About us
At the Environment Agency our mission is simple: protect the environment to ensure tomorrow's generations inherit a cleaner, safer, healthier world. Our Operations Delivery department helps maintain river channels and flood defences and plays a vital role in protecting wildlife and safeguarding people throughout the region.
As a lead Management Field Operative you will be acting in a site supervisor capacity within one of our Field teams, whose purpose is to protect people and the environment by maintaining and operating our flood and coastal risk management assets and responding to incidents. This role is a field-based role and you will be required to work outside in all weathers.
The Environment Agency are a Category 1 responder and as such you will take part in a regular standby roster, which means you will be available to respond to an incident or emergency 24/7 over a 7-day period. You will be paid to do this in addition to your basic pay and you may also be invited to work in different parts of the country during extreme flooding.
Asset Maintenance and Incident Response teams have a range of technical skills they use to deliver watercourse maintenance. The team handle a variety of specialist equipment including plant and boats to support the prevention or mitigation of incidents day and night.
In your role as lead management field operative you will lead and supervise the team in operational and maintenance activities such as:-
• Maintaining and repairing our watercourse and flood defence assets
• Regular tasks include grass cutting, tree Works, removing blockages, clearing trash screens and minor construction works
• Inspection of our assets to ensure public safety
It’s your environent, so join us and help the country to not only survive but thrive through the challenges of a changing climate.
In this role you will:
- Work as part of a team in a supervisory capacity while being outside in all weathers
- Be trained and supported to contribute to our response to incidents inside and outside of normal working hours
- Undertake specialist training as and when required
Where you will work
This role is based out of our depot in Hanwell. You will be expected to travel to this depot to check in daily and then will be dispersed from there predominantly within North London to supervise the field work tasks for that day. More on this and the shift patterns will be explained at the interview.
Interviews will take place at the Hanwell depot. There will be a practical element as well as some interview questions.
What do you need?
- A good understanding of why site health and safety requirements are in place and an ability to ensure procedures are followed to minimise risk to those you would be supervising
- Experience of working with others where you have demonstrated your supervisory or leadership skills (note: this could be from any role you have held. Having previous people management, supervisory or leadership experience would be beneficial but if this is a career change don’t worry as we provide all the training and support needed)
- Good communication skills
- Be literate and numerate
- The ability to carry out tasks and answer queries effectively
- Competency in using IT devices, such as an iPad, and willingness to learn our in-house systems
- Have a full-UK driving licence
- Some experience in asset operation or maintenance/incident response/use of equipment/tools would be beneficial, but is not essential
If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you. Click apply and start your application today!
What you will get
You’ll benefit from a culture that embraces difference and includes everyone, where you’ll feel supported and trusted to do the right thing. We’ll invest in you and allow you to grow and shape your career. Specifically, we will support you to complete and achieve our mandatory Water Environment Worker apprenticeship.
What’s more, you’ll have access to our great benefits package including:
- Annual salary of £23,049 plus Outer London Weighting allowance of £1,929 per annum
- Overtime opportunities through standby and incident pay
- A generous career average pension scheme
- 25 days holiday + 8 bank holidays
- Wellbeing programmes
- Employee benefits
WEW Apprenticeship
As a new member of Field Operations, you will be expected to enrol on the Water Environment Worker (WEW) Level 3 Apprenticeship: the primary mechanism for training new employees in Field Operations.
The WEW Apprenticeship covers whole life asset management and major incident response, as well as providing the opportunity to work alongside partners, contractors, and members of the public. Apprentices will come away with enhanced environmental awareness and a better understanding of HSW applied to their role; it was designed to ensure we give our people the right skills to be our future asset maintainers and operators. The apprenticeship benefits the whole team as well as the individual by instantly putting their training, knowledge, and skills into practice.
To complete the WEW Apprenticeship you will need to either have Level 2 in Numeracy and Literacy (e.g. GCSE A-C, O Levels A-C) or be prepared to develop with support an equivalent level of capability as part of the apprenticeship. If you do not hold the qualifications, you will be supported through the process of obtaining them through BKSB (an organisation that provides Literacy and Numeracy certification).
Contact and Additional Information
At the Environment Agency, we go above and beyond when it comes to diversity - we seek out new perspectives, welcome different experiences and promote inclusivity both within our staff team as well as wider communities. We're on a mission to create lasting change for people's lives across every corner of society.
Responding to incidents is a central part of what we do. You will be required to have an incident role and make yourself available to respond to incidents, or provide business continuity support during an incident. This may attract an additional payment and full training and workplace adjustments will be available to support you with your incident role.
If you have any questions regarding the vacancy please contact the local recruitment team at wfpg_hnl@environment-agency.gov.uk. For any questions regarding the application process please contact the recruitment team at earecruitment@peoplescout.co.uk.
The information in the candidate pack is available and should be read in conjunction with the advert to understand key accountabilities and skills for success in this role.
