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Flood Forecasting Lead Specialist Advisor

Employer
Natural Resources Wales
Location
Cardiff, Cardiff (Caerdydd)
Salary
Competitive
Closing date
31 Dec 2020

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Job Details

This is an exciting new opportunity to join our national Flood Forecasting team. Natural Resources Wales has a statutory duty to provide a flood warning service to communities at risk of flooding in Wales. Our flood forecasting service makes a crucial contribution to informing the decisions we make on communicating developing flood risk to professional partners, issuing warnings and our operational response to our assets.

The Flood Forecasting team is responsible for delivery our policy, strategy, modelling and systems which enable Natural Resources Wales to provide a flood forecasting service for 185 locations at risk of river and coastal flooding in Wales. The team also provides a 24/7 operational forecasting service for communities in Wales at risk of river and coastal flooding, through a Monitoring and Forecasting Duty Officer standby rota supported by a dedicated incident room.

We are recruiting a new Lead Specialist Advisor role to lead the development of NRW's flood forecasting policy and strategy and to deliver the transformation and continuous improvement of our flood forecasting capabilities. The role will lead programmes of work to improve our capabilities and provide lead technical and specialist advice internally and externally. It will also be responsible for commissioning research and evaluating evidence.

This role will support and work closely with our national Flood Warning & Informing team in delivering an ambitious programme of work to improve our flood forecasting and warning services over the next five years, including drawing on lessons learnt from recent severe flooding in Wales. This will entail close working with the Met Office and the joint Flood Forecasting Centre as well as with customers in Wales, so we ensure any new forecasting capabilities we introduce are resilient, meet customer needs and keep pace with scientific understanding and technological change.

Key areas of focus over the next few years will be how we can make use of probabilistic forecasts and communicate uncertainty in our forecasts, using these capabilities to improve our communication of the likelihood and impact of flooding to professional partners and the public, including through our flood warnings.

As well as delivering within this specialist team, the Lead Specialist Advisor will be expected to contribute directly to our 24/7 flood forecasting and warning service delivery through joining our Monitoring and Forecasting Duty Officer rota. This rota provides a flood forecasting service for river and coastal flooding across Wales which is used to inform our flood warning decisions and our operational response on the ground.

Applying for this post

The following competencies will be used to assess the quality of applications both at sift and interview. Please read the whole of the Role Description to ascertain at what level this information needs to be presented.

  • Essential Knowledge and Skills
  • Evaluation of Information
  • Decision Making and Autonomy
  • Impact
  • Communications and Relationships with Others
  • Responsibility for Resources

Other information relevant to the job

The post holder in this role will contribute to the delivery of our operational flood forecasting service by undertaking the role of the Monitoring and Forecasting Duty Officer. This is a rota’d duty officer role, on standby duty, 24/7, approximately one week in every six. Those on the rota are also expected to be available, as far as is reasonable, to assist in operational response (e.g. temporary shift rotas) during prolonged flood events, when not on standby. These additional duties are eligible for standby and overtime payments

Company

Natural resources in Wales are fantastic - rugged mountains and woodlands, beautiful landscapes and coastlines, and amazing wildlife.

They are vital for our survival and provide us with the basic things we need to live: clean air, clean water, and food. They create jobs for thousands of people like farmers, foresters, and tourist operators, creating wealth and prosperity.

They give us all a better quality of life and opportunities to enjoy the outdoors against a backdrop of Wales’ natural beauty and heritage. People come from far and wide to experience them. They are intrinsically linked with Welsh culture and language.

It’s our job in Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to look after these natural resources and what they provide for us: to help reduce the risk to people and properties of flooding and pollution; to look after special places for well-being, wildlife and timber; and to work with others to help us all to manage them sustainably. The people who work here in NRW have the knowledge, expertise, and passion to help make the sustainable management of natural resources a reality.

Company info
Website
Telephone
0300 065 4040

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