Natural England
Nature Restoration Fund Data Senior (Ref: 6656)
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East Midlands (England), East of England, London (region), North East England, North West England, South East England, South West England, West Midlands (England), Yorkshire and the Humber
Job Summary
This position is based Nationally
Job Description
Key tasks and accountabilities
- Lead NRF data management internally for NRF project, utilising the wider organisation and external sources.
- Lead data licencing with support from the relevant workstreams and data team.
- Lead and undertake data analysis tasks.
- Work with the wider team to ensure correct maintenance of data assets and classification.
- Ensure data policies align with legal and regulatory requirements and generate reports on data compliance and risk, where required.
- Identify opportunities for improvement and creation of procedures, frameworks.
- Work with the wider team to ensure correct maintenance of data assets and classification.
Skills And Knowledge
- Applies scientific/analysis knowledge to provide sound, data-based evidence to our internal and external stakeholders
- Good IT data analysis skills
- Demonstrate an ability to lead within a certain area that supports change, embraces challenge and adapts work practices to positively contribute to the Nature Restoration Fund outcomes.
- Data management and analysis skills including:
- Designing and deploying and maintaining databases relational and spatial databases (e.g. PostgreSQL/ PostGIS)
- Developing and optimising ETL workflows for data integration (e.g. Python, SQL)
- Knowledge of and experience implementing data, metadata and ethics standards
- Developing and maintaining metadata, validation and quality assurance systems
- Experience with cloud integration of data management systems (desirable), data extraction/ingestion and preparation, exploratory data analysis, and data visualization, including through dashboards and web mapping platforms.
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 1 day for each year served to a maximum of 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.
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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: 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:
Technical skills and knowledge
Personal Effectiveness
Work Delivery
Putting People at the Heart of the Environment
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.
The team
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.
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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
We’re looking for motivated team players to join a unique, high-profile cross-Government Funding Programme — the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF). You’ll be part of a fast paced, supportive and creative team committed to influencing policy that will help to deliver sustainable growth and meaningful nature recovery.
The NRF is designed to accelerate development while introducing innovative mechanisms that can extend significant and targeted environmental protection that drives nature’s recovery. It will offer a flexible, scalable approach to delivering environmental improvements where development impacts protected sites or species. Through Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs), the NRF will identify strategic, landscape-scale conservation measures to ensure better outcomes for nature.
The pace is fast, the challenges are significant, and adaptability is key — but the opportunity to contribute to this ambitious programme is hugely rewarding. We are a supportive and caring team that champions collaborative, agile working, bold ambition, and fresh, innovative thinking. If this sounds like the kind of environment you thrive in, we’d love to hear from you.
Please note that due to the nature of the role, part-time working arrangements are only available at a minimum of 29.6 hours per week, spread across four days.
Competence 1 - Professional competency
Detail
Technical skills and knowledge
Description
Applies scientific/analysis knowledge to provide sound, data-based evidence to our internal and external stakeholders.
Data Management And Analysis Skills Including:
- Designing and deploying and maintaining databases relational and spatial databases (e.g. PostgreSQL/ PostGIS)
- Developing and optimising Eills TL workflows for data integration (e.g. Python, SQL)
- Knowledge of and experience implementing data, metadata and ethics standards,
- Developing and maintaining metadata, validation and quality assurance systems
- Experience with cloud integration of data management systems (desirable)data extraction/ingestion and preparation, exploratory data analysis, and data visualization, including through dashboards and web mapping platforms.
Competence 2 - Professional competency
Detail
Personal Effectiveness
Description
- Use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques that engage your audience (Practitioner)
- Make and explain objective decisions which combine your professional judgement and evidence (Expert)
Competence 3 - Professional competency
Detail
Work Delivery
Description
- Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines (Expert)
- Handle data responsibly, understand your role in good governance, and comply with delegations, policies and procedures (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 -
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Skills
Location