Ecologist - Principal/Associate Director

Ecologist - Principal/Associate Director

Location:

Newcastle upon Tyne, London, Reading, Bristol, Warwickshire-Leamington Spa, Shrewsbury, Knutsford, Leeds

Salary & Benefits:

• Competitive salary
• Flexible working
• Company car or cash alternative (includes personal use)
• Competitive 25 days holiday with options to buy/sell additional days leave
• Flexible benefits scheme including health insurance for self and dependents, enhanced maternity and primary carer allowances, life insurance, dental insurance, cycle to work scheme and generous pension scheme contributions

Overview / Responsibilities:

• Our Client has an opportunity for a suitably experienced ecologist to fill a Principal / Associate Director role in our thriving and growing biodiversity team.
• We are looking for an individual who will bring new ideas and approaches and who will be part of our continued process of evolution and growth.
• Need to be an excellent communicator, confident in dealing with clients, and be able to effectively challenge internal and external stakeholders if required.
• We are looking for a driven individual who is focused on finding solutions and is passionate about delivering technical excellence.
• Provide clear and where appropriate, innovative ecology advice and who is capable of leading on the biodiversity elements of major development projects, from proposal, through assessment and into the delivery of construction elements.
• The post represents an exciting opportunity to manage and deliver biodiversity inputs into our expansive range of projects across the UK and potentially for international work.

Key Responsibilities

• Representing Our Client and its clients to key stakeholders, including wide-ranging technical engagement and consultation with regulators, local authorities, NGOs and the general public
• Mentoring, coaching and supporting junior staff.
• Providing clients with accurate, innovative and proportionate biodiversity technical and consenting advice in relation to a range of exciting projects
• Networking across UK consultancy business, developing relationships with other technical disciplines in the pursuit of enhancing our offer to the market and in striving to continually innovate approaches, techniques, and solutions for our clients
• Acting as technical lead for the production of ecological assessments from project inception through to project completion, including authoring/technically reviewing Preliminary Ecological Appraisals, protected species reports, biodiversity management and mitigation plans, scoping reports, biodiversity chapters of Environmental Statements and HRA, with the associated quality, schedule and budget management responsibilities
• Contribute to biodiversity inputs across all project lifecycles from bidding/ feasibility/optioneering, extensive field survey programming, detailed design and assessment

Skills / Qualifications

• An undergraduate ecology (or related) degree, with a secondary MSc or PhD in ecology being of interest
• An ecological specialism is desirable, in particular with respect to bats and botanical knowledge, but a biodiversity generalist is also welcome.
• Experience of managing projects, including commercial, resourcing and scheduling activities along with managing sub-contracts and sub-contractors
• An appetite for new challenges and for being central to the growth and continual technical development of our biodiversity team
• Experience of operating in a consultancy business at a senior level leading the biodiversity elements of major projects and delivery of high-quality deliverables
• Experience in stakeholder engagement and client/contractor liaison
• Team leadership and/or mentoring experience
• Experience of energy generation and transmission projects would be advantageous but not essential
• Experience of Habitat Classification/Biodiversity Net Gain

If this role is of interest to you or if you are searching for other roles relating to Ecologist - Principal/Associate Director please do not hesitate to contact Greer de Wet van Breda on 01792-365000 or email greer.dewetvanbreda@penguinrecruitment.co.uk . We have many more vacancies available on our website at www.penguinrecruitment.co.uk

Penguin Recruitment is operating as a Recruitment Agency in respect to this position.