Principal Consultant – Environmental and Ecological Assessment

Ricardo; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A global engineering consulting company is seeking a Principal Consultant to lead aquatic ecology projects in Manchester. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in environmental assessments, exceptional leadership skills, and a commitment to sustainability. This role offers flexible hybrid working arrangements and comprehensive benefits, including generous leave and a competitive pension.

Benefits

25 days annual leave

8 flexible bank holidays

Competitive pension scheme

Life assurance

Professional subscriptions reimbursement

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in aquatic ecology assessments in the UK water industry.
• In-depth knowledge of UK and EU Wildlife Legislation and best practices.
• Experience leading Ecological Impact Assessments and Habitats Regulations Assessments.

Responsibilities

• Lead and train a team of aquatic ecologists.
• Deliver expertise in aquatic ecology investigations across all project stages.
• Contribute to production of consents such as HRA and WFD.

Skills

Team leadership

Communication skills

Ecological impact assessment

Ecological mitigation planning

Project management

Education

First degree in relevant environmental discipline

Postgraduate degree

Job description

Overview

Role: Principal Consultant – Environmental and Ecological Assessment

Location: Manchester, UK - Hybrid

Role ID: 2025-3101

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world.

Ricardo plc is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading-edge and innovative cross-sector sustainable products and solutions. Every day, we enable our customers to solve the most complex and dynamic challenges to help achieve a safe and sustainable world.

The Role

We are looking to appoint a Principal Consultant who has extensive and relevant experience as a team leader in undertaking and reviewing aquatic ecology assessments and supporting surveys within the UK water industry.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of aquatic ecologist, supporting and training junior staff.
• With the support of your team of ecologist deliver expertise in aquatic ecology investigations across all project stages, from bidding/feasibility/optioneering, extensive field survey programming, detailed design and assessment.
• Contribute to the production of consents such as Habitats Regulations Assessments (HRA), Water Framework Directive (WFD), Drought Permits and INNS assessments as a technical author or reviewer.
• The role of Principal Consultant will require strong organisation skills and ability to communicate with colleagues and clients to deliver projects to budget and programme.
• You will work collaboratively as part of a wider team of multi-disciplinary water and environmental experts that include specialists in the fields of EIA, HRA, water resources, hydro-ecology, ground and surface water hydrology, geomorphology, water quality and natural capital.

Key Competencies and Experience

• A first degree in a relevant environmental discipline ideally with a post graduate degree.
• In depth knowledge of UK and EU Wildlife Legislation, planning policies, licensing requirements and best practice survey techniques.
• Capable at leading Ecological Impact Assessments and Habitats Regulations Assessments.
• A good understanding of WFD assessments, in particular the biological metrics and indices that inform ecological status.
• Leading, planning and co-ordinating field surveys, analysing and interpreting survey results and planning and co-ordinating ecological mitigation works.
• Demonstrable specialist knowledge in either fisheries, macroinvertebrate or macrophyte ecology preferable.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; be able to produce meticulous and accurate technical reports as well as communicate confidently with a variety of clients and stakeholders.
• Be organised with proven ability to multi-task and handle several projects simultaneously.
• Ability to manage multiple projects/proposals concurrently.

Skills and Behaviours

• A self-starter, as you’ll be part of a small, busy team. Excellent team working skills are therefore essential together with strong communication skills, sound understanding of ecological impact assessment and a close attention to detail.
• Proven technical reviewing skills.
• The ability to manage and support technical input into proposals.
• The ability to be flexible around business needs.

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.

We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on. Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

Work life balance

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We\'re happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential.

Benefits

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

Our core benefits include 25 days\' annual leave, plus 8 flexible bank holidays, a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle.

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person\'s potential, and we\'ll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are a recognised as a \'disability confident\' employer.

Next steps

Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to 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.

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