Team / Directorate: Installations and RSR Permitting Team, Evidence, Policy and Permitting
Starting salary: £41,132 rising to £44,988 per annum through annual increments being paid each year (pro rata for part time applicants)
Contract type: Permanent
Work pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week (Part time, annualised hours, compressed hours or term time working considered - discussions at interview stage welcome)
Post number: 202849
The role
You will be a senior member of the Installations and Radioactive Substances Regulations Permitting Team, using your scientific and technical skills to assess complex environmental permit applications and fulfil NRW's duties to make sound decisions to issue, refuse or vary environmental permits, to time and budget.
You will use environmental permitting processes, scientific technical guidance, and your understanding of wider legal requirements, across a broad range of large industrial sectors; including refineries, waste incineration, treatment and landfilling, paper and pulp, food and drink, metals processing, intensive farming, combustion, chemicals, and activities that use radioactive substances.
The role sits within a close working team, you will nurture strong connections and be responsible for mentoring and training of peers, sharing knowledge, experience, and best practice, to facilitate risk-based decision making and produce robust enforceable permits; protecting human health and the environment, and encourage best practice in the operation of regulated facilities.
You will use your specialist expertise across several industrial sectors from either regulatory or operational experience, and respond to permitting queries from both internal and external customers, working with team members and the wider Industry Regulation community to resolve complex issues that arise within your specialist area.
In addition to the core permitting responsibilities, you will contribute to work planning, risk and resource management, instigate process improvements, and participate in industrial cluster groups to deliver outcomes and embed SMNR within current regulatory frameworks.
The role suits hybrid working, as the team is responsible for assessing environmental permit applications from large industry across all of Wales. As with many roles, there is great benefit from face-to-face team meetings and general desk-side training and support, so you will be required to attend the Cardiff office regularly to participate in certain activities and fulfil specific tasks.
As an organisation we support flexible working. You will be contracted to the nearest NRW office to your home and a suitable hybrid working pattern will be agreed on appointment. Any regular face to face meetings or training will be planned in advance.
To make an informal enquiry about this role, please contact Holly Noble at
[email protected]Interviews will take place through Microsoft Teams
Successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check. Appointments are normally made within 4 to 8 weeks of the closing date.
About Us
The Installations and Radioactive Substances Regulation Permitting team sits within NRW's Permitting Service, part of the wider Regulation and Permitting Department.
NRW's Permitting Service primary role is to protect the environment and communities through the assessment and determination of applications for environmental permits. Permitting is the foundation of environmental regulation and crucial to the economy, people and wildlife of Wales. Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing future generations and new technology developments and decarbonisation projects within industry are becoming reality in response to this.
What you will do
- Lead on complex permit determination and decision under Installation permitting legislation by carrying out appropriate technical assessment in accordance with NRW policies and procedures where available, and issue, refuse or vary permits within timescales.
- Lead on influencing and implementing mentoring and coaching frameworks to aid technical development of other permitting officers within the Installation Permitting Team and where applicable throughout the permitting service, ensuring consistency in approach.
- Extensive experience of permitting decision making using a range of technical guidance and technical software and modelling programmes as required by the Installation regime.
- Lead on supporting operational teams by providing specialist expertise in pre-application discussions and post permit work for a range of application types within the various sectors of the installation regime.
- Identify and deliver opportunities for process and procedural changes.
- Deliver an efficient and effective service by co-ordinating change that leads to improved internal and external stakeholder experience of the Permitting Service.
- Co-ordinate and lead in preparing defence in relation to legal challenges against permit decisions for your assigned area of work.
- Represent the Permitting Service on relevant internal technical groups and relevant external stakeholder events.
- Undertake health and safety duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post
- Be committed to Natural Resources Wales Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy , together with an understanding of how it operates within the responsibilities of the post
- Be committed to your own development through the effective use of your personal development plan (known as Sgwrs).
- Any other reasonable duties requested commensurate with the grade of this role.
Your Qualifications, Experience, Knowledge And Skills
In your application and interview you will be asked to demonstrate the following skills and experience using the STAR method .
- Educated to degree level or equivalent in a relevant scientific discipline.
- An in-depth understanding of the relevant legislation and how it relates to the installation permitting process.
- Extensive experience of assessing complex installation permit applications or significant practical work experience of regulated process industry.
- Proven coaching and mentoring skills.
- Strong customer focussed approach to delivery.
- Track record of delivering timely optimal solutions by effective information analysis and risk-based decisions.
- Effective planning and organisation skills.
Welsh Language Level Requirements
- Essential: Level B2 - Upper intermediate level (able to discuss work matters)
Benefits
This role will offer a range of benefits, including:
- Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 28.97% (successful internal staff will remain in their current pension scheme)
- 28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days
- generous leave entitlements for all your life needs
- commitment to professional development
- health and wellbeing benefits and support
- weekly wellbeing hour to use as you choose
See full details for all the
employee benefits you will receive.
Please keep reading
If you think you have what it takes to do this role, but don't necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch and we will be happy to discuss the role with you in more detail.
We're passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from under-represented communities. We embrace
equality of opportunity irrespective of disability, neurodivergence, ethnic origin,colour, nationality, gender expression and gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation,culture,or religion. We put the principles of human rights, equality, fairness, dignity and respect at the heart of
our values .
We are committed to equal opportunities and we guarantee interviews for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
We want to attract and retain talented and highly skilled staff, so we make sure that our pay scales remain competitive. We advertise the full pay scale on our job descriptions. Appointed candidates start at the first point of the pay scale and annual increments are paid each year.
We want our staff to grow professionally and personally. From leadership development to access to further and higher education courses, our staff have opportunities to expand their knowledge on variety of topics, stay current in their field and continue to learn as their career progresses.
We are a Bilingual organisation which complies with the
Welsh Language Standards . Welsh language skills are considered an asset to NRW, and we encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills.
