Post background: JNCC has been at the forefront of improving our understanding of how the marine environment functions for over 25 years. Our marine ecosystem Research &Development (R&D) work and scientific advice work underpins the UK government’s need to understand the effectiveness of marine nature conservation policies and the impact of human activities and environmental pressures to changes to marine ecosystem condition, and in particular benthic habitats. Our staff lead scientific expert groups at both national and international levels, developing innovative tools, indicators, and methodologies for monitoring, measuring, and assessing biodiversity across multiple scales. This ranges from creating indicators methods for marine protected areas in the UK Overseas Territories to modelling environmental changes at regional sea levels, such as in the Greater North Sea. Our work involves collaborating with international experts to develop scientific guidance and advanced statistical approaches that promote actions to recover and conserve marine biodiversity within a sustainable blue economy. This includes considering climate change mitigation and adaptation needs and informing management decisions for biodiversity recovery and restoration, as well as implementing Nature-Based Solutions We are seeking a highly motivated Senior Marine Scientist to support or lead the development of scientific products and deliver a research and development (R&D) programme aimed at advancing our understanding of marine ecosystem health. This role will focus on assessing changes driven by human impacts and climate-related drivers, including the development of benthic indicators, predictive modelling tools, and statistical methods for data integration. The successful candidate will play a key role in an exciting and evolving area of work, including: • Operationalising benthic habitat indicators for a range of policy applications. • Developing scientific products for the OSPAR Intermediate Assessment 2029. • Implementing tasks under the North East Atlantic Environmental Strategy. • Supporting R&D to build capacity for assessing the condition of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the UK Overseas Territories Post Duties: • Lead and manage data analysis and method development for biodiversity indicators and targets in OSPAR, UK Overseas Territories and other international areas to assess the status and trends of marine ecosystems and their associated ecosystem services, ensuring alignment with government and funder priorities. • Develop predictive models to forecast environmental change, support comprehensive ecosystem assessments, and evaluate trade-offs between management options and environmental scenarios. • Support or lead the development of technical products for international initiatives, such OSPAR implementation tasks on restoration of critical habitats and NbS and projects related to the UK Small Island Developing States strategy/Sustainable Blue Economies. • Collaborate with international scientific experts to agree on deliverables for the OSPAR Intermediate Assessment 2029, and other evidence products under the Blue Belt programme. • Maintain and promote common standards and best practice guidance for assessing marine habitats and ecosystems within the UK and internationally. • Identify and pursue external funding opportunities to support international research and development in marine ecosystem assessment. • Provide administrative support essential for the effective delivery of projects. • Contribute to the wider work of the team and JNCC, including providing technical input and delivering technical outputs as required. • Integrate Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) principles and safeguarding considerations into project design and delivery, ensuring inclusive engagement and protection of vulnerable groups in all activities. Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme Disability Confident About Disability Confident A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .