Permitting Officer - Water Quality

Role: Permitting Officer - Water Quality

Salary: £28,785

Grade: 4

Location: Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter, Ipswich, Nottingham, Sheffield, Warrington

About the Environment Agency

If you’re part of the Environment Agency, you’re part of the solution. Working with us means protecting and improving the environment for generations to come, tackling issues of national importance across a huge variety of disciplines. Our responsibilities span major industry regulation, flood defences, land contamination, water quality, fisheries, and conservation. Such a broad scope of work calls for diverse, multi-skilled teams and exceptional leadership: together, we’ll promote sustainable growth, tackle climate change, and secure a better future for everyone.

Your role with us

This is an excellent opportunity to develop new expertise and help to protect the environment by regulating potentially damaging activities. Our National Permitting Service Water Quality Team determine applications for environmental permits and licences. When you join the team, we’ll provide all the training, mentoring, and coaching you need to help create a cleaner, safer and healthier environment. As you develop understanding of environmental sensitivities and impact associated with water quality, you’ll also gain expertise in environmental permitting legislation and policies. This will equip you to make risk-based decisions about permits on technical grounds. Crucially, you’ll also become a trusted water quality consultant for other Environment Agency teams, which might include those responsible for responding to floods and environmental incidents.

Who we’re looking for

If you don’t have experience of water quality permitting when you join us, you should certainly demonstrate transferable knowledge or qualifications, plus a real passion for the environment. You’ll bring a clear ability to organise and prioritise a large workload, and to make proactive and risk-based decisions. Good communication and negotiation skills are a must, together with a commitment to teamwork and customer service. You have the confidence to mentor other people, and to deal with situations around permit applications that may be complex and difficult.

 Your benefits with us

You will benefit from a culture that embraces difference and includes everyone, where you will feel supported and trusted to do the right thing. We will invest in you and allow you to grow and shape your career. What’s more, you’ll be able to have access to our great benefits package, including generous annual leave, an excellent pension, flexible working arrangements and the opportunity to be part of a variety of staff networks.

We are fully committed to having an inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. To achieve this, we welcome applications from all backgrounds regardless of race, sexual orientation, or religion. We also welcome applications for flexible working patterns.
 

Closing date: 3 December 2021