NCEA Higher Officer Project Support - Data - ( Ref : 6623 )

Job summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

The team - The England Ecosystem Survey (EES) is Natural England’s largest ever field survey project – an ambitious and high-profile initiative to collect ecosystem data from a wide range of habitats across England. It is a cornerstone project within the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment programme; led by Defra, and part of the government’s major projects portfolio.

The EES project is using professional survey as a tool to provide high quality data to assess the state and condition of biodiversity, ecosystems, and natural capital assets within England’s habitats and landscapes. It will address existing data gaps, including soils.

This varied and often fast paced role will provide project support to the wider EES project team by assisting colleagues with logistics and survey equipment, data publication, GI desk studies, data collection and cleansing, and the design and implementation of vegetation, landscape, and soils surveys.

The role will involve some travel at times throughout the year with potential overnight stays.

Job description

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

• Contribute to the design, development and maintenance of robust, annotated and version controlled analytical pipelines (primarily in R) to support data ingestion, processing, quality assurance, analysis and visualisation.
• Ensuring analytical solutions are efficient, scalable, reusable and aligned with best practice.
• Plan and deliver statistical analyses and high-quality visualisations of field and laboratory data, providing clear interpretation to support evidence-based decision making.
• Work proactively with data leads, data owners and wider stakeholders to define analytical requirements, translate business needs into analytical solutions, and advise on methodological options.
• Support analytical assurance, ensuring all data management, analysis and outputs comply with QFAIR principles, the Government Statistical Code of Practice, and internal governance and quality standards.
• Contribute to the preparation, formatting and validation of data for publication, ensuring outputs are accurate, accessible and fit for public release.
• Provide technical guidance to colleagues, contributing to capability building within the team and wider organisation.

Whilst the work in this role will ostensibly be related to data, the successful candidate will be required to show flexibility in managing and adapting to other work should team priorities or resources change.

Competencies

Competence 1

Professional competency

Detail

Technical Skills & Knowledge

Description

Technical Skills & Knowledge

• Knowledge and experience of using R and RStudio to deliver reproducible analytical workflows, including version control including, code review and meeting standards for best practice. (Essential)
• Experience of using core R packages for data processing, cleaning and visualisation (e.g. dplyr, tidyr, ggplot2) (Essential)
• Experience of statistical analysis, particularly modern statistical methods for ecological data, with the ability to select, justify and explain appropriate methodologies. (Essential)
• Ability to prioritise work, manage analytical risks, and deliver high quality outputs to agreed timescales. (Essential)
• Ability to communicate complex analytical concepts clearly to non-technical audiences, influencing stakeholders and supporting informed decision making. (Essential)

Competence 2

Professional competency

Detail

Personal Effectiveness

Description

• Make and explain objective decisions which combine your professional judgement and evidence. (Practitioner)
  • Use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques that engage your audience. (Basic)

Competence 3

Professional competency

Detail

Work Delivery

Description

• Handle data responsibly, understand your role in good governance, and comply with delegations, policies and procedures. (Practitioner)
  • Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines. (Practitioner)

Competence 4

Professional competency

Detail

Putting People at the Heart of the Environment

Description

• Listen to and understand our diverse partners and customers so that you achieve the best outcomes for them and Natural England. (Practitioner)
  • Nurture trusting partnerships and collaborate to achieve pragmatic outcomes that help deliver Natural England’s vision, mission and aims. (Practitioner)

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,240, Natural England contributes £9,339 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Please refer to Job Description

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Jules Cockcroft
• Email : Jules.Cockcroft@naturalengland.org.uk
• Telephone : 07825 898077

Recruitment team

• Email : defra-recruitment-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

https://networkrecruitment.tal.net/vx/appcentre-7/brand-4/spa-1/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/8/opp/6623-6623-NCEA-Higher-Officer-Project-Support-Data/en-GB

Attachments

DEF-001h - Candidate Pack Natural England v2.9 Opens in new window (docx, 548kB)