6886 - Senior Data Scientist - National

Natural England; National (WA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 134,000; Full time

Job summary

Natural England seeks a lead data analyst to drive the National Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA). You will oversee analytical programmes, integrating Earth Observation, field data, citizen science and partner datasets to inform environmental decisions at national and local levels.

The role requires strong Python/R skills, GIS expertise (ArcGIS/QGIS), and experience in ML/DL, data standards and reproducibility, with collaboration across NE, Defra and external partners.

Qualifications

• Experience leading analytical and data programmes.
• Proficiency in Python and R for data analysis.
• Strong GIS capabilities (ArcGIS, ArcGIS Online, QGIS).
• Experience with machine learning/deep learning techniques.
• Ability to manage stakeholder expectations and deliver robust evidence.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and delivery of analytical and data programmes to support strategic objectives.
• Ensure data quality and appropriate use of data and uncertainty in analyses.
• Oversee teams and complex data/spatial analyses for stakeholders.
• Establish data standards, documentation, and automation to ensure reproducibility.
• Engage with customers and partners to identify new project opportunities and funding.
• Build capability within the team and liaise with partner networks.

Skills

Data analysis

Python

R

GIS software

ArcGIS / ArcGIS Online

QGIS

Machine Learning / Deep Learning

Stakeholder engagement

Project planning

Team leadership

Data visualization

APIs

Tools

ArcGIS

ArcGIS Online

QGIS

APIs

Databases

Job description

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

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving 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 Role

The Team is responsible for delivering Natural England’s part of the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA).

The NCEA is a transformative programme to understand the extent, condition and change over time of environmental assets across England's land and water environments, supporting the government’s ambition to improve the environment within a generation. Data will come from Earth Observation, professional field data collection, citizen science and partner data sets.

Natural England’s NCEA is organised into projects:

• Mapping and Earth Observation – Spatial data and maps on natural capital to inform national and local decision making and delivery.
• England Peat Map – Mapping the extent and condition of England’s peatlands.
• Field data collection – Data on habitats, soils, landscapes and species to understand the condition of natural capital assets.
• Citizen Science – Working with citizens and community science to fill gaps, provide local and landscape scale information and engaging the public.
• Data Engagement and Analysis - Making NCEA, partner and volunteer data available for analysis, integration, and use. Producing high quality evidence products by analysing and integration NCEA data.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

To lead the development and delivery of robust analytical and data programmes and projects to increase efficiency and provide improved evidence to support the organisation’s strategic objectives. To apply specialist skills and domain expertise to identify opportunities for data science to improve the evidence base to support the organisation’s strategic objectives. To ensure quality and promote appropriate use of data and analysis (including uncertainty) to minimise risk and increase robustness of evidence underpinning advice, decision-making and delivery

• Oversee small teams and programmes of work / lead, oversee and carry out complex data and spatial analyses to meet the evidence needs of a variety of Natural England, Defra group and other stakeholders.
• Put in place project data standards, processes and systems to ensure outputs are high-quality and robust (including through good documentation and automation) so that customer decisions and advice can be based on sound evidence and outputs can be reproduced.
• Understand organisational objectives and engage with business planning processes to provide technical intel and assist with prioritisation and scoping of projects and programmes.
• Liaise with project managers and teams to establish project planning and resourcing so that projects are delivered efficiently, with appropriate resource and capability, to a high standard, and progress, risks and issues can be monitored.
• Engage with customers and partners to identify and exploit opportunities for new or revised projects (inc use of new technologies), or for bringing together projects into programmes of work, which will improve the evidence base, improve efficiency, build capability or generate funding.
• Build capability in others in the team and across NE (as appropriate) to enable effective delivery and support resilience to absence and change.
• Liaise with relevant partners/authorities/professional networks to understand and interpret advice, standards and best practice for relevant application in NE.
• People leadership skills / experience in either a functional or line management context
• Experience of planning and leading the delivery of projects
• Data analysis skills relevant to specific role – this would usually include:
• o data extraction/ingestion and preparation, exploratory data analysis, and data visualisation
• o working with a range of large scale spatial and non-spatial data types in both structured and unstructured formats
• o experience working with (preferably combining) a range of biological, geographical and social data
• o experience of coding in Python and R,
• o knowledge of mathematics, statistics, and algorithms
• o experience in Machine Learning / Deep Learning applications
• o experience in GIS software (e.g. ArcPro, ArcGIS, ArcGIS Online, QGIS)
• o knowledge of relevant data/metadata standards
• o understanding of good practice, ethics, and quality assurance for data analysis
• o working with databases, web-based applications, open-source software and APIs
• For specific roles also one or more of: experience of a range of statistical techniques and applications (e.g. SAS, SPSS, R) for identifying relationships between data and for inference, parametric and non-parametric analysis and methods for quantifying uncertainty. accredited Government Statistician or able to attain accreditation within first year in post. remote sensing and/or Earth observation analysis experience, preferably with a good knowledge of statistical and image analysis software packages