Senior Officer, Environment team

Natural Resources Wales reserves the right to close this vacancy before the advertised closing date.

Team / Directorate: Carmarthenshire Environment Team / Operations

Starting salary: £41,132 rising to £44,988 per annum through annual increments being paid each year (pro rata for part time applicants)

Contract type: Permanent

Work pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week (Part time, annualised hours, compressed hours or term time working considered - discussions at interview stage welcome)

Post number: 203949

The role is a pivotal senior role within our local Environment Team in South West Wales. As Senior Environment Officer, you will play a key part in delivering Natural Resources Wales’ (NRW) regulatory responsibilities, particularly relating to water quality, compliance, and wider environmental protection.

While this role doesn’t include direct line management, you will provide technical leadership, offering expert advice on complex water regulation issues and supporting colleagues across teams. You will work collaboratively with internal and external partners, guiding compliance activity, contributing to enforcement decisions, and helping shape NRW’s approach to restoring nature and tackling pollution.

You will also support the planning and delivery of compliance programmes, act as a technical mentor, contribute to incident response, and identify opportunities for local environmental partnerships and improvement projects. This is your opportunity to bring deep expertise to a role that directly improves environmental outcomes.

As an organisation we support flexible working. You will be contracted to the NRW office at the above location and a suitable hybrid working pattern will be agreed on appointment. Any regular face to face meetings or training will be planned in advance. Interviews will be conducted via Microsoft Teams. Successful external applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check. We aim to make offers of appointment within 4 to 8 weeks of the closing date.

About us: The role sits within South West Wales place. The role reports directly to the local Environment Team Leader, but you will be expected to work closely with the other two Environment Teams and other teams at place and at a Wales level. The role will also provide internal and external technical advice on a range of technical matters related to regulation and compliance, delivering NRW's corporate commitments to restore nature and prevent pollution to the environment by working in a systematic way to deliver improvements based on using available evidence to direct our compliance work.

What you will do:

• Represent NRW in discussions with partner organisations.
• Act as technical mentor and advisor to team members.
• Closely assist Team Leader in the planning and delivery of compliance programme and enforcement.
• Take appropriate actions to collect evidence for enforcement purposes, in accordance with defined procedures.
• Where non-compliance is identified, determine and implement the most appropriate intervention option.
• Co-ordinate the technical development of team members.
• Play a key role in identifying opportunities for new Management Agreements and Partnership Projects to deliver NRW priorities at place.
• Play a senior role in supporting a resilient and competent NRW Incident Management Service that follows NRW process.
• Undertake health and safety duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post.
• Be committed to your own development and that of your staff through the effective use of your personal development plan (known as Sgwrs).
• Any other reasonable duties requested commensurate with the grade of this role.

Your qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills: In your application and interview you will be asked to demonstrate the following skills and experience using the STAR method.

• Experience of project development and management. (desirable)
• Overall understanding of the sustainable management of natural resources, with focused expertise in a distinct area of the Environment Team remit.
• Ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders and the public, explaining issues and gaining support by influencing.
• Good knowledge and experience of regulatory and enforcement processes.
• Essential: Level A1 – Entry level (able to use and understand simple, basic phrases and greetings, no conversational Welsh).

Please note if you do not meet the A1 requirement i.e., ability to understand basic phrases and ability to pronounce Welsh names correctly, then NRW offers a variety of learning options and staff support to help you meet these minimal requirements during the course of your employment with us.

This role will offer a range of benefits, including:

• Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 28.97% (successful internal staff will remain in their current pension scheme).
• 28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days.
• Generous leave entitlements for all your life needs.
• Commitment to professional development.
• Health and wellbeing benefits and support.
• Weekly wellbeing hour to use as you choose.

We’re passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from under-represented communities. We embrace equality of opportunity irrespective of disability, neurodivergence, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, gender expression and gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, culture, or religion. We put the principles of human rights, equality, fairness, dignity and respect at the heart of our values. We are committed to equal opportunities and we guarantee interviews for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

We want to attract and retain talented and highly skilled staff, so we make sure that our pay scales remain competitive. We advertise the full pay scale on our job descriptions. Appointed candidates start at the first point of the pay scale and annual increments are paid each year.

We want our staff to grow professionally and personally. From leadership development to access to further and higher education courses, our staff have opportunities to expand their knowledge on a variety of topics, stay current in their field and continue to learn as their career progresses.

We are a Bilingual organisation which complies with the Welsh Language Standards. Welsh language skills are considered an asset to NRW, and we encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills.

Please save these advert details for future reference as they will no longer be available online after the closing date.