6908 - Freshwater Senior Officer - Worthing

Natural England; Worthing; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

Natural England is seeking a Freshwater Senior Officer to lead freshwater recovery work in the Sussex & Kent area. The role requires strategic leadership, collaboration with partners, and a drive to improve water outcomes to support nature recovery at scale.

The role emphasizes advisory expertise on freshwater policies, ability to coordinate across internal teams, and mentoring staff while working with stakeholders in Environment Agency, Water Companies, and Local Authorities.

Qualifications

• Requires relevant degree or equivalent qualification.
• Strong knowledge of freshwater ecology and designated freshwater sites would be advantageous.
• Ability to provide high‑quality advice to customers and partners.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership for freshwater recovery work and a strategic approach to water environments.
• Engage with partners (Environment Agency, Water Companies, Local Authorities) to maximise joined‑up work.
• Manage and mentor team members, building capability in water advice and resilience.
• Travel regularly across Sussex and Kent to visit sites and coordinate with stakeholders.

Skills

Organisational skills

Communication skills

Stakeholder engagement

People development

Education

Degree or equivalent qualification

Job description

6908 - Freshwater Senior Officer - Worthing

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

• 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 Team

Sussex & Kent area team are looking for a Freshwater Senior Officer to lead our freshwater nature recovery work, who will play an important strategic leadership role, working to reduce key pressures to enable nature recovery. With the principal aim to help our deliver against the Environment Improvement Plan (EIP) commitment to ensure 50% of SSSI features are on track to achieve favourable condition by 2030.

The Role

As a Senior Officer you will fulfil a key leadership role and will be expected to be a role model for Natural England’s ways of working and help drive the changes needed to deliver Natural England’s Strategy. The role holder will have experience of statutory freshwater delivery work, and knowledge of current European and UK policies and legislative frameworks for the water environment and have a drive to work in collaboration internally and with external partners.

The role requires strong organisational and communication skills, and experience of motivating, supporting, or developing others and experience of working with partners. Regular travel across Sussex and Kent is required to meet colleagues, visit sites. You will work closely with partners and stakeholders providing strategic engagement and relationship management – This will include Environment Agency, Water Companies, Local Authorities and wider water stakeholders, including the general public.

The role will sit within our Resilient Landscapes and Seas team alongside our Protected Sites colleagues and is an exciting opportunity to deliver a real difference for nature recovery. The post holder will work closely with other senior and principal officers to contribute to the Area Team’s Nature Recovery ambitions.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

• Provide oversight and direction of the team’s engagement and input into Strategic Water and drought Planning.
• Taking an ecosystem and hydro-ecological process approach to identify and secure opportunities to address the challenges affecting our water environment e.g. climate change, drought, flooding, abstraction, pollution.
• Strategic engagement and relationship management of key partners (such as the Environment Agency, Water Companies, Local Planning Authorities, stakeholder groups and organisations) to maximise joined up and effective delivery of opportunities.
• Work with colleagues from across the organisation, both local and national, and lead on technical input into major water projects and/or casework including Discretionary Advice Services and RAPID schemes.
• Provide risk oversight and act as the escalation point for freshwater related high‑risk casework in the area team in accordance with NE’s schemes of delegation.
• Work with all our work areas (e.g. protected sites, integrated farm advice, sustainable development and marine) and support our Officers to deliver water outcomes across all our work to ultimately deliver nature recovery at scale.
• Provide technical input where possible/relevant into Protected Sites Strategies and upcoming development in the area.
• Provide mentoring and training to grow the capability and capacity of our teams to provide technical water advice and create resilience in this work area.

Relevant degree or equivalent qualification and experience.A good knowledge of freshwater ecology, priority habitats, species and protected freshwater sites regulatory mechanisms.This role requires the ability to provide high‑quality advice to customers and partners. The role holder must be able to communicate clearly, both verbally and in writingExperience of building pragmatic working relationships with partners and stakeholders.Strong experience of applied knowledge and evidence of providing expert advice to customers and stakeholders, ideally relevant to protected sites with freshwater features.Strong knowledge of current European and domestic policies, legislative frameworks combined with a practical understanding of designated sites and the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders.Effective communication and collaboration abilities to identify and implement opportunities to improve ways of working and support internal and external relationships.Experience of supporting team members knowledge and building experience to aid staff to deliver on key strategic objectives.