About the job

Job summary

Why JNCC?

We’re small enough (c.300 staff) that your voice is heard by everyone including the CEO, but big enough that we have all the skills, resources and people you’ll need to get the job done. All our staff are passionate about conservation and making a difference to the world we live in. We have a very flexible, inclusive and welcoming organisational culture. Our Executive Management provides employees with the freedom and tools you will need, and our friendly team will assist you in your role. JNCC is committed to maintaining employee health and wellbeing, whether it is physically, emotionally, financially or socially, and offers a range of benefits to support employees in this. Such benefits include the option to join the Civil Service Pension Scheme, professional and personal development opportunities as well as an exciting job in a unique environment.

Short Summary

The Marine Support Officer will work in the Marine Evidence team and also provide support to the Marine Monitoring team.
These teams cover a range of activities including organising offshore seabed surveys, improving access to and managing marine biological and protected area data, understanding human impacts on the marine environment and providing expert advice to national and international fora. The teams interact with several other JNCC marine teams and work closely with the Data and Digital Solutions team to develop and improve data products. The post holder will work with these teams to improve data access and delivery.

Job description

The Marine Support Officer will provide scientific administration and technical support to the Marine Evidence and Marine Monitoring teams. This post will assist other Support Officers and the Data and Digital Solutions team to manage, manipulate and map a range of different temporal, spatial and tabular data. The main duties are set out below:

• Benthic survey data management – Assist with the management of marine data, including:
  
  Data management and metadata cataloguing of incoming datasets in accordance with the benthic survey data ingestion protocol;
  
  Assist with the ongoing organisation of third-party data, including ascertaining usage permissions;
  
  Assist with the external storage and publication of survey datasets (e.g. Data Archive Centres);
  
  Run periodic reports to summarise UK marine data, including the formation of maps using GIS applications;

• Offshore seabed survey support – Contribute to planning of MPA monitoring surveys including:
  
  Assist survey planning leads in developing plans for offshore MPA monitoring surveys with partners including Cefas and Marine Scotland Science by preparing and managing survey data packages for internal and external use;
  
  Support the provision of seabed samples (e.g. taxonomic reference collections, genomic and carbon sub-samples) to museums and other partners;
  
  Update offshore seabed survey webpages as and when required e.g. following surveys, report publication;
  
  Promote JNCC’s work by publicising reports and surveys and through presence at conferences etc.

• Other support work – Contribute to other aspects of the team’s work as required and to improve the team’s flexibility and resilience, including taking minutes and organising meetings.

Person specification

Please demonstrate in your statement of suitability your reasons for applying.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £24,735, Joint Nature Conservation Committee contributes £6,679 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a statement of suitability. In your statement, refer to the responsibilities and experience section of this advert to show how you’re suitable for the role.

Please use the STARR technique

• Situation: Set the stage. 
• Task: Explain where you fit in. 
• Action: Describe each step. 
• Results: Impress with your achievements.
• Reflection: what have you learned 

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.