencing Monday, 23 May 2022

How to apply: https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi