Overview

Reference – 12866

Salary – Competitive

Contract Type – Contract

Looking for your next challenge? Highly skilled and ambitious? This is an
opportunity to manage your own projects and help lead a friendly and
ambitious ecology team. Minimum of 12 months maternity cover with
extension to permanent position for the right candidate.

As a consultancy of approximately 1,600 staff, we are large enough to work on
high-profile schemes in Scotland balanced by the diversity of many smaller
projects. From Shetland to the Borders, Edinburgh to Argyll, we enjoy strong
working relationships with a varied client base in the private and public sector. Our
national ecology team has doubled in size over the last five years as we continue to
go from strength to strength, and this year we have been recognised by CIEEM
with a Commendation in the Large-Scale Consultancy of the Year Award Category.

With continued success in the Scottish region, we are searching for a confident,
proactive Senior Ecologist to be based in Edinburgh, covering a 12 month maternity
cover in the first instance. With the view to becoming permanent for the right
candidate. You would have experience of projects across a diversity of sectors, the
confidence to liaise with clients and stakeholders and the desire to help the Team
Leader manage and mentor other members of our thriving and friendly team. We
are motivated to achieve continued growth so enthusiasm to support our business
development strategy would be a great advantage.

We are particularly keen to hear from candidates who are skilled in authoring and
QA of technical ecological reports and have consultancy experience of at three
or more of the following: ornithology, bats, botany, HRA, EcIA, Ecological
Appraisal/Phase 1 and Ecological Clerk of Works. Species/development
licences, project and finance management experience, GIS skills, CSCS Card holder,
SC security clearance and membership of CIEEM are desirable. A relevant degree,
full driving licence and legal entitlement to work in the UK are essential for the role.
In order to be successful at this role, you should be a confident communicator and
a team player. You will possess strong written and verbal skills, with the ability to
prioritise the delivery of a dynamic workload and be confident in producing risk
assessments and method statements and to set a good example with regards to
health and safety.

The position would be 12 months fixed-term initially with the view to becoming
permanent for the right candidate.

We also understand how ecologists think and work and have introduced ecology-
specific measures to allow the team to fulfil their potential:

• With over 60 permanent ecologists across 12 offices, we work hard to
operate as one cohesive team to minimise time away from home,
maximise bespoke training and support from our in-house experts regardless
of location, and to allow the best people to work on the projects that interest
them and deliver them to the highest standards.
• We encourage the development of well-rounded ecologists who can talk
about all stages of a project rather than a niche area. We don’t automatically
pigeon-hole ecologists and instead encourage diversification of
skills and the passing on of knowledge to fellow ecologists. We recently
held our annual all-ecology get-together over two days where our in-house
experts provided training, licensing and technology updates to help us all
operate to the same standards
• Given that all grades of ecologist complete site visits and meetings, we
provide cars or car allowances to every member of the team, including
for personal use.
• Our bat handling licence incentivisation scheme thanks those ecologists
who spend time and effort in achieving their licence – we know it’s not easy!
And to show our support of personal development, we award a significant
financial bonus to anyone achieving Chartered Environmentalist status
through CIEEM.
• We work closely with many other WYG teams, including Planners,
Archaeologists, Landscape Architects, Masterplanners and Engineers. With a
culture of openness, there is always someone within the business who can
provide advice and support for almost any query.
• We also have an established TOIL system which allows ecologists to
manage their time to suit their specific personal needs, alongside the
seasonal demands of the role.

If the timing’s not quite right for you, please do still to get in touch as we
will always consider bespoke working arrangements or a deferred start date to
attract good people.