Senior Officer People and Places - Fisheries in Wales

We have an exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys collaboration, strategic influence and delivering tangible benefits for people and places to join us as a Senior People and Places officer.

This Senior Officer (Fisheries) role sits within the Mid Wales People and Places Team, covering Powys and Ceredigion, an area rich in opportunity and complexity. Mid Wales spans dispersed rural communities and market towns, extensive river catchments, and high-quality bathing waters. Its distinctive upland and coastal landscapes are shaped by forestry and land management and include nationally important habitats and designated sites. The area also contains large, sensitive river catchments and communities increasingly vulnerable to flooding and climate-related pressures.

This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in delivering fisheries and catchment priorities across Mid Wales. You will represent place interests in major programmes and partnerships, such as the Severn-Thames Transfer and the Upper Severn Catchment Partnership, providing technical input and ensuring that environmental and regulatory priorities are effectively reflected.

As a fisheries specialist, you will advise on Developments of National Significance, environmental permits, and planning applications, working collaboratively with colleagues to improve consistency and develop smarter, more efficient ways of working.

You will build and sustain strong partnerships as a key point of contact for strategic projects, catchment partnerships, and Rivers Trusts, supporting coordinated delivery of shared priorities. Working across teams, you will help align projects, manage risks and liabilities.

As a Senior Officer, you will translate complex evidence and policy into clear, accessible information, supporting effective decision-making across a wide range of audiences, and provide project and programme management support for initiatives such as the Sustainable Fisheries Programme, coordinating delivery across teams and partners to achieve shared objectives and maximise benefits for people and nature.

Leading on fisheries for Mid Wales, you will actively seek opportunities to apply the principles of Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (SMNR) and support the delivery of the Mid Wales Area Statement, helping to deliver integrated, place-based solutions that strengthen the resilience of communities and natural resources.

Driving is essential to this role as there is travel required across Mid Wales sometimes to remote locations with no public transport access. You must hold a full and current UK driving license.

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.

To make an informal enquiry about this role, please contact Rich Dearing.

Interviews will be face to face in Welshpool on 02/09/2026.

Successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check. Appointments are normally made within 4 to 8 weeks of the closing date.

This role sits within the Operations Directorate in Mid Wales, within the Mid Wales People and Places Team, a collaborative and diverse group united by a commitment to protecting and enhancing our natural environment and local places.

The team includes specialists across partnership working, biodiversity and conservation, protected sites, fisheries, recreation & access, forestry resource planning, and Public Service Boards. Working strategically and practically, you will join a supportive team where your expertise will deliver high-impact outcomes shaping the future of our rivers, coasts, and communities.

What you will do

• Lead for Mid-Wales on fisheries, providing technical expertise and advice to the team and Head of Place, including developments of national significance, environmental permit applications, including abstraction and impoundment licences, Flood Risk Activity Permits, and fish pass approvals.
• Mentor others in the team to broaden their understanding of your specialism so the team develops a multidisciplinary understanding of environmental issues.
• Work with the team to develop innovative solutions to environmental issues, integrating multiple aspects of planning within the place. Identify gaps in the evidence base and work with National Operations & Strategy, Policy and Evidence to prioritise and commission research.
• Facilitate join-up of PSB objectives with Area Statements and the place plan, working across boundaries as appropriate.
• Work co-productively with teams in the place and external stakeholders providing technical fisheries expertise to influence and develop priorities, projects and plans for delivery by others including through outward funding.
• Develop and monitor the programme of outward funded projects across all funding opportunities.
• Work with teams in the place to develop their skills in partnership working.
• Work with stakeholders and partners to influence and develop priorities, objectives, plans and projects within the place.
• Network with other People & Places teams across Wales providing an agreed service level of technical knowledge and input to other teams.
• Undertake health and safety duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post.
• Be committed to Natural Resources Wales Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy, together with an understanding of how it operates within the responsibilities of the post.
• Be committed to your own development through the effective use of your personal development plan (known as Sgwrs).
• Required to take part in incident response activities.
• Any other reasonable duties requested commensurate with the grade of this role.

Your qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills

• Strong technical fisheries expertise, knowledge, and practical experience in fisheries management including experience of advising on fisheries matters within regulatory, operational, and partnership contexts.
• Strong leadership, engagement, influencing, negotiation and communication skills, with the ability to build effective working relationships with colleagues, partners and senior stakeholders.
• Proven ability to develop innovative solutions to complex problems, and to interpret and synthesise multiple sources of complex information to support sound decision making.
• Substantial knowledge of environmental legislation relevant to the remit of the place.
• Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and achieve high quality results.

Welsh Language level requirements

Essential: Level A1 - Entry level. 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.

Additional Information

Successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check. Appointments are normally made within 4 to 8 weeks of the closing date.

Benefits

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 age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

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 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.