Water Quality Planning Technical Specialist - 30205
Number of jobs available: 1
Region: Yorkshire and the Humber
City/Town: Leeds, Rotherham, York
Building/Site: DEFRA GRP EA LEEDS LATERAL, LS11 9AT, DEFRA GRP KINGS POOL, YO1 7PX
Grade: Staff Grade 5
Post Type: Permanent
Role Type: Operational Delivery
Working Pattern: Full Time, Part Time
Salary Minimum: £41,617
Closing Date: 11/02/2025, 23:55 hours
Security checks level: Basic Check
Job Description
The Environment Agency is 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. Everyone starting in a new role will be welcomed into the team and given all the training and support needed. As part of your comprehensive induction, you will be provided with all the equipment required for your role.
If you're passionate about our water environment and want to make a difference to the quality of our surface waters in Yorkshire, then this might be the perfect role for you. We are looking for an enthusiastic, self-motivated individual with experience of water quality issues to help review, challenge and advise on stakeholder plans and permissions, to ensure they protect and improve our freshwater environment.
You will work with national policy, area delivery and key customers on aspects of strategic water planning to help plan our response to current pressures and future demands. You will work closely with water companies to reduce the impacts from sewage discharges. Therefore, knowledge or experience of some of the following would be an advantage:
1. Water Framework Directive
2. Water industry wastewater management
3. Water company performance/regulation
4. River and/or lake water quality modelling
5. Water company price review or asset management plans
6. Urban Pollution Management processes and standards
Working with colleagues and partners, you will seek optimal solutions to environmental problems, and advise on the regulatory requirements that will help us improve the quality of our surface waters to create a better place for people, wildlife and the environment.
The Team
The Integrated Environment Planning (IEP) team is predominantly a water planning team with specialists in water resources, water quality and river basin planning. Working with area operational teams, national policy makers and other stakeholders, in particular water companies, we produce the environmental plans that drive Yorkshire area priorities. Our diverse and friendly team of advisors are at the heart of environmental decision making, facilitating integrated actions to solve complex problems.
Experience/Skills Required
Essential: A degree in a relevant environmental discipline.
Desirable: Membership of, or working towards a membership of, a relevant professional institute (e.g. CIWEM).
You will have good knowledge and experience of water quality planning, preferably gained through working with water companies. The ability and experience to lead technical conversations with both internal and external partners. Ability to demonstrate leadership in a specialist technical area. Good research/analysis skills, supporting an ability to make proportionate, evidence-based inferences/proposals from information. Experience of gathering, maintaining and quality-assuring data/information. Good organisational skills/discipline and the ability to plan, track, deliver and evaluate work. Ability to work under own initiative and as part of a larger, cross-functional/multidisciplinary team. Sensitive to the needs of the internal and external customers and able to deliver outcomes through these. Ability to prioritise and deliver work to relevant standards and tight deadlines. Experience of translating internal guidance into local delivery.
Contact and Additional Information
You may find it helpful to use the STAR approach to answering the competency questions. See Candidate Pack for information. Everyone that joins us is required to undertake training and participate in incident response duties when the need to respond arises. Having an incident role is an essential part of working for the Environment Agency and an active way to support communities and prevent harm to the environment. Further information on incident response can be found within the candidate pack.
Office base locations can be either Foss House (York), Lateral (Leeds), or Templeborough (Rotherham). Minimal travel expected besides from EA office attendance. Please contact claire.dickinson@environment-agency.gov.uk if you require further information about this role.
Competencies
1. Competence 1: Achieves Results
Definition: Sets and delivers high work standards, demonstrates the drive to meet targets. Prioritises and organises tasks and resources to ensure timely achievement of results.
Question: Please describe a time when you have delivered a project or piece of work successfully in the face of considerable challenges or obstacles and with limited instruction.
2. Competence 2: Strategic Environment Planning
Definition: Develops, delivers and implements strategic plans for the sustainable use, protection and improvement of our environment.
Question: Please describe your skills and/or experience in Water Quality Planning, and how they will ensure you are successful in this role.
3. Competence 3: Influences and Persuades Others
Definition: Presents a case in a convincing and attractive way that will win people over, encouraging them to follow plans willingly; often succeeding where logic and reason alone would fail.
Question: Describe a time when, in the face of considerable challenge, you have successfully persuaded a key stakeholder round to your point of view.
4. Competence 4: Takes Decisions and Solves Problems
Definition: Finds and delivers optimal solutions by effectively analysing all the information, probing to develop alternatives and taking sound and timely decisions.
Question: Tell us about a time when you have had to co-ordinate information from a variety of sources in order to solve a difficult technical problem.
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 for more information.
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