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Lead Radioactivity & Industry Policy Specialist Advisor

Closing Date: 5 March 2023 | Salary: £41,150 - £46,147 (Grade 7) | Location: Flexible

Contract type: Fixed Term appointment until 31 March 2024

Work pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week.

Post numbers: 203465

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.

Working with Senior Specialist Advisors you will help support the 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, assist in the development of 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 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

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 and new legislation, interpretation of relevant legislation, advice and guidance for the specific sector(s) and areas of responsibility.
Maintain a detailed working knowledge of the assigned sector(s) identifying the implications of legislative, technology and market changes for Natural Resources Wales and the sector(s).
Support the development of staff across NRW by applying technical, legislative and regulatory knowledge and experience.
Develop, review and improve technical documentation, to enable consistent and appropriate understanding and application by staff in the business that enables effective service provision.
Contribute to the delivery of the team’s business plan, the directorate delivery plan and NRWs corporate plan.
Support 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.
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.
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	Able to undertake complex practical or technical tasks or work, requiring advanced specialist knowledge in the relevant subject matter. Able to provide objective advice to others on related issues based on their knowledge and experience, keeping up to date with advances and changes within their specialist field. Demonstrates relevant substantial experience. Able to demonstrate a high level of knowledge, and personal and professional credibility, for example, able to act as an expert witness in a public enquiry. Able to 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	Able to interpret relevant delivery plans and understand their context in the wider national and NRW policy and strategy. Able to analyse and interpret a wide range of information, which may be of a technical nature, extracting key points and communicate them to individuals at all levels.
Decision Making and Autonomy Requirements	Ability to decide how best to achieve results, with the need for some judgment or creativity to alter priorities due to conflicting demands. Responsible for making independent decisions based on input from line management and peers; an understanding of NRW policy; the range of options available; and their potential implications for the business. Able to lead and project manage specific, complex and often challenging issues, that typically carry a high degree of reputational risk. An appreciation that decisions (which may relate to national policy) may be made, leading to changes in established procedures/practices within the post-holder’s area of work. Demonstrates an appreciation of the consequences of making wrong decisions and the adverse effect they may have on the organisation in relation to its external stakeholders, such as partner organisations, lenders, service users etc.
Impact	Demonstrates an awareness of how their decisions may encompass a broad range of matters and that the outcomes may not always be immediately clear or apparent. An appreciation that the impact of decisions made by the post holder are likely to be wider than the immediate function or department, and likely to be medium term and from an external perspective, may be at a national level.
Communication and Relationships with Others	The post holder will have considerable external stakeholder connections and may be expected to represent the organisation externally, conveying specialist knowledge. Able to interact and foster good working relationships with senior leaders internally and externally, at a national and UK level. Able to discuss policy issues with others, which may be highly technical, specialist or detailed in nature, tailoring the method, style and level of communication appropriately to the audience. The work will involve written and verbal communications; and leading key projects with a high degree of complexity, requiring excellent communication and persuasive skills. Able to facilitate and/or present at internal or external meetings, providing advice on complex technical or specialist issues, including legislative changes and steering the direction of discussion or activities. Able to foster and maintain good relationships and networks. Ability to produce moderately complex documents, reports, accounts, contracts etc., containing advice, guidance or opinion which the recipient will act upon or use, and would have detrimental consequences if incorrect or poorly drafted. Ability to source data and content from multiple locations requiring external research and professional judgment in how such research should be interpreted. The impact of such documentation is likely to be generally 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 atpaul.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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