Senior Flood and Water Officer

About the role

Lead the way in managing flood risk, protecting communities, and building resilience for the future.

This is an exciting opportunity to take a leading role in supporting the Council's responsibilities as the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA). As a Senior Flood and Water Officer, you will provide technical expertise and guidance in flood risk management, helping to shape sustainable development and strengthen community resilience to flooding.

You will lead on complex technical assessments, flood risk data analysis, and responses to planning consultations, while supporting the development and delivery of flood risk strategies, policies, and projects. The role also offers the opportunity to mentor and support junior colleagues, working collaboratively with partners, developers, and local communities to achieve effective flood risk management outcomes across the area.

What will you be doing?

As a Senior Flood and Water Officer, you will play a key role in leading the Council's flood risk management activities, providing technical expertise, supporting sustainable development, and helping to protect communities from the impacts of flooding. Working closely with internal teams, external partners, and local communities, you will lead on complex flood risk matters, contribute to strategic projects, and support the development of colleagues within the team.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Leading technical assessments of flood risk and surface water drainage proposals for planning applications.
• Providing specialist flood risk and drainage advice to internal teams, developers, consultants, and other stakeholders.
• Investigating flood incidents through site visits, data collection, analysis, and engagement with affected communities.
• Maintaining and enhancing the Council's GIS-based flood risk asset register and associated datasets.
• Supporting the preparation, review, and implementation of statutory flood risk documents, including the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy and Surface Water Management Plans.
• Contributing to the delivery of the Council's role as a statutory consultee on major developments, assessing flood mitigation measures and reviewing Flood Risk Assessments.
• Supporting the regulation of works affecting ordinary watercourses, including consenting activities, enforcement matters, and drainage bylaw reviews.
• Working collaboratively with organisations such as the Environment Agency, Anglian Water, and Emergency Planning colleagues to manage and reduce flood risk.
• Assisting in the development and delivery of flood alleviation schemes and community resilience projects.
• Representing the Council at meetings with partner organisations, developers, and neighbouring authorities.
• Mentoring and supporting junior officers, helping to develop technical knowledge and professional skills within the team.
• Responding to enquiries from residents, elected members, developers, and other stakeholders on flood and drainage matters.
• Supporting the preparation of funding applications, business cases, and project documentation to secure investment in flood risk initiatives.

This is an excellent opportunity to influence how flood risk is managed across North Northamptonshire, helping to safeguard people, property, and the environment for future generations.

About you

• Level 6 (Undergraduate Degree) in Civil Engineering or a related discipline, or able to demonstrate equivalent knowledge and experience gained through professional practice.

• Applied knowledge of flood risk management and LLFA responsibilities.

• Experience of assessing drainage strategies and flood risk assessments.

• Experience of managing and analysing spatial datasets and GIS.

• Familiarity with relevant legislation including FWMA, Flood Risk Regulations, and Land Drainage Act.

• Experience of managing and maintaining complex dataset

• Experience of using computer databases, and Microsoft packages such as PowerPoint, Excel, Word and Outlook

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to analyse, translate, present, and disseminate complex information
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Able to deliver excellent customer service under pressure
• Ability to manage competing priorities and deliver work to deadlines
• Good organisational skills
• Willingness and ability to travel as required independently to multiple sites across the Council’s administrative area to undertake site visits, or further away to attend meetings and events on behalf of the Council. For example, the ability to drive with access to own transport.
• Good time management skills
• The ability to carry out site visits or investigations on a variety of outdoor locations including domestic properties, overgrown land, and building sites. Must be able to use ladders and scaffolding and be able to walk across sites with uneven ground conditions.
• Ability to demonstrate awareness/understanding of equal opportunities and other people’s behaviour, physical, social and welfare needs.

Our Benefits

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we’re transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.

You’ll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!

Why choose us?

We offer a vibrant working environment with:

• a competitive salary
• a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
• lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
• generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
• hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.

We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

About us

Our Values and Behaviours

Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:

Customer-focused
Respectful
Efficient
Supportive
Trustworthy

Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.

Disability Confident Employer

We are proud to be a recognised Disability Confident Employer and is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.

Our Employment and Disability Service provides bespoke support to individuals facing barriers to employment, helping them work towards their goals to start, stay and succeed in employment. For further information please click here The Employment and Disability Service (EADS) | North Northamptonshire Council

Armed Forces Community

The council obtained the Gold status award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS).

Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)