HRA Consultant – Environmental and Ecological Assessment

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 looking for an experienced HRA Consultant at Consultant grade to join our team. You will join colleagues in providing technical support on a variety of ecology projects, across a wide range of clients in the water, developer, infrastructure and public sectors.

Key Responsibilities

• Your role will involve supporting senior staff in the delivery of Habitats Regulations Assessments (HRA) at project and plan level.
• Assisting with the coordination of consultation and ecological mitigation measures in support of our clients proposals and operations.
• Supporting the preparation of technical reports and assessments under the guidance of senior colleagues.
• Working collaboratively with project teams to help deliver HRA and related ecological work on time and to high standard.

Key competencies and experience

• A basic to good knowledge of Habitats Regulations, UK and EU Wildlife Legislation, planning policies, licensing requirements and best practice survey techniques.
• Some experience of supporting HRA or other environmental assessments at project and/or plan level.
• Experience of contributing to ecological projects, ideally within infrastructure or development context.
• Ability to contribute to clear and accurate technical writing, with support and review from senior staff.
• Working towards or holding membership of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; with the ability to communicate confidently with colleagues, clients and stakeholders.
• Be organised with proven ability to multi‑task and handle several projects simultaneously with appropriate support.

Desirable experience

• Have experience working as part of a project team on ecological or environmental assessments.
• Willingness to learn from and support senior and more experienced colleagues.
• Exposure to multi‑disciplinary teams.

Skills and behaviours

A proactive and motivated individual, keen to develop technical and professional skills, as you’ll be part of a small and very busy team. Excellent team working skills are therefore essential together with strong communication skills, sound understanding of and a close attention to detail. This is a fast‑paced and challenging environment offering you the opportunity to make your mark. You will have support from the wider business for your career to develop into a wide range of future opportunities within Ricardo Energy & Environment.

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 to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential.

Benefits

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.