Marine Support Officers x2

Post Title: Marine Support Officers
(x2)
Team: Marine Monitoring, Marine Protected Areas
Ref No: 2023127 & 202410
Grade: O (EO)
Type of appointment: Permanent (MPA Team), 18 Month (Monitoring
Team)

This post will have a base in either Peterborough or Aberdeen.

JNCC has adopted a hybrid working approach, allowing colleagues to benefit from time in
the office, with the flexibility also to work from home. Employees are expected to work from
our office base for 1 – 2 days a month as a minimum, this will vary by team and the exact
balance will depend on the nature of your role. We can provide more details at the interview
and offer stages.

Who are JNCC?

Established in 1991, we’re the UK’s statutory advisor on issues affecting the natural
environment across the UK and internationally. Our primary role is advising all four
Governments of the UK. We also work with private sector organisations to support decision
making on the sustainable use of marine waters and natural resources around the UK. JNCC is led
by the Joint Committee, which brings together members from the nature conservation bodies for
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and independent members appointed by the
Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under an independent Chair.
Support is provided to the Committee by approx. 300 people who bring together scientific and
technical expertise, extensive knowledge of policy at global, European and national levels, and
skills in working with other organisations. Staff are based in two main offices in Peterborough
and Aberdeen.

Why JNCC?

We’re small enough (c.300 staff) that your voice is heard by everyone including the
CEO, but big enough that we have all the skills, resources and people you’ll need to get the
job done. All our staff are passionate about conservation and making a difference to the world
we live in. We have a very flexible, inclusive and welcoming organisational culture. Our
Executive Management provides employees with the freedom and tools you will need, and our
friendly team will assist you in your role.

JNCC is committed to maintaining employee health and wellbeing, whether it is
physically, emotionally, financially or socially, and offers a range of benefits to support
employees in this. Such benefits include the option to join the Civil Service Pension Scheme,
professional and personal development opportunities as well as an exciting job in a unique
environment. 

Hours of work: Full-time

Normal minimum hours of attendance for the post are 36 hours per week over a 5-day period,
Monday to Friday.

Flexi time is available. This post may also be suitable for job share.

Annual Leave:

The annual leave allowance is 25 days per year, rising to 30 days per year after 5 years’
service. There are also 12 days public and privilege leave. Part-time staff will receive this
on a pro rata basis.

Background

JNCC are seeking to appoint two Marine Support Officers; one based in JNCC’s Marine Monitoring
Team on an 18-month fixed term contract in the first instance, and one based in JNCC’s Marine
Protected Areas (MPA) Team on a permanent contract.

The Marine Monitoring Support Officer will work in the Marine Monitoring Team.
The team covers a range of activities including organising and delivering offshore seabed
surveys, collating and analysing survey data to complete survey reports, improving access to
and managing marine biological and protected area data, understanding human impacts on the
marine environment and providing expert advice to national and international fora. The team
interacts with several others within JNCC, including the Evidence Team to ensure collected data
is accessible and available to support advice, MPA team on MPA monitoring programmes and the
Marine Ecosystems Team to ensure survey design and outputs meet reporting requirements. The
post holder will work with these teams to provide relevant data to and improve data access.

The MPA Marine Support Officer will play a critical role in the effective
delivery of JNCC’s diverse work portfolio on MPAs. Principally, the post offers essential
support in the communication of information on UK offshore MPAs to our external customers (most
notably through JNCC’s MPA Site Information Centres), supporting ongoing liaison with
Governments and provision of advice around offshore MPA and Highly Protected Marine Area (HPMA)
designations, facilitating the flow of information on offshore MPAs amongst our team and other
teams within JNCC, and more general support to the work of JNCC’s work on MPAs.

Post Duties

Please indicate in your Personal Statement when completing your application form
whether you are interested in being considered for one of the particular posts advertised here
or both. The detailed descriptions of each role are as follows:

Marine Monitoring Support Officer

Offshore seabed survey support – Contribute to planning of MPA monitoring
surveys including:

• To assist survey planning leads in developing plans for offshore MPA monitoring surveys
  with partners including Cefas and Marine Scotland Science by preparing and managing survey data
  packages for internal and external use;
• Coordinating use of offshore seabed survey equipment and Personal Protective Equipment
  across JNCC;
• Supporting the provision of seabed samples (e.g. taxonomic reference collections, genomic
  and carbon sub-samples) to museums and other partners;
• Updating offshore seabed survey webpages as and when required e.g. following surveys,
  report publication; and
• Promoting JNCC’s work by publicising reports and surveys and through presence at
  conferences etc.

Benthic survey data management – Assist with the management of marine data,
including:

• Data management and metadata cataloguing of incoming datasets in accordance with the
  benthic survey data ingestion protocol;
• Assisting with the ongoing organisation of third-party data, including ascertaining usage
  permissions;
• Assisting with the external storage and publication of survey datasets (e.g. DACs);
• Running periodic reports to summarise UK marine data;
• Contributing to development work on the Marine Recorder application.

Answering internal and external data queries – jointly manage the Foreign
Commonwealth & Development Office survey inbox and Offshore MPAs email inbox and handle
other requests for data, responding to a variety of queries within 21 days of receipt.

Other support work – Contribute to other aspects of the team’s work as
required and to improve the team’s flexibility and resilience. Including taking minutes and
organising meetings.

MPA Marine Support Officer

• Support MPA Site Leads – This will include work on the maintenance of our online Site
  Information Centres, maintaining master copies of individual site GIS files, and responding to
  queries from internal and external customers.
• GIS and mapping support – Manipulation of geospatial data (ecological, physical and human
  activities) using ArcGIS/qGIS to produce high quality and consistent GIS outputs.
• Supporting our Marine Monitoring and Evidence Teams – facilitating the flow of information
  on offshore MPAs and the ingestion of marine survey data.
• Development of conservation advice – Help develop JNCC advice on the conservation of
  protected features to support JNCC’s provision of advice on management measures, monitoring
  survey planning and assessment reporting.
• Supporting liaison with Governments around offshore MPA & Highly Protected Marine Area
  designations – Providing input to queries and assistance in the preparation of further formal
  advice on offshore MPAs & HPMAs.
• Supporting our implementation of technical assistance programmes to ODA-eligible
  countries – Providing support to theme and country leads on our international MPA technical
  assistance work under the Ocean Country Partnership Programme.
• Supporting wider MPA team work as appropriate.

Technical

To be a successful candidate for either post, you will be/have:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent qualification in a relevant subject and/or relevant
  recent practical work experience that provides the following knowledge, experience and
  behaviours.

Experience (Responsibilities)

To be a successful candidate for either post, you will have:

• Experience using GIS to map, manipulate and interpret datasets (preferably using ArcGIS or
  QGIS).
• Experience in managing and ensuring the quality assurance of large-scale datasets.
• Ability to use standard office software (word, presentational software and the internet),
  in particular experience using spreadsheets to interrogate and manipulate data in a logical and
  methodical manner (preferably MS Office
• A broad understanding of marine nature conservation work in UK, ideally in relation to work
  on MPAs.
• Knowledge of quality assurance and quality control standards and procedures for Marine
  survey and monitoring, and assessment/mapping data.

Behaviours

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

In the event that we receive a large volume of applications we reserve the right to conduct the
sift based on the Lead Behaviour of Working Together

Please see the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade.

Nationality requirements 

This job is broadly open to the following groups: 

• UK nationals
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply
  for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the
  Civil Service
• certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

JNCC do not provide sponsorship.

Closing date and interview date

The closing date for this post is 23:55 on Sunday, 07 April 2024

The anticipated interview date is week commencing Monday, 15 April 2024