Terrestrial Ecologist – Environmental and Ecological Assessment in Bristol

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world. Ricardo, member of WSP, is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading-edge and innovative cross-sector sustainable products and solutions. Every day, we enable our customers to solve the most complex and dynamic challenges to help achieve a safe and sustainable world.

The Role

We are currently looking for a Consultant Ecologist to join our Ecology team within the Water Practice at our Bristol office.

Key responsibilities

• Provide technical, administrative or professional support to winning & executing projects.
• Gather relevant information. Solve problems, make decisions independently within own area of responsibility, or in conjunction with other team members or more senior colleagues.
• Undertake tasks on projects/bids and begin to manage tasks where appropriate.
• Develop client relationships at operational level on projects and tasks.

Key competencies and experience

• A degree in a relevant subject, such as ecology or other biological sciences.
• Demonstrable relevant work experience.
• Graduate or Associate membership of CIEEM.
• Basic knowledge of UK and EU Wildlife Legislation, planning policies, licensing requirements and best practice survey techniques.
• Capable of leading surveys and writing reports for Preliminary Ecological Assessments (PEA), Habitat Condition Assessments (HCA) and Protected species surveys.

Skills and Behaviour

• Communicates information clearly and accurately.
• An understanding of undertaking surveys safely and to the right quality standard.
• Good team working skills are essential.
• Plans, organises and reviews activities effectively and efficiently in order to meet defined expectations.
• Be organised with proven ability to multi-task and handle several projects simultaneously.
• Experience of project management and/or preparation of ecology proposals and tenders.
• Broad ecological survey experience with demonstrable proficiency in particular protected species surveys and/or habitat surveys and providing mitigation recommendations.
• Experience of planning and conducting ecological surveys, including habitat survey and protected species surveys and providing mitigation recommendations.
• Ideally at least one protected species survey licence.
• Experience of working on large scale infrastructure development projects.
• Experience of Ecological Clerk of Works (ECoW).

Working here

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place. We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on. Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

Work life balance

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core of our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential. We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health. Our core benefits include 25 days' annual leave, plus 8 flexible bank holidays, a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle.

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

Next steps

Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date. Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team via recruit@ricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.