Home location: Puddle Dock; 1 Puddle Dock, London EC4V 3DS

Key satellite location: Basingstoke Campus; Gresley Road Basingstoke, RG21 4FS

The Ecologist role will be required to act in an support and advisory capacity to the Southern Region capital schemes programme, providing professional ecological advice (both written and verbal) to inform key internal stakeholders, including rail project managers and works delivery staff, and to influence external stakeholders including Local Planning Authorities, Environmental Regulators, consultants, local community groups, and members of the public. The key purpose of the role is to assure that railway schemes are implementing Mitigation Hierarchy and Biodiversity Accounting principles, and following good practice for ecological management.

Capital Delivery Southern delivers millions of pounds of investment every day in a programme of renewals and enhancement activity, which is aligned to maintaining a safe, punctual railway. The Southern network links major towns and cities including Guildford, Bournemouth, Southampton, Portsmouth, Brighton, Canterbury, Ashford and Dover, and is comprised of Kent, Sussex and Wessex Routes. The investment project portfolio ranges from major enhancement of large sections of the railway and its component systems, to smaller-scale structural and track restitutions, strengthening and repair projects, geotechnical and signalling works.

The role is initially a contract position, reviewed and renewable annually, until April 2024 with potential for further renewal into our Control Period <phone number removed> ).

Duties and Responsibilities

The post is allocated to the Southern Region Ecology Team and will focus on developing competence, capability and assurance across the Capital Delivery Southern function. Main areas of responsibility will include:

• Assurance work - undertake 'critical friend' review of ecology and Biodiversity Net Gain reports and proposals provided to Capital Delivery Southern by the supply chain and their ecological consultants; carry out ecology-focussed site inspections and liaise with Environment Managers and Project Manager as appropriate to deliver continual improvement in relation to ecology and biodiversity; undertake monitoring and assure that schemes deliver biodiversity benefits and enhancements in line with NR policy and standards.

• Advisory work - provide expert advice on Ecological Management and Biodiversity Accounting to Capital Delivery Programmes and Projects; support Environment Managers and Project Managers to integrate biodiversity principles into decision-making and achievable delivery plans; provide specialist input to internal and external working groups, attend relevant project meetings; support response to ecology-related enquires from a range of internal and external stakeholders.

• Management System work - support the establishment, maintenance and use of effective information and reporting systems to support the management of ecology, biodiversity and environmental sustainability; identify and drive improvement to ecology management processes, which will facilitate the effective delivery of works and enable the workforce to undertake projects in compliance to legal and quality (ISO14001) requirements.

• Educational work - provide training and briefings to promote better understanding of ecology within Capital Delivery Southern and across the Regional organisation as required.

• Improvement initiatives work - support delivery and embedment of corporate and Regional biodiversity initiatives; identify best practice and innovation that can support ecological enhancements and deliver projects to protect and promote the biodiversity assets of Southern Region.

Key requirements for the role

• Experienced terrestrial Ecologist, a good understanding of England/national legislative requirements and best industry practices in relation to ecological management.
• Experience of delivering assurance activity with respect to contractor performance and to intended ecological outcomes of enhancement projects
• Previous experience of managing ecology-related projects, including fieldwork programs ideally in a consulting environment.
• Experience in delivery of all aspects and phases of Preliminary Ecological Appraisal (PEA) and the management of mitigation plans
• Substantial field survey experience - logistics planning, techniques knowledge, mobilising and managing field teams
• Experience with field data collection, and management and analysis of ecological data
• Experience in GIS, field mapping and developing and managing spatial datasets
• Driver's licence essential - travel to isolated field locations and engineering depots across the Region will be required. Travel requirement will vary but expect 2-3 days per week on average, especially during peak ecology season.

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