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Senior Radioactivity & Industry Policy Specialist Advisor

Closing Date: 5 March 2023 | Salary: £47,408 - £52,359 (Grade 8) | Location: Flexible

Contract type: Fixed Term appointment until 31 March 2024

Work pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week.

Post numbers: 203464

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

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Radioactivity and Industry Policy Team to help Wales become a Net Zero nation by no later than 2050 through the decarbonisation of industry.

You will help drive innovation of Natural Resources Wales’s approach relating to regulation of industrial scale decarbonisation projects in Wales, whilst seeking to ensure other environmental issues are not ignored, including circular economy and resource efficiency, air and water quality, and opportunities to support ecosystem resilience. You will be required to interpret legislation, gather evidence, develop operational policy, guidance, and tools as appropriate to ensure decarbonisation can be achieved as quickly as possible within the appropriate legislative frameworks. This will also involve working with NRW Regulatory Approaches teams to secure regulator approaches that are effective and proportionate.

You will have relevant experience to provide a high level of professional specialist expertise to Welsh Government to enable them to develop new legislation (including EPR reform) and will be required to engage and advise ‘Industrial Clusters’ across Wales, individual industries, Governments, and partner Agencies. You will also work closely with Operational staff providing advice and guidance.

As a professional specialist for you will support operational, permitting and wider policy teams in the following work areas:

Hydrogen (and other low/zero carbon fuel) production;
Carbon Capture and Utilisation;
Industrial Processes;
Energy and heat generation via combustion;
Control of industrial emissions.
Environmental management systems

The post holder will also liaise with the Industry Regulation & Community Engagement Lead Specialist Advisors within the operational industry regulation teams to help develop and review new ways of working that will enhance our interaction with local communities in relation to the environmental performance of the industrial installation(s). This will include regular reporting of progress made to Welsh Government.

Due to the wide portfolio of the Radioactivity and Industry Policy team, there may also be opportunities to be involved in other policy work undertaken within the team as we build resilience and succession plan.

Responsibilities

Your responsibilities include:

Be the principle point of contact with the relevant UK and Welsh Trade Associations, Government Departments and environmental regulators, both UK and European, to share information and work together on the development of operational policy, interpretation of relevant legislation and new legislation, advice and guidance for the Industry Regulation, COMAH, Climate Change Regulation and control of Air Quality, Noise and Health.
Lead on or support national projects to achieve well planned and managed integrated solutions that progress effective change and improvement in NRW and for business across Wales.
Engage with and seek to influence the plans and strategies of Welsh and UK Government officials, EU officials, JNCC, other UK environmental bodies, and sector and industry bodies in Wales.
Identify and manage any organisational and reputational risks, displaying sound judgement and good political awareness in decision making.
Specifically lead on the mentoring and coaching of Advisors within the team to ensure that the team has sufficient technical and legislative resilience for your assigned area of work.
Ensure that continuous improvement methods are applied to work areas the team undertake.
Develop, review and improve technical documentation, to enable consistent and appropriate understanding and application by staff in the business that enables effective service provision.
Required to take part in incident response activities.

Qualifications, experience and knowledge

Knowledge and experience of the following:

Extensive knowledge of Welsh, UK and EU legislation related to your specific sector(s); Welsh, UK government Policy drivers in Industry Regulation, Climate Change Regulation and control of Air Quality, Noise and Health.
Excellent technical understanding of their assigned area of work, with strong analytical skills and experience of managing successful projects, achieved through substantial work experience in a related field.
Experience in informing and influencing government departments/regulators, preferably on environmental issues.
Extensive experience in forming and maintaining close links with internal and external partners/stakeholders to deliver the outcomes of both a specific function/project/team and the wider organisation.
Experience of understanding and applying regulatory activities.
Be able to work at pace and have a track record of delivery.
Being innovative and demonstrating drive to achieve targets.
You will be expected to keep up to date with changing regulatory policy and proposed changes to legislation via membership of a relevant professional body or other equivalent means.

