Consultant – Water Quality & Management

RICARDO ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT; Bristol; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading environmental consultancy in Bristol is seeking a Consultant – Water to join their team. The ideal candidate will possess 1–2 years of experience in aquatic environmental consultancy and a good understanding of the UK water industry. Responsibilities include coordinating environmental impact assessments and supporting project delivery. This role provides flexibility with hybrid working arrangements and a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Physical and mental health benefits

Inclusive workplace culture

Qualifications

• 1–2 years’ experience in an aquatic environmental consultancy role.
• Understanding of the UK water industry and its regulation.
• Experience reviewing and interpreting water quality datasets.

Responsibilities

• Support pollution incident response coordination.
• Data collation and analysis using Excel and GIS.
• Technical support on complex projects and proposals.

Skills

Excellent organizational skills

Good collaborative team working

Strong communication skills

Excellent report writing

Attention to detail

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant subject

Postgraduate degree in a relevant subject

Tools

Excel

GIS packages (such as ArcGIS and QGIS)

Job description

Overview

Role: Consultant – Water (Environmental) | Location: Bristol - Hybrid | Salary range: £30,000 - £36,000 | Role ID: 2025-3064

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world. Ricardo plc is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company, listed on the London Stock Exchange. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide expertise in delivering cross‑sector sustainable products and solutions. We enable our customers to solve complex challenges to help achieve a safe and sustainable world.

We are looking for a Consultant to join our Water team based in our Bristol office. Ideally, you will have 1–2 years’ experience in an aquatic environmental consultancy role, a good understanding of the UK water industry and its regulation, and experience in one or more water-related technical disciplines such as water resources, water management, or water quality. You will work with project managers and technical experts to support the delivery of projects in our water, ecology and environmental impact assessment teams, with the opportunity to collaborate with other parts of the business to develop projects where water expertise complements other environmental assessments.

Responsibilities

• Support the co-ordination of pollution incident response and environmental impact assessment projects.
• Data collation, processing, analysis, interpretation and visualisation using Excel and GIS.
• Desk studies, literature reviews, option appraisals, impact assessment and reporting.
• Support the technical lead on complex projects and proposals.
• Project co-ordination and management.

Key competencies and experience

• Bachelors (2.1 or above) and ideally a postgraduate degree in a relevant subject.
• Understanding of the UK water industry and its regulation.
• Thorough experience of using Excel and GIS packages (such as ArcGIS and QGIS).
• Experience of reviewing and interpreting water quality datasets, with excellent analytical skills.
• Effective report writing skills.
• Ability to fault find and problem solve in challenging environments.
• Effective time management skills.
• Willingness to learn from contributing to a broad range of fieldwork and office-based tasks.
• A full UK driver’s licence.

Skills and behaviours

• Essential: Excellent organisational skills.
• Essential: Good collaborative team working and strong communication skills.
• Essential: Excellent report writing and close attention to detail.
• Essential: Ability to manage and prioritise workload.
• Essential: Effective stakeholder liaison skills, including keeping others up to date with progress.
• Essential: Ability to manage and work to tight project deadlines and under pressure.
• Essential: Ability to support technical input into proposals.
• Essential: Ambitious, enthusiastic and self-motivated to thrive in this busy and demanding environment.
• Essential: Self-organized.
• Desirable: Some knowledge, experience or interest in water quality (freshwater and/or marine), aquatic ecology sampling, water chemistry and water demand management and efficiency.
• Desirable: Fieldwork experience.
• Desirable: Water safety training (to be provided).
• Desirable: Client facing experience.

Working here

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place and to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on, delivering innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

Work life balance

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether you are working from home, in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We are happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core of our culture, enabling employees to flourish and achieve their full potential.

Benefits

We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that, including a range of benefits which support your physical and mental health.

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we strive to empower every person. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach and believe a more diverse workforce creates a richer workplace and better service for clients. We are recognised as a Disability Confident employer.

Next steps

After you submit your application, a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Timings may vary depending on application volume, and we may begin reviewing applications before the closing date. Ricardo is a Disability Confident employer; please advise the recruitment team via [e-mail] if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.