Soil and Peat Scientist in London

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 support 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 government's 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.

Responsibilities:

• Support, guide and critique policy as it is developed, communicating the best available evidence from a range of sources and ensuring that policy development is evidence-based.
• Scope, develop, procure and manage research projects and contracts to address specific evidence gaps and inform policy development.
• Act as the key point of contact for soil and peatland science activities and developments across Defra.
• Build effective relationships and networks with leading academics and researchers, engaging with external research projects relevant to Defra, representing Defra on project advisory boards and steering groups.
• Provide expert input into official correspondence, briefings and ministerial submissions.

Essential Criteria:

• A scientific understanding of soil science, and a good general awareness of the broader policy issues affecting soils and peatlands in England.
• Experience of undertaking research and in the development and management of research.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills including the ability to swiftly distil complex information and provide clear and succinct advice to those in senior roles and non-scientists.
• Good project management skills including the ability to lead the delivery of research projects, monitor the budget and delivery of research outputs, and manage multiple pieces of work or projects at the same time.

Qualifications:

The role requires a postgraduate qualification (preferably but not necessarily doctorate level) in a relevant natural science discipline (e.g. soil science, environmental science, geography, agronomy or similar), or significant experience that is related/transferable to soil or peat science.

Behaviours:

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills:

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Communicating science and engineering for government - Providing and handling evidence – drawn from the Government Science and Engineering Career Framework

Alongside your salary of £42,665, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £12,360 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Learning and development tailored to your role.

An environment with flexible working options.

A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.

A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.

Selection process details:

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills. To apply for this post, you will be asked to complete the following as part of the online application:

• A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). CVs will be assessed against the essential criteria outlined in the Person Specification section of this advert.
• A Personal Statement (max 750 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience evidence of your suitability for this role in reference to the essential criteria.
• You will also be asked to provide Statements (250 words maximum per statement) for the two Success Profiles Behaviours listed below:

• Communicating and Influencing (Lead)
• Making Effective Decisions

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

For guidance on how to construct your personal statement, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers.

Sift:

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be undertaken using the lead Behaviour, Communicating and Influencing and the Personal Statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will progress to a full sift, or progress straight to interview.

Interview:

Candidates successful at sift stage will be invited to a video assessment/interview that will consist of a blended interview of Behaviour, Strengths, Experience and Technical Skills questions. You will also be required to provide a 10-minute presentation at interview. The presentation topic will be emailed to candidates who have passed the initial online application stage 1 week prior to interview. This presentation will assess candidates against the technical skills for Senior Research Officers set out in the Government Social Research Technical Framework.

Please note that interviews via video use Microsoft Teams and you will need to use your device to access the video link. You will receive a link to join the interview at the appointed time through the email account you provide us with on your application.

Artificial Intelligence:

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application. However, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate, and based on your own personal experience. Submitting content that has been generated by AI or copied from others and presented as your own may be considered plagiarism. Applications found to contain such content may be withdrawn, and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please refer to our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Location:

As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s). Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

Successful applicants currently employed by the hiring Defra organisation for this post may choose to remain in their current contractual location or may choose to change contractual location to one of those listed above. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer, or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.

Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.

The successful candidate is required to perform all their duties from a UK location and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.