Natural England
NCEA Higher Data Scientist - ( Ref : 6763 )
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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
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.
- 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
The Role
An exciting opportunity to join this ambitious and pioneering project delivering England’s biggest ever field data collection survey and releasing the resulting data into the public domain.
The England Ecosystem Survey (EES) is the ‘jewel in the crown’ of Defra’s Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment programme (NCEA) programme – part of the Government’s Major Projects Portfolio. The project will deliver a comprehensive assessment of England’s ecosystems, bringing together data on soils, vegetation and landscape features. This role will provide project support to the wider EES project team by assisting other lead and senior advisers with GI desk studies linked to the field data collection element of EES. The role holder will lead on cleansing the EES datasets, a key task before publishing and data analysis can take place.
Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities
- Present data in suitable form for a variety of customers and partners including ArcGIS Online and have analytical ability
- Cleaning the Vegetation & Landscape and Soils datasets prior to data publication.
- Design and implement dashboards for data visualisation and reporting.
- Carry out terrestrial data & spatial analyses as required to support project commissions for the NCEA programme
- Follow project data standards, processes and systems to ensure delivery of high-quality outcomes to internal and external customers.
- Carry out GI related work to support other work areas as required by the team e.g. data management and licensing.
- The successful candidate will be required to show flexibility in managing and adapting to other work should team priorities or resources change.
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Knowledge, Skills & Experience
- Proficient in using of Geographic Information Systems (ArcGIS or QGIS) to perform spatial analysis of vector datasets, create and manage geospatial data, and produce high-quality, publication-ready maps.
- Experienced in transforming data, including integrating different data types (e.g. spatial and non-spatial) and from different data sources.
- Good data management skills, data validation and awareness of current data standards and legislative drivers for handling data (e.g. metadata standards, INSPIRE, UK GEMINI 2).
- Knowledge of data sharing and presentation of spatial data through ArcGIS Online.
- Proficient in at least one programming language (R or Python) and experience in using it for GIS analysis and data cleaning.
- Working knowledge of Survey123 and Survey123 Connect for data collection and integration.
- Knowledge of Web App and Experience Builder for creating interactive web applications.
- Experienced with using GitHub, including the ability to manage branching and merging, and creating concise documentation for scripts.
- Soil knowledge (desirable) to support interpretation and analysis of soil-related datasets.
- Experience with using GIS in the context of environmental surveys.
- Awareness with a range of statistical analysis techniques and applications or willingness to develop these skills. Awareness of the Statistics Code of Practice.
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 one day for each year of service up to 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.
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.
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View a map of our office locations here: online map of Natural England office locations.
Pay
It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.
Please note: Licensed visa sponsoring organisations are employers authorised by the government to recruit and sponsor overseas workers, enabling them to obtain the appropriate visa to work legally in the country. Natural England is NOT a licensed sponsorship employer.
As part of the Natural England’s application process, candidates are asked to confirm their right to work and remain in the UK. If a candidate says that they meet these requirements, ID is checked, a provisional offer of permanent employment is made and pre-employment eligibility checks commence. Only after these checks are candidates given firm offers of employment.
Natural England is unable to employ individuals who cannot provide the required evidence of their right to work.
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. Please be aware that we reserve the right for roles that receive a high volume of applications to initially sift applications for one competence only.
Technical Skills & 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.
Competencies
Competence 1
Professional competency
Detail
Technical Skills & Knowledge
- Proficient in using of Geographic Information Systems (ArcGIS or QGIS) to perform spatial analysis of vector datasets, create and manage geospatial data, and produce high-
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