NCEA Senior Specialist - Soils - Ref (:6449)

Job summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

PLEASE NOTE: Natural England are yet to finalise the details of the 2025/2026 Pay Review. This will be backdated to July 2025, and this could involve a review of our current terms and conditions alongside increases to the advertised pay ranges. If there are any changes to what has been advertised, the vacancy manager will be able to provide further details ahead of any offers being accepted.

Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.

Our Role

Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.

• Recovering Nature – Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places – Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing – Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature – Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at

Natural England’s Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK

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.

Soil natural capital and soil health are a focus in the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan (YEP) which presents the ambition that ‘by 2030 we want all of England’s soils to be managed sustainably, and we will use natural capital thinking to develop appropriate soil metrics and management approaches. England Ecosystem Survey will enable NE to assess and capture the condition of soils nationally and to determine progress against the 25 Year Environment Plan target to manage soils sustainably by 2030.

Job description

We are recruiting two Senior Specialist – Soils roles, each contributing to the development of EES national soil monitoring but with distinct areas of focus:

• Role 1 – Soil Data & Analyses - This role will focus on overseeing soil physicochemical analysis, managing soil datasets, working closely with analytical laboratories, and ensuring high‑quality, consistent analytical outputs across the programme.
• Role 2 – Field data and sample collection QA & Methodological Development - This role will lead on the quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) of soil monitoring data collection, development and refinement of methodologies, and ensuring reproducible, scientifically robust processes across survey and analytical workflows.

While each post has a primary theme, we can remain flexible in how these responsibilities are ultimately divided. We will shape the final distribution of duties around the strengths, experience and interests of the successful candidates to ensure we bring the best expertise into the team.

Both roles will provide leadership and technical expertise to support the delivery of the England Ecosystem Survey. Postholders will help ensure soil monitoring across England is evidence‑based, strategically aligned, and operationally deliverable.

We welcome applicants with:

• A degree‑level qualification in soil science or a closely related environmental discipline; or
• Equivalent applied professional experience.

Applicants without a degree must clearly demonstrate equivalent knowledge through experience and outputs.

• Provide technical leadership for NCEA soil monitoring, including specialist steer to externally commissioned work and ensuring scientific robustness and alignment with programme objectives.
• Support, guide and quality‑assure internal and external field staff undertaking soil sampling, soil classification and assessment surveys, providing practical advice, troubleshooting, and ensuring consistent field practice across sites.
• Lead the development, testing and continual improvement of soil monitoring protocols and field manuals, ensuring all methods are evidence‑based, operationally feasible and reflect emerging best practice.
• Design and deliver high‑quality training for internal and external surveyors covering soil sampling, assessment techniques and field data collection standards.
• Coordinate effectively across soil sampling, soil classification and vegetation teams, ensuring methodological alignment, compatible datasets and coherent workflows.
• Act as a key liaison with analytical laboratories, particularly around soil physicochemical analyses, ensuring analytical quality, consistency of methodology and strong collaboration with relevant soil specialists.
• Lead data management, data checking, cleaning and quality assurance processes for soil datasets, applying appropriate data standards and reproducible workflows.
• Maintain and develop strong links with soil specialists across NE, ALBs and academia, contributing to technical networks that support programme objectives and evidence development.
• Contribute to, and where appropriate lead, research activities to inform the development and refinement of future soil monitoring methods and indicators, keeping abreast of emerging science and identifying knowledge gaps.
• Identify and assess existing land management datasets to support soil monitoring, contextual analysis and interpretation, including exploring opportunities for alignment with EES datasets.
• Where capacity allows, contribute to gathering land management data at monitoring sites, recognising that this activity may be dependent on resources.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

Essential

• Degree-level qualification in soil science or a closely related environmental discipline, or equivalent applied professional experience. Applicants without a degree must demonstrate an equivalent level of knowledge through experience and outputs.
• Expert understanding of soil functioning and soil health, including the interactions between biological, chemical and physical characteristics and how these influence ecosystem services.
• Strong knowledge of current and emerging soil monitoring methodologies, including how scientific approaches support the development and refinement of soil indicators.
• Good understanding of land use and land management practices, across agricultural and non‑agricultural systems, and their implications for soil function, health and natural capital.
• Strong data handling and data quality expertise, including data validation, QA/QC processes, metadata standards, reproducible workflows and best‑practice analytical principles to ensure the reliability and integrity of soil datasets.
• Ability to clearly communicate complex soil science concepts to both technical and non‑technical audiences, enabling evidence‑based decision making.

