Chemical jobs in United Kingdom

A unique science specialist opportunity has become available in the Soil and Peat Science Team in Defra. Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world‑Leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people’s day‑to‑day life, from the food we eat and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.

The Strategy, Governance and Climate (SGC) Directorate, within which our team is located, works across a broad range of domains including climate mitigation and adaptation, environmental governance, and the 25‑year environment strategy. SGC has an inclusive approach to work that recognises the skills, endeavour, needs and well‑being of all our staff.

The Access, Landscapes, Peatlands and Soil (ALPS) division is within the SGC Directorate and leads on a range of policy areas for soils and peatlands, protected landscapes and access to nature. The ALPS division offers a friendly, collaborative and supportive environment in which to develop. We attach importance to what we do, as well as how we do it, by valuing learning and development and rewarding success.

The Soil and Peat Science and Evidence team supports several policy teams responsible for delivering ambitious targets set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan and Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan. Both soils and peat are recognised by the government as natural assets which deliver a range of ecosystem service benefits including flood mitigation, carbon storage and biodiversity, supporting nature recovery, and have key roles to play in meeting Defra’s environmental objectives. As a result, the scale and complexity of delivering the governments ambition makes this an exciting and high‑profile area to be working in. We are seeking a Senior Scientific Officer to join the team who has experience in soil science or a closely related discipline.

We are a small, friendly team of natural scientists whose principal role is to support the soil and peatlands policy teams by delivering scientific evidence and acting as subject matter experts to the department.

The post holder will develop, manage and deliver a range of scientific evidence and research activities that support soil and peatland policy and their contributions to Defra’s objectives. Policy must be based on the best available evidence and analysis and so it is essential that the post holder is able to critically assess the evidence available as well as effectively communicate the evidence to expert and non‑expert audiences. They must build and maintain networks with senior leadership as well as the research community, guide and advise policy as a subject matter expert, and work effectively within a larger evidence and analysis community. Scientists in this team will work alongside other evidence teams across the department and other government departments, regularly feeding into policy or contributing their knowledge on a diverse range of issues affecting soils and peat both domestically and internationally.

This role will largely focus on the soils evidence portfolio.

Soils policy is focused on improving soil health and the resilience of our soils. The science team will therefore deliver supporting evidence that considers the biological, chemical, and physical attributes of soil. Policy areas currently supported include soil health measuring and monitoring, development of robust soil health baseline data and a soil health indicator, soil mapping products, sustainable soil management, and understanding the threats to soil health and soil resilience.

The post holder will drive the delivery of research projects to fill evidence gaps. This will include commissioning of external research, scoping and developing research specifications, managing the procurement process, contract management to ensure delivery of evidence needs, managing relationships with researchers, quality assuring evidence outputs and communicating research findings to policy. The post holder will be required to work closely with a diverse range of stakeholders including other organisations in the Defra Group (Natural England, the Environment Agency, JNCC etc), academic institutions, research organisations, and third sector organisations.