About the job

Job summary

Do you want to play an important role in the management of the marine environment and the sustainable delivery of marine renewables?

 

OCTOBER START DATE

The Scottish Government is preparing for the implementation of a new HR and Finance platform and, as a result, some job offers will be subject to an October 2024 start date at the earliest. This will be confirmed as your application progresses.

The Compensatory Measures and Nature Positive Science Lead post will be pivotal in ensuring that strategic compensation and nature positive outcomes that may be required for offshore wind and other marine renewables are informed by the best available scientific evidence.

This role will involve close liaison with policy and consenting colleagues across the Marine (MD) and Offshore Wind (OWD) Directorates, and a collaborative approach with both internal and external stakeholders, and potential delivery partners. The post will maintain and enhance relationships with statutory nature conservation bodies, industry, academia and environmental Non-Governmental Organisations. Of particular focus will be working closely with the MD’s Licensing Operations Team, Marine Enhancement Programme and specialist scientists from multiple delivery areas, and with the OWD’s Sectoral Marine Planning Team. An important component of the post is ensuring that high quality science advice to inform policy development, project level and strategic compensation measures in relation to derogations under the habitats regulations, and the delivery of nature positive outcomes.

 

The post holder will maintain a thorough understanding of the policy and regulatory requirements relating to compensatory measures and nature positive outcomes proactively engaging with receptor experts (marine mammals, seabirds, benthic, marine fish, fisheries, diadromous fish, oceanography) and other initiatives such as the Scottish Seabird Conservation Strategy, the Marine Recovery Fund, and Scottish Government’s Joint Environmental Acceleration Programme to identify opportunities and risks to the efficient and effective delivery of compensatory measures and marine enhancement. They will take the science lead on driving forward understanding of delivery of compensatory measures and nature positive outcomes in response to marine renewable developments.

 

Whilst we anticipate the role will be focussed on issues related to offshore wind, we operate a flexible resourcing policy within the Marine Directorate and as such the post-holder may be required to work on other areas of high priority work as required.

Job description

• Be the science lead within Scottish Government for project and plan (strategic) level compensatory measures that might be required for offshore wind farm development under habitats regulations derogation.
• Lead the science input from Scottish Government to help ensure that any Marine Recovery Fund that is established can effectively offset the adverse environmental effects of offshore wind farm developments through delivering strategic compensation from an agreed library of measures.
• Working with colleagues from policy and consenting, support the sustainable delivery of ScotWind and INTOG and the enhancement of the marine environment and delivery of our biodiversity targets.
• Be the lead point of contact between scientists in the Marine Directorate and policy, planning and consenting colleagues in Marine Directorate and the Offshore Wind Directorate for matters relating to strategic compensatory measures.
• Maintain and further develop constructive collaborative relationships with key external stakeholders including statutory nature conservation bodies, industry, academia, asset managers, and environmental Non-Governmental Organisations.
• The position may include people and delivery management.

Person specification

• A thorough understanding of the marine environment, the potential impacts of anthropogenic activities upon key marine ecological receptors, and the associated environmental regulations.
• Experience of working closely with policy or licensing, ensuring that scientific and technical advice and outputs are communicated in an accessible manner and have real world and applied relevance.
• Proven ability of leading across multiple areas of specialism, stimulating collaborative approaches with internal and external partners to address complex technical or scientific challenges.

• The ability to work independently with excellent organisational and communication skills

Benefits

• 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 average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

To be confirmed

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

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.