Principal Consultant- Water Quality & Catchment Science

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

Do you have the drive and technical capability to work with us as a Principal Consultant in Water Quality, leading the future of Atkins’ service offerings and capability in this area? The role will be influential within a respected technical team and you will be responsible for enhancing our technical excellence, increasing revenue growth and 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 principal 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: developing and agreeing the scope of services; managing, mentoring, developing and supervising junior resources; engaging with clients, winning work and actively progressing a suite of tasks / projects under your control. You will have an excellent grasp of project procedures including financial and change control, report writing, ability to present, and quality assurance through checking and reviewing. In addition, you will lead work-winning activities. 

You’ll be expected to lead 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’ll be expected to shape the delivery of key technical areas related to catchment science, water quality planning and modelling. You’d also be expected to lead enquiries and provide key input to proposals for the future success of the business.

You will be required to produce and supervise the production of high quality client and public-facing deliverables, demonstrated through excellence in communication and ability to present visualisations and interpretation of complex data, and to undertake and lead water quality data analysis to support projects. On an on-going basis, you’ll be supporting project managers and directors in delivering a range of projects, including strategic infrastructure projects where we also provide an internally facing consultancy service.

Requirements – all applicants

• Chartered Scientist or Environmentalist who has demonstrable strengths in catchment science and water quality management.
• 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).
• Experience in at least one of the following fields: environmental chemistry, aquatic/marine biogeochemistry, river water quality assessment, or water quality modelling.
• Experience in leading water quality projects through the project life cycle of problem definition, data collection and analysis, interpretation to drawing succinct conclusions and recommendations.
• Have a good understanding of catchment processes and influences on water quality as well as an appreciation of water quality modelling approaches.
• Be recognised as a leading figure across the industry amongst water companies and regulators. This could be demonstrated through direct technical leadership or management of high profile projects, and a well-established network of client relationships.
• Have a sound understanding of client needs, their opportunities and challenges with a track record of leading and winning work.
• 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.
• Experience in project management is desirable, alongside ability to provide technical leadership of projects or tasks
• Have a valid UK driving license, be available to travel across the UK and occasionally overseas.

Additional requirements for those applying for applied water quality positions:

• Experience of designing water quality monitoring programmes
• Application of a range of monitoring technologies and approaches
• Knowledge of hydrochemical processes and environmental legislation
• Have a good understanding of pollution control and abatement measures.

Additional requirements for those applying for water quality modelling positions:

• Water quality data analysis and modelling expertise in at least 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.
• Ability to interpret water quality modelling outputs

The Individual

• Highly motivated and proactive, with an entrepreneurial spirit; focused on achieving and delivering technical excellence.
• High level technical performance, with a strong reputation.
• 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
• An influencer who is well organised, able to lead teams and 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, whether chartered with 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.