Consultant- Water Quality & Catchment Science

Please note the role will be based in multiple locations, Epsom, Bristol, Peterborough, Oxford, Warrington.

Do you have the ambition, enthusiasm and technical capability to work with us as a Consultant in Water Quality, delivering the future of Atkins’ service offerings and capability in this area? The role will be part of a highly respected technical team and you will be responsible for maintaining and growing our reputation for technical excellence, working collaboratively to both win and deliver work across our extensive client portfolio.

SNC-Lavalin’s Atkins business is one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies, with over 50,000 employees worldwide. At Atkins, we offer more than just a job. We offer an opportunity to make a difference and shape the world to benefit future generations and the natural environment. 

As part of this commitment, we understand the need for a diverse and flexible workforce, where a work-life balance is important. So, by default Atkins offers flexible working, where there is no fixed 9 ‘till 5, no need for a 5-day week, no requirement for a full-time contract, and no requirement to spend all your working time in the office.  Similarly, Atkins’ corporate social responsibility provides the opportunity to give something back to the community, and we run professional networks supporting groups such as local schools, charities, parents, those coming out of the armed-forces and women in engineering.

Our Water Management Consultancy business, operates at the interface between people and the water environment, tackling problems around water, its habitats and future change. We offer a unique blend of skills across a large breadth and depth of experience; a diverse team of passionate, intelligent, digitally minded, capable and innovative staff. We enjoy working collaboratively delivering projects that bring about real change and make a difference to people and the places they work.

We have well-established water quality and catchment science teams, who are focussed on implementing investigations and programmes for water companies and regulators across the UK and internationally, including Thames Water’s flagship Smarter Water Catchments initiative. We are active developers and promoters of new digital technologies and monitoring techniques to support catchment management. We’ve developed tools such as SAGIS-SIMCAT, NFM Studio, and the Natural Capital Assessment Tool, as well as publishing freely available monitoring guidance in the form of our Catchment Science: Fieldscale monitoring handbook.This way of working helps us to identify and work towards more robust, resilient and sustainable outcomes in catchments.

We have various vacancies for enthusiastic and ambitious individuals to help grow our catchment science and water quality teams, as well as contributing to our growing workload in a wide range of projects across Water Management Consultancy and other areas of the business (see also our adverts for other levels of experience). Our current vacancies are for consultant positions in Epsom, Bristol, Oxford, Peterborough and Warrington, although consideration will be given to exceptional candidates in other locations. We have a mix of UK based and overseas projects requiring water quality skills working for infrastructure developers, regulators and the water industry across our growing infrastructure and catchment management portfolio.

Responsibilities:

Your day to day activities will involve working with a team of scientists and engineers to deliver a suite of tasks / projects.  You will have a developing understanding of project procedures including financial and change control, report writing, ability to present, and quality assurance through checking and reviewing. In addition, you will support work-winning activities.  You’ll be expected to support the delivery of projects within the Water Management Consultancy team and to work collaboratively with other Atkins businesses; working effectively with other professionals (environment scientists, engineers, planners) to provide a consistent and integrated service to our clients.

You will be required to input to high quality client facing reports, and to undertake and deliver water quality data analysis to support projects alongside others. On an on-going basis, you’ll be working as a key member of the team, delivering a range of projects, including strategic infrastructure projects where we also provide an internally facing consultancy service, and/or supporting project managers and directors to deliver these projects.

Requirements – all applicants

• Must have a degree in a relevant discipline and preferably relevant post-graduate qualification (for example with a focus on environmental chemistry, water quality, geochemistry).
• Catchment science and/or water quality experience
• Demonstrable experience of delivering excellent technical work in one of the following fields: environmental chemistry, aquatic/marine biogeochemistry, river water quality assessment, or water quality modelling.
• Have some understanding of catchment processes and influences on water quality as well as an appreciation of water quality modelling approaches.
• Excellent communication skills. Must be able to adapt your presentation style to different types of audience, including non-specialists. Clarity in scientific writing is key, including visualisation and interpretation of complex data.
• An interest in developing project management skills, commercial and financial awareness.
• Applicants must be numerate, literate and familiar with IT and software appropriate to the tasks undertaken.
• Have a valid UK driving license, be available to travel across the UK and occasionally overseas
• Recently chartered or working towards chartership through an appropriate institution.

Additional requirements for those applying for applied water quality positions:

• An understanding of requirements for water quality monitoring programme design
• An appreciation of available monitoring technologies and approaches
• Knowledge of hydrochemical processes and relevant environmental legislation is desirable
• Have an awareness of pollution control and abatement measures

Additional requirements for those applying for water quality modelling positions:

• Water quality data analysis and modelling experience in one of the following models: MIKE 11/Hydro River, MIKE 21, MIKE 3, ICM
• Experience with decision support models such as SAGIS-SIMCAT and Farmscoper is desirable

The Individual

• Highly motivated and proactive; focused on achieving and delivering technical excellence.
• Good team worker, comfortable working with a range of specialists with different technical backgrounds
• Flexible and prepared to take on new challenges/learn new skills
• Well organised; able to work on multiple projects running simultaneously

Training:

Atkins develops individuals through a portfolio of training and development activities designed to help you make the best of your abilities and talents. These are reviewed with individuals through an annual development process. We support staff in achieving and maintaining membership of relevant institutions. You will also be part of our global Technical Networks, which provide a flow of technically orientated information and ideas through the company. For this role, our long running Water Quality network will support your learning, but there are many others you could also join.

Atkins will support you in your professional development working towards chartership, whether CIWEM or others. This includes paying your annual membership and providing access to training.

Rewards and Benefits:

We offer a competitive salary that is regularly tested against other consultants with a default 25-days leave each year plus bank holidays and options to buy or sell leave.

To support and safeguard your physical and mental wellbeing we provide an employee assistance programme offering advice and support in times of need.  Our offices run their own sports and social activities such wine tasting, surf trips, discounted theatre trips and local sports clubs.  You will also have access to our Flexible Benefits, where you can opt in to a wide range of benefits to complement your work/life balance: such as medical insurance, gym membership, leisure discounts, the cycle-to-work scheme, child care vouchers, charitable giving, additional pension contributions etc.

Please refer to our website for details of our full benefits package.  https://www.yourrewardatkins.com/#benefits

We encourage the opportunity to discuss a flexible working pattern for this vacancy, and we ask you to explore the flexible working options during the interview process.