Environment Agency
Waste Senior Officer - 34978
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Job Description
You will use your influencing and negotiating skills to secure best practice, often dealing with people at senior levels within industry and the local stakeholder communities.
Where necessary you will set conditions under which a site may continue to operate and enforce the law should they fail to comply. You will also respond to and investigate incidents, making sure suitable preventive and protective action is implemented.
You will demonstrate excellent technical leadership to all of our staff across a range of Waste issues. As well as regulating industry directly, you’ll put your technical leadership skills to work by helping to plan, deliver and assure the department’s work.
Everyone that joins us is required to undertake training and participate in incident response duties when the need to respond arises. Having an incident role is an essential part of working for the Environment Agency and is an active way to support communities and prevent harm to the environment. Further information on incident response can be found within your candidate pack.
Job Description
As part of a team of highly professional Waste Regulators, you will play a leading role in tackling a diverse range of environmental challenges in sectors such as Biowaste, Landfill, Deposit for Recovery, Waste Treatment and Hazardous Waste. You will also be expected to play a leading role overseeing permitted facilities requiring an enforcement response.
You will audit industrial and waste sites ensuring they comply with permitted arrangements, making complex assessments of their ability to protect the environment, prevent pollution and optimise use of resources.
You will use your influencing and negotiating skills to secure best practice, often dealing with people at senior levels within industry and the local stakeholder communities.
Where necessary you will set conditions under which a site may continue to operate and enforce the law should they fail to comply. You will also respond to and investigate incidents, making sure suitable preventive and protective action is implemented.
You will demonstrate excellent technical leadership to all of our staff across a range of Waste issues. As well as regulating industry directly, you’ll put your technical leadership skills to work by helping to plan, deliver and assure the department’s work.
Everyone that joins us is required to undertake training and participate in incident response duties when the need to respond arises. Having an incident role is an essential part of working for the Environment Agency and is an active way to support communities and prevent harm to the environment. Further information on incident response can be found within your candidate pack.
The Team
You’ll be a senior officer in one of the three Waste Teams based in the East Midlands. Together with the four Installations Teams in East Midlands, you’ll be part of a fifty strong Regulated Industry department, regulating everything from the steelworks in Scunthorpe and cement plants in the Peak District, to the power stations along the Trent Valley and all sites in between.
Experience/Skills Required
You’ll be qualified to at least degree level (or equivalent experience) in an environment-related discipline and possess the following attributes:
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- An excellent communicator with a pragmatic, solution-focused approach, you will ideally have experience of dealing with a variety of people from different backgrounds.
- Familiarity with Environmental legislation and regulations is essential; perhaps you have worked at a site we regulate or as a regulator.
- Experience of auditing, Environmental Management Systems and an understanding of how they can improve a company’s environmental performance will be needed.
- An ability to do what it takes to be an exemplar technical leader.
- An ability to develop, organise and bring to life our strategic and tactical plans.
- A track record of training people.
- Professional membership of a relevant institute is also desirable e.g. The Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (formerly IEMA) or memberships awarded by other environmental-related professional bodies.
Contact and Additional Information
Your base location will be one of the Environment Agency offices in the East Midlands area: Nottingham, Ripley, Owston Ferry, Rothley or Draycott.
You’ll be expected to travel throughout the East Midlands to inspect and audit industrial sites.
We support a hybrid method of working where a typical week will be a blend of working on-site, in the office or working at home.
Please read the Candidate / Additional Information Pack for information. Any queries, contact Jamie Bird – jamie.bird@environment-agency.gov.uk
Applications are “blind” assessed using your answers to the competency questions.
Interviews will be held in person at Trentside, Nottingham on Monday 27th July 2026.
Competence 1: Scientific Knowledge
Description
Applies scientific knowledge (various disciplines, depending on team role) to provide sound, science-based evidence to our internal and external customers.
Question
You may have worked in an industry regulated under an environmental permit and have some experience of being audited; or in carrying out internal audits yourself. Or you may have worked as an environmental auditor or regulator of an industrial sector.
Tell us about your experience and ability to carry out environmental audits to achieve compliance.
Competence 2: Manages Self
Description
Has full awareness of own strengths, weaknesses, impact and approach. Effectively organises self and takes personal responsibility for own role in the Environment Agency.
Question
Please tell us how you manage your own workload including how you identify and resource your priorities and how you ensure that work is delivered to the required standard and on time.
Competence 3: Takes Decisions and Solves Problems
Description
Finds and delivers optimal solutions by effectively analysing all the information, probing to develop alternatives and taking sound and timely decisions.
Question
Please tell us about a complex decision you have had to make and how you reached your conclusion.
- What was the issue?
- What information did you need in order to solve it?
- What made it complex?
Competence 4: Influences and Persuades Others
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Description
Presenting a case in a convincing and attractive way that will win people over, encouraging them to follow plans willingly; often succeeding where logic and reason alone would fail.
Question
Please tell us a time when you have persuaded an individual or company to achieve an outcome without the use of a regulatory tool.
Consider what techniques you used, if you adapted your style and what you learned from your approach.
Role Specific License Requirements
- Full UK driving license
If you are applying from the Civil Service please note that the Environment Agency is not a part of HM Civil Service and you would not be a Crown Servant in the event of being appointed. Therefore, you will not be eligible for continuous service. For applicants who currently work in local government or other bodies listed in the Redundancy Payments (Continuity of Employment in Local Government etc) (Modification) Order 1999, you may be eligible for continuous service for the purpose of calculating any future redundancy payment. If you are unsure of your status then you should contact your own HR Team.
We are fully committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. We welcome flexible working patterns for all our vacancies, including job share, so please include clearly any information regarding your preferred working arrangements on your application.
We also have a Guaranteed Interview Policy to support those with a disability who are seeking employment. We have committed to guaranteeing an interview to anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.
The Environment Agency, as a Non-Departmental Public Body, is committed to providing value for money and utilises Central Government frameworks and contracts for all external recruitment needs. For this reason, we are unable to engage with the market directly through post, email or phone calls. Should you wish to become a support supplier on one of these frameworks or contracts please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/become-a-crown-commercial-service-supplier/becoming-a-supplier-through-the-crown-commercial-service-what-you-need-to-know for more information.
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Although the Environment Agency is a non-departmental public body sponsored by Defra, we subscribe to and align with the candidate guidance on the use of artificial intelligence found on the Civil Service Careers website. Please review for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
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