Marine Ecosystems Support Officer – 2022-80

Who are JNCC?

Established in 1991, we’re the UK’s statutory advisor on issues affecting the natural environment across the UK and internationally. Our primary role is advising all four Governments of the UK. We also work with private sector organisations to support decision making on the sustainable use of marine waters and natural resources around the UK. JNCC is led by the Joint Committee, which brings together members from the nature conservation bodies for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and independent members appointed by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under an independent Chair. Support is provided to the Committee by approx. 270 people who bring together scientific and technical expertise, extensive knowledge of policy at global, European and national levels, and skills in working with other organisations. Staff are based in two main offices in Peterborough and Aberdeen.

Why JNCC?

We’re small enough (c.270 staff) that your voice is heard by everyone including the CEO, but big enough that we have all the skills, resources and people you’ll need to get the job done. All our staff are passionate about conservation and making a difference to the world we live in. We have a very flexible, inclusive and welcoming organisational culture. Our Executive Management provides employees with the freedom and tools you will need, and our friendly team will assist you in your role.  
 
JNCC is committed to maintaining employee health and wellbeing, whether it is physically, emotionally, financially or socially, and offers a range of benefits to support employees in this. Such benefits include the option to join the Civil Service Pension Scheme, professional and personal development opportunities as well as an exciting job in a unique environment.  

Post Background

The Marine Support Officer will work in the Marine Ecosystems team. 

JNCC has been at the forefront of improving our understanding of how the marine environment functions for over 25 years. Our marine ecosystem monitoring and assessment advice work underpins the UK government’s need to understand the effectiveness of marine nature conservation policies and the role of human activities on changes to marine species and habitats.

The Marine Ecosystems team is responsible for developing and undertaking assessments of biodiversity and ecosystems at a variety of scales through the development of indicators to the production and coordination of reports on the state of biodiversity to international conventions and national policies. The team also provides scientific advice on marine policy implementation, including regional seas and global policy mechanisms. This advice is provided to the UK Government, the Devolved Administrations, the Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies, international organisations, and others.

Work in the Team covers a range of topics including:

•    The implementation of the 25 Year Environment Plan Outcome Indicator Framework, and associated marine indicators and targets;
•    Development of operational benthic habitat and ecosystems indicators suitable for describing the health of the marine environment (e.g. Good Environmental Status) for inclusion in a           monitoring programme and to provide evidence for management measures;
•    Research & development of assessment techniques (e.g. developing targets and indicators to determine Good Environmental Status for biodiversity);
•    Provision of expert advice to a range of governmental departments and other organisations including the UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy, the European Commission and the OSPAR Convention (www.ospar.org);
•    Understanding the impacts of climate change on vulnerable ecosystems, and how we can measure and assess trends;
•    Development of modelling tools for integrated ecosystems assessments, forecasting and trade-offs with a focus on foodwebs and benthic ecosystems;
•    Streamlining and harmonisation of assessments, indicators and targets, in particular for international reporting.

Job Description:

The Marine Ecosystems Support Officer will provide crucial scientific administration and technical support to the Marine Ecosystems Team to support the work being carried out by the team. This post will assist other Marine Support Officers and Marine Ecosystem Scientists to manage, manipulate and map a range of different temporal and spatial data.
The work will involve close collaboration with colleagues within the JNCC, research agencies, and with the country conservation agencies. This post will undertake a range of duties which may include, but are not limited to:

Post Duties

•  Marine assessment and reporting data analysis and management – Support members  of the team with the collation, storage and analysis of data and information for marine assessment and reporting requirements, including database creation and management, the creation of tables, charts and graphs, quality checks and metadata cataloguing of incoming datasets. Manage or develop new statistical processes using R scripts or similar. Contribute to the work of JNCC Digital and Data Solutions Team to develop and implement a data management strategy with specific focus on managing externally derived assessment data sets.
•  Indicator development – Assist in the development and testing of models for integration of indicators and evaluation of trade-offs between environmental targets and management scenarios.
•  GIS and mapping support – Manipulate geospatial data (ecological, physical and human activities) using ArcGIS and/or QGIS to produce high quality and consistent GIS outputs to support marine status assessment reporting requirements, and presentation of data in reports and communications materials

•  Ecological, physical and human activities data – Assist with the maintenance and management of marine ecosystems datasets:
•   Assist in undertaking a series of comprehensive quality assurance checks on  existing centrally held data as necessary, including preparation of reports to ensure  key data and metadata fields are complete within the database;
•  Undertake data and information searches to support marine work. 
•  Answering internal and external data queries - Assist members of the Marine Ecosystem Team in responding to a variety of queries within 21 days of receipt
•  Website – Assist with contributing and maintaining information and data required for presentation on the JNCC website
•  Other tasks - Contribute to other aspects of the team’s work as required, including taking minutes and organising meetings and finalising reports for publication as part of the JNCC report series

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together
• Changing and Improving

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent qualification in a relevant subject and/or relevant recent practical work experience that provides the following knowledge, experience and behaviours.
• Knowledge of the marine ecology and its spatial and temporal variation.
• A broad understanding of marine conservation work in the UK and overseas.
• Skills in data manipulation, interpretation and statistical analysis using Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, R, Python and ArcGIS/QGIS (transferable skills from other software can meet the requirement).

Job contact :

• Name :Recruitment Team
• Email :recruitment@jncc.gov.uk

Recruitment team :

• Email :recruitment@jncc.gov.uk