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.  

Post background

In its unique UK role, JNCC works collaboratively with the four countries of the UK to support nature recovery. This requires a strong understanding of the developing policies and delivery mechanisms in the four countries, as well as internationally, to ensure JNCC’s evidence and advice evolves to meet the needs of each country.

JNCC is looking to appoint a Science and Policy Liaison Officer for Wales, to help shape and prioritise its activities. The post is a focal point for relationships between JNCC and Welsh bodies, primarily Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales (NRW). The post holder will enable engaging conversations and influence relevant science and strategic topics. They will facilitate continued JNCC joint working with Welsh Government and NRW and ensure that JNCC’s work meets Welsh requirements for a robust evidence base in the context of natural resource management.

The post holder will be a part of the Nature Conservation Policy and Advice Team at JNCC and will work with teams across the organisation. Specifically, they will be part of a small and collaborative project team, comprising staff holding similar liaison roles covering Northern Ireland, Scotland and England. With strong links to the JNCC Executive Leadership Team, their work builds on the networks and working groups that already exist between JNCC and country partners, with the aim of identifying new opportunities and enhancing collaborations where JNCC’s skills and expertise can support the countries in delivering their priorities. Together they provide a co-ordinated UK overview and a hub for information exchange.

The portfolio of this role is broad, requiring day-to-day engagement across a range of work areas and interacting with staff, from project level through to strategic-level interactions with senior managers, executive and non-executive leaders. We are looking for someone to join our team who thrives in a fast paced and often reactive environment, who has a passion for building relationships and engaging with partners, who is confident in posing challenges
and asking questions to fully understand requirements and perspectives, who brings good organisation and communication skills and an understanding of how scientific evidence and analysis supports the policy development cycle.

This is a critical time and new opportunities are arising as Welsh Government drives forward its policy and legislative agenda to achieve transformational change to address the inextricably linked emergencies of climate change and biodiversity loss. Help JNCC’s science and evidence be at the heart of this.

Job description

Post Duties 

The post holder will be at the forefront of promoting JNCC’s capabilities in Wales and identifying opportunities for collaborative working with Welsh Government and NRW. They will liaise with individuals to develop a better understanding of their priorities, spotting opportunities and connections, conveying the work of JNCC, ensuring JNCC’s skills, experience and outputs are exploited to maximum effect, and generally building and maintaining relationships.
The main duties of the post are to:

• Maintain, and further develop where beneficial, the strong working relationships between JNCC and Welsh bodies (principally Welsh Government and NRW). This will involve, but is not limited to, building and managing relationships with key individuals; becoming established as a key and trusted point of contact for developing relationships and helping to establish collaboration where there is no pre-existing JNCC contact point; ensuring communications and information flows between JNCC and Welsh Government and NRW are effective and resilient; representing JNCC in various country and UK-level fora;

• Provide briefings to senior staff and Executive Leaders and advise on key areas for their consideration in meetings with partners.

• Maintain Welsh Government and NRW’s awareness of JNCC’s work and its strengths. Increase their understanding of the context of JNCC’s work in terms of the position of the work in Northern Ireland, Scotland and England, and the benefits it brings or could bring to Wales.

• Maintain an overview of joint working and collaboration between JNCC and Wales. Identify where JNCC might add value and make relevant teams in Welsh Government and NRW aware of the opportunity. Support JNCC teams in tailoring and promoting their work to meet Wales’s needs. Facilitate the establishment of projects funded directly by Welsh Government through a Section 83 agreement.

• Maintain an in-depth knowledge and understanding of Wales’s environmental policy, including implementation, with an emphasis on proposed changes or new developments; show where JNCC’s work contributes to both the Welsh Government’s and NRW’s priorities, identifying where developing policies and plans provide drivers for the provision of JNCC’s evidence and advice.

• Communicate effectively within JNCC. Make information on Wales-related policies available in a clear and simple format, and brief and advise JNCC Executive Leadership Team and team leaders.

• Support the NCPA Team’s wider work on UK co-ordination and engagement. For example, this may include managing secretariat services for joint UK groups, supporting implementation across the UK of the Global Biodiversity Framework and helping make links between Welsh bodies and organisations on topics of common interest.

• Play an active part in JNCC’s Engagement, Legislation and Policy project in JNCC’s Nature Conservation Policy and Advice Team, in order to collaborate with colleagues in similar roles in Northern Ireland, Scotland and England, to strengthen JNCC’s joint working and information flows within the four countries of the UK.

The post holder will be line managed from JNCC’s Nature Conservation Policy and Advice Team and will receive support from NRW and Welsh Government colleagues. You will be expected to work independently as well as part of a team. You will be self-motivated with excellent communication, planning and organisation skills with the ability to manage a busy workload and respond quickly to a range of tasks. Depending on the needs of the team, there may be a requirement to line manage other staff or interns.

Person specification

To be a successful candidate you will have the Technical and Experience stated in the Job description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,320, Joint Nature Conservation Committee contributes £10,346 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. .

Please use the STARR technique in the Behaviours section of the application only.

• 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.