Desirable

• Expert knowledge of soil mapping and classification systems, including soil associations and the relationships between parent material, climate, relief, hydrology, habitats and soil properties.
• Knowledge of land evaluation systems such as Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) and Hydrology of Soil Types (HOST) to support interpretation and application of soil datasets.
• Understanding of the 25 Year Environment Plan (25YEP), its soil targets, and wider policy drivers relevant to sustainable soil management.
• Working knowledge of GIS and statistics, enabling effective oversight of contractors delivering spatial analysis, mapping and modelling.
• Experience of project management, including planning, coordination and delivery of technical or scientific programmes of work.
• Experience of working with and functionally leading others, contributing to the delivery of shared outcomes across multidisciplinary teams.

Benefits

At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements.

We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.

You’ll receive a generous leave allowance of 33 days per year (pro rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.

We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported

Locations

Natural England has adopted hybrid working – which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.

Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.

National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area.

View a map of our office locations here: online map of Natural England office locations

Pay

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

How to Apply

We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.

If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.

This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process:

• Technical Skills and Knowledge
• Personal Effectiveness
• Work Delivery
• Leading and Managing People

When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your Action.

Please note that STAR format is not required when answering a Technical Skills & Knowledge competency.

Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all competencies as set out in the Job Description.

Competencies

Competence 1

Professional competency

Detail

Technical Skills and Knowledge

Description

• Degree-level qualification in soil science or a closely related environmental discipline, or equivalent applied professional experience. Applicants without a degree must demonstrate an equivalent level of knowledge through experience and outputs. (Essential)
  • Expert understanding of soil functioning and soil health, including the interactions between biological, chemical and physical characteristics and how these influence ecosystem services. (Essential)
  • Strong knowledge of current and emerging soil monitoring methodologies, including how scientific approaches support the development and refinement of soil indicators. (Essential)
  • Good understanding of land use and land management practices, across agricultural and non agricultural systems, and their implications for soil function, health and natural capital. (Essential)
  • Strong data handling and data quality expertise, including data validation, QA/QC processes, metadata standards, reproducible workflows and best practice analytical principles to ensure the reliability and integrity of soil datasets. (Essential)
  • Ability to clearly communicate complex soil science concepts to both technical and non technical audiences, enabling evidence based decision making. (Essential)

Competence 2

Professional competency

Detail

Personal Effectiveness

Description

• Be ambitious, identify and adopt ways to make improvements in your team and Natural England and inspire others to act (practitioner).
  • Make and explain objective decisions which combine your professional judgement and evidence (expert).
  • Develop your professional expertise by keeping up to date with current evidence and research, aiming to develop a broad portfolio of expertise relevant to your specialism to enable you to provide holistic advice and to provide support, assurance, and challenge across a wide range of topics (expert).

Competence 3

Professional competency

Detail

Work Delivery

Description

• See the big picture so you can set your team’s work within the context of the organisation’s vision, mission and aims, and help them understand how their work relates to and supports this (practitioner).
  • Understand and promote compliance with the Evidence Standard, Data Standard and other relevant policy/procedures including quality assurance and peer-review (practitioner).
  • Identify and apply the most appropriate data and methodologies for your analysis, utilising reproducible analytical pipelines and data science approaches where appropriate (practitioner).

Competence 4

Professional competency

Detail

Leading and Managing People

Description

• Set clear plans and expectations for your team, explain reasons behind decisions, be clear on the outcomes to be achieved, and make things happen by sharing and delegating work to the right people (practitioner).
  • Lead by example, engage and support your team through change (practitioner).

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,950, Natural England contributes £10,994 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 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 : Lynn Warburton
• Email : lynn.warburton@naturalengland.org.uk
• Telephone : 07795 981681

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/6449-6449-NCEA-Senior-Specialist-Soils/en-GB

Attachments

DEF-001h - Candidate Pack Natural England v2.4 Opens in new window (docx, 423kB)