Welsh language requirements

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

Desirable Level 3 – Able to communicate with confidence in Welsh in some work situations

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 the course of your employment with us.

Competencies

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	Ability to undertake complex, higher level practical or technical work. The post holder will have advanced specialist knowledge and experience in the relevant subject matter and provide objective advice to others on issues. They will keep up to date on advances and changes within their technical/ specialist fields with an ability to interpret and apply updated knowledge as appropriate. The post holder will have the highest level of standing internally and externally. The post holder will have substantial and extensive experience and knowledge of the relevant field through working in different organisations or in different roles in a single organisation. Ability to demonstrate and operate a depth and breadth of technical knowledge with a high level of complexity and technical difficulty at a national and UK level. Alternatively, they will demonstrate a high technical/ specialist knowledge in a more narrow subject matter but with real depth enabling them to work at national, UK and international level. Post holders will have a high level of knowledge as well as personal and professional credibility required to act as an expert witness in a public enquiry. Post holder will demonstrate good mentoring, knowledge sharing and supervisory skills as well as the ability to set strategic direction for themselves, their area and others.
Evaluation of Information	Interprets the function’s delivery plans and understands their context in the wider national and NRW policy and strategy. Able to analyse and interpret a wide range of often highly complex information, extracting key points and communicating this to individuals at all levels.
Decision Making and Autonomy Requirements	The post holder is able to decide how best to achieve results, guided by expected results. Peers will provide guidance, but a degree of judgment or creativity will be applied. Objectives and targets will be reviewed on an intermediate basis and they will need to be able to alter priorities as a result of conflicting demands. With input from line management and peers, will be responsible for making independent decisions at management level. The post holder will have an understanding of NRW policy and their potential implications for the business. Post holders will lead, and project manage specific, more complex and often challenging issues, working at a strategic level that will carry a high degree of reputational risk. Decisions made, may lead to changes in established procedure/practice for within the post-holder’s area of work. The consequence of making the wrong decisions, will have an adverse effect on the organisation in relation to its external stakeholders. Decisions may relate to national policy. Decisions may concern a broad range of matters and the outcomes of some decisions may not always be immediately clear or apparent. Problems encountered may also relate to the work of other parts of the organisation and could be variable and diverse. The impact of decisions is likely to be wider than the immediate function or department and is likely to be medium term.
Impact	Post holders have a moderate to high level of impact and influence, which is generally medium to longer term in impact. The post holder's decisions and actions will influence others. The consequences of their decision making/ action will have a medium to long term impact internally or externally. The impact of decisions are wider than the immediate function or department and likely to be medium term. The impact of decision from an external perspective may be at a national level.
Communication and Relationships with Others	Ability to represent the organisation externally and to liaise with stakeholders to convey specialist knowledge. Interaction and relationships with be with senior level individuals both internally and externally at a Wales and UK level. Ability to discuss highly specialist and detailed technical policy issues, tailoring the method, style and level of communication appropriately for the audience. This will involve written and verbal communication. The post holder will lead key projects, which will have a high degree of complexity requiring higher level communication and persuasive skills. This may also include facilitating and/or presenting at internal or external meetings, giving a high level of complex technical or specialist advice, including legislative changes and input. They will need to steer the direction of discussion or activities. There will be a requirement to foster and maintain good relationships and networks. Ability to produce moderately complex documents, reports, accounts, contracts etc. Documentation will contain advice, guidance or opinion which the recipient will act upon or use. The consequences of incorrect or poorly drafted documentation is likely to have a detrimental impact. Ability to source data from multiple locations, entailing external research and a degree of professional judgment in how such research should be interpreted. The impact of such documentation is likely to be longer term in nature.

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 5 March 2023

Interviews will take place through Microsoft Teams

If you have any queries about the role, please contact Paul Gibson at paul.gibson@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk

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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