Technical Director – Ecology | Exeter, Devon

At Arcadis we focus on attracting, retaining and developing people who share our passion and commitment to improve quality of life. In return we offer you the opportunity to transform your world and the world around you, that could be through client work, upskilling yourself, championing equality and inclusion or getting involved in charity work, to name just a few. Our people value different perspectives, they care about the sustainability of our planet and dare to shape the future.

One of our core values is ‘people first’, and supported by our Lovinklaan foundation, we invest in you for the long term, to ensure you reach your full potential. You’ll have the opportunity to own your career and work on industry-defining projects, finding solutions to real challenges that make a difference to people’s lives. You’re encouraged to have a growth mindset and are given the space to develop personally and professionally, building a flexible career that works for you.

As part of our continuous growth our Ecology team is looking to recruit a Technical Director. Our Ecology team is a team of 60+ ecologists, who have more than 30 years of experience undertaking ecological surveys and assessments, as well as the provision of advice on soil, land use, hydrological and sustainable drainage issues, arboriculture, ecosystem service, natural capital assessment, biodiversity strategies and metrics and cultural heritage. During this time, we have undertaken over 2,000 projects covering a wide range of environmental disciplines throughout the UK, in Europe and beyond, for public and private clients.

As a Technical Director you will be accountable for the quality control, coordination, and completion of ecological projects across our diverse client base. Our clients’ sectors vary and include Urban and Greenfield Residential Developments, Regulators, Local Governments, Highway and Rail Schemes, Power Stations, Electrical and Gas Infrastructure and Local housing developers.

You will have a key role in coaching and leading the team, ensuring that they are engaged in challenging projects that support their professional development. In addition to delivering projects to time, budgetary and QHSE targets, you will be a key stakeholder in managing client relationships so that delivery exceeds client expectations and leading your colleagues by example.

Personal development is recognised as vital to sustain career progression and to deliver our expectations. We offer you the opportunity to work with industry-recognised Technical Leaders in their field, and we expect the successful candidate(s) to contribute towards general excellence throughout the industry.

This role can be based in anywhere in the UK.

Responsibilities of this role include, but are not limited to:

• Manage projects (particularly budgets and cashflow), attend meetings, provide advice to clients and manage bid production
• Have responsibility for technical quality / approval of project deliverables
• Undertake/oversee ecological surveys, the analysis of results of field surveys, and undertake/manage the production of reports, impact assessments, biodiversity strategies and other documents
• Provide advice on ecological issues, both at an in-depth level within own area of expertise but also on a broad range of issues
• Compile licence applications, including developing mitigation and monitoring
• Undertake/supervise mitigation and monitoring of licensed work and liaise with statutory authorities
• Undertake performance management of assigned team members, and provide training at staff meetings and to smaller groups of staff
• Design research projects and contribute to the development of best practice with respect to training and survey standards, as appropriate
• Manage high quality, winning bids

• Extensive experience at leadership level with detailed knowledge of ecological principles, relevant wildlife legislation and ecological impact assessment (EcIA)
• Proven track record in writing ecological appraisals, EcIAs and Ecology Chapters for Environmental Statements
• A grounding in natural capital and biodiversity net gain is desirable
• In-depth knowledge of particular plant and/or animal groups and appropriate field survey skills
• Be a full member of CIEEM and Chartered Ecologist or similar
• Ideally hold Survey and/or Development Licences

Our work with clients has a direct impact on people’s lives and on the planet. We make moving, living and belonging in cities safer, more resilient and more sustainable. By partnering with our clients as responsible custodians of our earth’s resources, we can create a sustainable planet.

We continue to think of new ways to make positive impacts and create better experiences for people; data driven and digital solutions have become part of the Arcadis DNA. Working together with clients and using techniques like design thinking, we can get to the heart of our clients’ most pressing challenges and work together to solve them.

As a global business, we have committed to support five of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to ensure that our projects contribute to a better and more sustainable future for all. But it’s not just the work that we do on client projects that benefits communities and our planet. As a global business, we are committed to making a positive impact to society by supporting local communities where we operate.

To help protect our planet, we monitor and measure non-financial information to inform business decisions and reduce our own environmental impact as part of our commitment to be net zero carbon as a global company by 2035.

We want you to be able to bring your best self to work every day which is why we take equality and inclusion seriously and hold ourselves to account for our actions. Our ambition is to be an employer of choice and provide a great place to work for all our people. We believe that by working together diverse people with different experiences develop the most innovative ideas. Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of how we improve quality of life and we work closely with our people across six ED&I Workstreams: Age, Disability, Faith, Gender, LGBT+ and Race. A diverse and skilled workforce is essential to our success.