Principal Ecologist

Our client is one of the UK’s leading independent environmental consultancies, specialising in environmental assessments, planning, policy advice and sustainability. They are currently seeking a Principal Ecologist located in Manchester.  

The successful applicant would be involved in all areas of work, managing a team of ecologists to find ecologically smart, commercially efficient and cost-effective solutions for projects on a variety of scales.  

Day to day, you would be managing individual contracts and supporting staff, drafting high quality reports and reviewing technical work, whilst supporting clients and their design teams to identify solutions to their problems. Our client is keen to continue to grow their business, and you would therefore support the delivery of their business development strategy by costing and tendering for work, increasing invitations to bid, and finding new ways for the business to diversify and thrive.  

- Hold an appropriate degree qualification.  

- Have a minimum of 8 years’ relevant work experience.  

- Have excellent knowledge of UK and European environmental legislation.  

- Have excellent fieldwork and report writing skills including protected species surveys, EPSM applications, ES chapters and ecological management plans.  

- Be able to critically review own output and possess a minimum 5 years’ experience in reviewing others’ work.  

- Be competent in the survey of and mitigation for 2 or more of the following key protected species: bats, badgers, breeding birds, dormouse, great crested newts, reptiles, and water voles.  

- Hold an EPS and/or conservation licence for one or more of the above species groups, and preferably be a Registered consultant on the class license scheme for one or more of the above species groups.  

- Have proven project and staff management experience.  

- Be confident and able to manage own workload, be proactive in managing projects and be able to delegate to and provide support to junior staff as appropriate.  

- Be proficient in customer service and the ability to deliver and lead training events and workshops, both internally to the organisation and externally to clients and other stakeholders.  

- Hold full membership of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) and preferably CEcoL.  

- Have proven qualities of a proactive self-starter with an ability to use own initiative when appropriate.  

- Have a full clean UK driving licence.  

Consultancy requires knowledge of project management techniques and methodologies. They expect all candidates to have a passion for project delivery, ensuring client satisfaction is achieved on time and within budget.  

They also have a specific requirement for an experienced ecologist with experience in high level reptile mitigation.  

Applications are particularly welcome from ecologists who have botany as a specialism and are, or could be certified at FISC level 4 or above.