Development and Flood Risk Advisor

Closing Date: 12 February 2023 | Salary: £32,876 - £36,229 (Grade 5) Location: Cardiff or Llandarcy

Contract Type: Permanent

Work Pattern: 37 hours a week, Monday to Friday

Post Number: 200869

As an organisation we support flexible working. This role allows hybrid working (a mix of home and office working) and a working pattern suitable for you can be discussed on appointment if you are successful.

You will be contracted to the nearest NRW office to your home, of which you will be required to attend for regular meetings, training and for one-to-one meetings with your manager. These will be planned in advance.

Job Description

Covering South and Mid Wales, we are an operational team who play a vital role in ensuring that both works in and near main rivers, and developments in the floodplain, do not have a detrimental impact upon flood risk and the environment. This is carried out through the timely determination and enforcement of Flood Risk Activity Permits (FRAPs) and providing flood risk advice to the Local Planning Authorities in line with TAN15 policy.

You will work within an experienced team and be responsible for determining FRAPs and responding to planning consultations in the Cardiff and South Wales Valleys area. The role involves both office and site-based work during which you will meet with both internal and external stakeholders and customers to provide technical flood risk advice and guidance.

You will need to demonstrate good time and workload management skills together with an ability to work with key Natural Resources Wales and external stakeholders. This is an exciting opportunity to help protect South Wales communities from flooding and ensure that our ecosystems are protected from damage.

Responsibilities

Your responsibilities include:

Plan and manage own workload as part of a wider programme of work delivered by the team.
Lead in providing responses to planning consultations in accordance with current legislation, government guidance and NRW OGNs.
Assess and determine applications received for Flood Risk Activity Permits from External and Internal customers.
Provide technical advice to individual planning applications requiring Flood Consequence Assessments.
Advise Welsh Government through our DPAS function regarding applications that may require “call-in”.
Provide technical advice to encourage the implementation of flood resilient design using experience to identify risks and identifying effective solutions.
Support Health & Safety best practice by actively promoting awareness and ensuring the provision of safe working practices to comply with NRW’s policy and standards.
Contribute to service improvement projects, working with dispersed project teams drawn from across Directorates and/or organisations.
Required to take part in incident response activities

Qualifications, Experience & Knowledge

Knowledge and experience of the following:

Educated to degree level in a science or engineering discipline.
Member of appropriate professional body (e.g. CIWEM or ICE) and working towards becoming chartered in the near future.
Excellent communication and analytical skills.
Understanding of TAN15 and planning in relation to Flood Risk
Understanding of flood risk mechanisms/sources of flooding and fluvial hydrology.
Strong and effective self-management and organisational skills.
Good knowledge and experience of GIS systems and data management.
Good report writing skills.
Must have a full UK driving licence.

Welsh Language Requirements:

Essential Level 1 – Able to pronounce Welsh and use basic phrases

Desirable Level 4 – Fluent in spoken Welsh

Please note if you do not meet the level 1 requirement i.e., ability to understand basic phrases and ability to pronounce Welsh names correctly, then NRW offers a variety of learning options and staff support to help you meet these minimal requirements during your employment with us.

Competencies

Please note - Applications to this role will be assessed based on the following competencies, both at shortlisting and interview. Please give examples of how you demonstrate these competencies when completing your application form.

Essential Knowledge and Skills	Expertise gained in a defined area or function, enabling the post holder to provide advice and guidance to others. Demonstrates a sound understanding and appreciation of the work of the wider function. Has good literacy, numeracy and communication skills including well developed customer facing skills. Experience of supervising others is desirable.
Evaluation of Information	Demonstrates the ability to understand information, procedure manuals, statutory codes and legislation and interpret and apply the requirements to undertake their role. Able to analyse and process non-routine technical information, containing a degree of complexity.
Decision Making and Autonomy Requirements	Ability to decide how best to achieve results, requiring some degree of judgment and creativity and the need to alter priorities where there are conflicting demands. Able to solve problems and make decisions of a technical nature; primarily around their own area of work but will also cross over with the work of others. Problems and decisions may contain a degree of complexity and require the need to apply different techniques or methods. Ability to undertake research to determine how best to resolve issues. Able to provide guidance to less experienced members, to resolve problems.
Impact	The work undertaken is generally within a discrete area, so will primarily affect the direct environment, but may also extend across other subject and work areas. Aspects of the work may also have the potential, if carried out incorrectly, to impact on third parties and a wider area.
Communication and Relationships with Others	Demonstrates the ability to interact and communicate with people around their area of expertise, across a range of functions within NRW and external parties, adapting their approach and style appropriately. Well established inter-personal and communication skills with the ability to develop and sustain good working relationships, which may involve a degree of influencing.

Benefits of Working for us

This role will offer a range of benefits, including:

Agile and Flexible working (role dependent)
Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 26.6% to 30.3%
28 days Annual Leave, rising to 33 days
Generous Leave entitlements for all your life needs
Health and Wellbeing Benefits and Support
Weekly Well-being Hour to use at your choice

See full details for all the employee benefits you will receive.

How to Apply

Please send a completed Application form to Applications@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk using the post number as the email reference

Before completing your application, please read our Guidance on completing a job application form

Application closing date 12 February 2023

Interviews will take place through Microsoft Teams

If you have any queries about the role, please contact Rachel Thomas at rachel.thomas@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk or 0300 065 3319

Natural Resources Wales embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunity. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition.

We welcome and encourage applications from groups currently underrepresented, including women, black and ethnic minority groups and people with a disability. We have a guaranteed interview scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

We put the principles of human rights, equality, fairness, dignity and respect at the heart of our values.

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