About the job Job summary This position is based Nationally Job description Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society. Our Role Natural England is the Government's adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others. Strategic Outcomes for Nature Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature. Recovering Nature - Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives. Building Better Places - Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us. Improving Health and Wellbeing - Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live. Delivering Security through Nature - Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air. Find out more about the work of Natural England at: Natural England's Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK The Role This role will lead and support delivery of a range of Earth Observation (EO) projects, and the wider development of EO skills in the team and across Natural England. A wide breadth of EO work is undertaken, including drone data capture and processing, monitoring dynamic coastlines, wildfire mapping and habitat mapping. This work is undertaken using data from drone, manned aircraft and satellite platforms, from a range of different sensors such as Aerial Photography, Multispectral, LIDAR and RADAR. We are seeking a EO analyst for this position, with significant capability in applying EO techniques. The role will support delivery of a range of EO projects, and the wider development of EO skills in the team and across Natural England. Initially the post- holder will be involved in and help lead a variety of projects to support Natural England's objectives. These may include analysis of sand dunes and coastal habitats, monitoring geomorphological change or moorland change and developing projects with other teams on the use of drones, manned aircraft and satellites, such as for agri-environment monitoring. The role may also encompass providing technical advice and support in relation to NE's Enforcement work, to include analysing and evaluating data and producing evidence to support enforcement appeals, enforcement notices and court cases. This could involve providing written witness statements and verbal evidence to help the court understand complex or technical issues. Job description Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities The post holder will: Lead EO projects - Through reporting on project progress, helping to design projects, functionally lead work and if required oversee equipment / software resources and financial aspects. Contribute to EO Analysis. Develop and run EO analysis, including through data acquisition, handling, manipulation, integration, and analysis using a variety of tools including standard EO software, R and Python scripting, including AI techniques, on different platforms including cloud computing environments. Maintain and develop relationships with customers and partners. Engage with partners and end users to share knowledge on EO approaches and products, build partnerships on common problems and understand customer needs for EO data products/support. Support capability building, documentation and quality assurance. Work to help build and deliver technical skills training and create reproducible analytical pipelines and standardised products. Including through documentation of methods and quality assurance approaches. Knowledge, Skills & Experience Planning, prioritisation, and organisational ability to manage project delivery, with competing demands. Good experience in using Earth Observation in an environmental context. Ability to demonstrate good experience with a range of EO Sensors/Platforms. Ability to demonstrate confident use of a range of GIS and EO software. Experience in coding in Python and/or R. Preferably with experience in AI techniques like Machine Learning and/or Deep Learning with EO data. Ability to consider the identify the best techniques for monitoring features, through understanding the benefits and limitations to those techniques. Knowledge and understanding of good practices for data ethics, data governance and quality assurance. The ability to build collaborative relationships with colleagues to help make things happen and deliver outcomes. The ability to resolve problems and manage risks with good judgement and seek innovative solutions. Excellent written and oral communications skills. Benefits At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements. We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering. You'll receive a generous leave allowance of 25 days per year (pro rata), increasing by one day for each year of service up to 30 days (pro-rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events. We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported. Locations Natural England has adopted hybrid working - which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours. Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office. National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area. View a map of our office locations here: online map of Natural England office locations. Pay It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range. How to Apply We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview. If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments. This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process. Please be aware that we reserve the right for roles that receive a high volume of applications to initially sift applications for one competence only. Technical Skills and Knowledge Creating Resilient Landscapes and Seas Work Delivery Personal Effectiveness When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your Action. Please note that STAR format is not required when answering the Technical Skills & Knowledge competency. Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency. If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all competencies as set out in the Job Description. As with all roles in NE, these roles require office attendance of a minimum of 20% of the working time - one day per week for those who work full time, subject to any reasonable adjustments and/or existing contractual homeworking. Competencies Competence 1 Professional competency Detail Technical Skills & Knowledge Description Earth observation/Remote Sensing qualification at Masters level or equivalent experience. (Essential) • Good experience of using and analysing data from a range of EO sensors and platforms; such as drone Aerial Photography, Multispectral and Thermal data, Manned Aircraft based Aerial Photography, Multispectral and LIDAR data and Optical/Radar Satellites like Copernicus Sentinels 1 & 2, World View, Planet data and ALOS. (Essential) • Confident in the use of a range of GIS and EO analysis tools (such as ArcGIS Pro/ArcGIS Online/QGIS, ERDAS Imagine, eCognition, R and/or Python) to visualise, manipulate and transform Earth Observation data. Preferably with experience in using AI techniques like Machine Learning and/or Deep Learning with EO data. (Essential) • Good technical experience of using EO techniques in natural environment applications such as land cover and habitat classification, land cover change detection, in terrestrial and/or marine environments. (Essential) Competence 2 Professional competency Detail Creating Resilient Landscapes & Seas Description Use and contribute to the evidence base on environmental and landscape change to support resilient landscapes and seascapes. (Practitioner) Competence 3 Professional competency Detail Work Delivery Description Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines. (Practitioner) • Identify and apply the most appropriate data and methodologies for your analysis, utilising reproducible analytical pipelines and data science approaches where appropriate. (Practitioner) Competence 4 Professional competency Detail Personal Effectiveness Description Proactively communicate and present your data, evidence and analyses in ways that meet people's needs so they can understand its implications and use it effectively to deliver positive outcomes for the environment. (Practitioner) • Share expertise and knowledge with people and networks so that you can develop together. (Basic) Contact information Jonathan Brownett, jonathan.brownett@naturalengland.org.uk, 07917 720119 Rebecca Jackson-Pitt, rebecca.jackson-pitt@naturalengland.org.uk, 07795 126337 Helen Trapp, helen.trapp@naturalengland.org.uk, 07768 570148 Person specification Please refer to Job Description Benefits Alongside your salary of £32,240, Natural England contributes £9,339 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. Learning and development tailored to your role An environment with flexible working options A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% Things you need to know Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use. Selection process details Please refer to Job Description Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. Security Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks. Nationality requirements This job is broadly open to the following groups: UK nationals nationals of the Republic of Ireland nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window) nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020 Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window) Working for the Civil Service The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. Diversity and Inclusion The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window). Apply and further information The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window). Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. Contact point for applicants Job contact : Name : Jonathan Brownett Email : jonathan.brownett@naturalentgland.org.uk Telephone : 07917 720119 Recruitment team Email : defra-recruitment-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk Further information https://networkrecruitment.tal.net/vx/appcentre-7/brand-4/spa-1/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/8/opp/6585-6585-Higher-Data-Scientist-Earth-Observation-Analyst/en-GB