Are you ready for a change? Are you passionate about ecology? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you!
We are currently seeking an ambitious and dedicated Ecological Consultant to join our dynamic team in either our Coughton or Lichfield Offices.
As an Ecological Consultant, your main responsibility will be to conduct site surveys and prepare comprehensive reports. You will be involved in a wide range of tasks, including preliminary roost assessments, UKHab surveys, and other protected species surveys. By providing expert guidance and advice, you will help strike a balance between the natural and built environments.
Position: Ecological Consultant – Full time, permanent (39.5 hours/week)
Salary range: c.25-32k dependent on experience
We are looking to recruit an Ecological Consultant to help us to deliver projects due to our increasing workloads and expanding client base. There are some key skills we expect you to have, however our company culture and team dynamic is important to us so it’s just as vital that you’re a good fit within the team.
In terms of the role, no day will be the same. There will be times where your work is a smaller part of a larger project, but generally you will be involved in projects from start to finish and will manage your own projects commensurate to your skills and experience. This is something that consultants joining us from other consultancies have specifically mentioned that they really enjoy. Our goal is to help you to develop into a well-rounded ecologist capable of advising clients on a range of schemes, supporting, and mentoring you along the way.
On a day-to-day basis you can generally expect to be involved in the works detailed below:
- Producing fee proposals and communicating costs and approach to potential clients.
- Undertaking ecological survey work. We expect you have demonstrable experience of and be competent in undertaking preliminary ecological appraisals as well as a range of protected species survey work.
- Producing technical reports including (but not limited to) protected species survey and mitigation reports, ecological impact assessments, method statements, management plans, ecological enhancement plans, biodiversity net gain assessments etc.
- Providing input into protected species licence applications.
- Liaising with other members of the team and sub-consultants on delegated tasks relating to your projects.
- Attending meetings with clients in relation to project work or fee proposals and communicating with clients to keep them up to date on project progress requiring technical input.
- Liaising with stakeholders on projects as required to achieve the best outcomes for ecology and our clients.
In addition to the above, we may ask for your input on things like writing up case studies, providing interesting content for our marketing department etc. though this will not account for a significant proportion of your time.
In terms of qualifications, licences and experience, we expect the following as a minimum:
- An undergraduate degree in a relevant subject.
- At least 3 years of consultancy experience in an ecological role.
- At least one protected species licence (GCN or bat Class 1 would be preferable) or developing skills in another area of ecology such as botany or biodiversity net gain.
- Membership of, or eligibility to be a member of a relevant professional body at (i.e. CIEEM, RSB etc.).
- Demonstrable experience of authoring ecological reports and undertaking ecological surveys to a high standard.
In terms of salary and benefits these are detailed below:
- Be part of a multi-discipline team that has a great work ethos and common values.
- Have an extra day’s annual leave on us for your birthday – more time for cake!
- Continual professional development and voluntary activities.
- TOIL (time off in lieu) policy and flexible working hours – we actively encourage a healthy work-life balance.
- Enhanced maternity and paternity leave.
- Personal access to Croner, our external experts in H&S, HR and employment law.
- Access to our Employee Assistance Programme [1].
- Critical illness and life insurance cover [2].
- Incentivised bonus scheme [3].
- Actively encourage personal goals and targets [4].
- Regular social events, games nights and volunteering days.
- Fun, friendly, and inclusive co-workers.
- A dog-friendly office.
- Oh – and regular fresh, handmade pizzas by our Director, Pete
To apply for the role please send a CV and covering letter to peter@wnic.co.uk.
Please note that your covering letter should not simply be a repetition of your CV. As we’ve mentioned, our company culture is very important to us, so your covering letter should give us an insight into you as a person. Being a ‘hard working and highly motivated individual’ is something that we expect all our team members to be, so tell us a little about you as a person and what really makes you stand out!
Closing Date is 04 August 2023.
[1] Provided by Croner and includes health & lifestyle services, legal information, home life services and work life services.
[2] Introduced once 3-month probationary period is successfully completed.
[3] Take a percentage of any new business you bring to the company.
[4] We like everyone to have their own individual goals, whether that be having the opportunity to take your children to school, to travelling the world for a few months. We aim to make things happen2
