Senior Ecological Consultant - South East in Guildford

Our core purpose is to enable nature and business to thrive together. Our brand mission is to be chosen by clients as their preferred specialists and regarded by people in our industry as the company to work for. We aim to be the most innovative, pragmatic and fast‑growing environmental consultancy in the UK. With offices across the UK, our experts are committed to delivering exceptional outcomes to our clients across a range of environmental services and ecological contracting. Our services include terrestrial ecology, freshwater ecology, hydrology, marine laboratory, arboricultural services, geographic information systems (GIS) and mapping, environmental impact assessments.

The role can be based remotely in the South East with an expectation for occasional travel to our Guildford office. As a Senior Ecological Consultant, you will play a key role in driving your team's financial success by preparing compelling tenders, efficiently managing projects, and fostering strong relationships with clients. Your contributions will also support the company's vision and values by delivering high‑quality technical work within specified timelines and consistently upholding the company's standards of excellence.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage large, complex projects, ensuring seamless execution from start to finish.
• Handle technically challenging tasks, including European Protected Species Licence (EPSL) applications, Ecological Impact Assessments (EcIAs), and Habitats Regulations Assessments (HRA).
• Deliver high‑quality reports and outputs for clients, consistently meeting or exceeding project deadlines and budget constraints.
• Cultivate and maintain strong relationships with clients, ensuring continued trust and satisfaction.
• Document relevant professional experience and leverage it to advance toward obtaining protected species licences.
• Take ownership for the quality of survey work by providing leadership and direction to the field team.
• Ensure clear and effective communication by keeping project managers and team leads informed of all critical project developments.
• Maintain active membership with CIEEM.

Senior Ecological Consultants often serve as line managers, overseeing and guiding a small team of Ecological Consultants and Assistant Ecologists. Some may also take on roles as technical leads.

Salary: From £34,000 per annum, dependent on skillset.

Requirements:

• You will be an experienced ecologist with an ecological or related subject degree and be technically competent, with an in‑depth knowledge of ecology, legislation and survey techniques, and advanced field skills in one or more specialist areas.
• You must hold protected species licences and maintain a clean, valid UK driving licence with access to a car insured for business use.
• We would be especially interested in applicants with ornithological or botany skills, or the ability to hold mitigation licences; however, none of these are essential.
• All applicants must be based in the UK with the Right to Work in the UK.

At Thomson, we strive to be the very best at what we do, both in the eyes of our customers and our colleagues. We believe in One Thomson; we draw on and value every individual's unique skills and experience to come together and support each other in delivering an exceptional service. Our people are our greatest asset. We want Thomson to be a great place to work, where everyone feels supported to be the best they can be. We are proud of our friendly, supportive, ‘nothing is too much trouble’ culture. We live and breathe our RISE values. Your opinions matter to us; we are constantly evolving. We promote a healthy work‑life balance to ensure we have an engaged, productive and happy team. We are flexible and committed and welcome new challenges. We recognise the importance in training and developing our team, as well as offering a competitive pay and reward package. Involving ourselves in local communities is important to us and we are proud of our continued achievements in fund‑raising for charity. We are passionate about career development so we make sure we nurture talent. Our people benefit from access to a diverse range of industry‑accredited external training, as well as in‑house training opportunities led by our specialists. The variety of projects we deliver across the breadth of environmental services encourages cross‑team working and collaboration. We can offer you the opportunity to contribute to and lead on high‑profile, once‑in‑a‑life‑time projects.

You’ll enjoy all the benefits we have to offer which include: 25 days annual leave, healthcare cash plan, enhanced stakeholder pension scheme, life insurance, discounted gym membership, paid professional memberships, clothing allowance, outstanding performance rewards, long service awards, free parking and regular local and company social events.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: As an equal opportunities employer, Thomson is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and does not condone discrimination on the basis of age, gender reassignment, being married or in a civil partnership, being pregnant or on maternity leave, disability, race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation.