32722 - Natural Capital Senior Advisor
| Posting date: | 19 January 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £54,940 per year, pro rata |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 01 February 2026 |
| Location: | UK |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 5 days per week |
| Company: | Environment Agency |
| Job type: | Contract |
| Job reference: | 32722 |
Summary
This is an exciting opportunity to lead, shape and deliver evidence and tools to embed a natural capital approach in the Environment Agency, helping to reverse the decline in nature and tackle the climate emergency.
The role will focus on developing evidence and tools that enhance our understanding of natural assets and ecosystem services, enabling planning and decisions that support better environmental and socio-economic outcomes. This work will be undertaken as part of the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment programme - Defra’s largest research and development programme; surveying England’s land, freshwater, and coastal ecosystems to produce a baseline assessment of our natural assets.
As part of the Chief Scientist’s Group, you will also work across the organisation and with external partners, to develop, advocate for and translate natural capital evidence for operational delivery.
As a collaborative and organised technical leader you will:
• Use your knowledge of environmental science to work with technical specialists across many disciplines to develop evidence for the condition of natural assets, so that we can reliably understand their capacity to provide ecosystem services.
• Shape and lead projects that enable visualisation of, and access to, our natural capital evidence base.
• Implement robust and consistent data management to ensure natural capital evidence and indicators can be maintained, updated and communicated clearly across multiple policy and planning contexts.
• Use your excellent interpersonal skills to support colleagues and external partners to trial and embed natural capital evidence and tools into business processes that support a source-to-sea natural capital approach and share learning for continuous improvement.
The team
The Natural Capital and Evidence Synthesis team is friendly, collaborative and supportive.
We lead the Environment Agency's work on natural capital - developing evidence and tools and helping embed their use in operational delivery.
Our team is based in the Chief Scientist's Group, which forms part of the national office. We help achieve our organisation’s vision to create better ways of delivering environmental outcomes through our evidence, expertise and innovation.
Experience/skills required
We are looking for a technical leader who can work at pace, with the curiosity to learn and respond to what our partners need from this innovative approach to environmental management.
Desirable experience and skills:
• Understanding of natural capital and its application to environmental management, or willingness to develop this from a background in a related discipline (e.g. freshwater, terrestrial or marine ecosystems, environmental economics, water management).
• Applied data and analysis skills including leading projects which develop evidence to shape operational practice (useful for evidence and tools role).
• Knowledge of Environment Agency business and our partners.
• Strong relationship building and influencing skills with experience of shaping and delivering ideas collaboratively.
• Organised and flexible, with strong planning and project management skills
• Problem solving, comfortable working with uncertainty, and experience of implementing innovative solutions.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Being inclusive and valuing diversity in its broadest sense.
The role will focus on developing evidence and tools that enhance our understanding of natural assets and ecosystem services, enabling planning and decisions that support better environmental and socio-economic outcomes. This work will be undertaken as part of the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment programme - Defra’s largest research and development programme; surveying England’s land, freshwater, and coastal ecosystems to produce a baseline assessment of our natural assets.
As part of the Chief Scientist’s Group, you will also work across the organisation and with external partners, to develop, advocate for and translate natural capital evidence for operational delivery.
As a collaborative and organised technical leader you will:
• Use your knowledge of environmental science to work with technical specialists across many disciplines to develop evidence for the condition of natural assets, so that we can reliably understand their capacity to provide ecosystem services.
• Shape and lead projects that enable visualisation of, and access to, our natural capital evidence base.
• Implement robust and consistent data management to ensure natural capital evidence and indicators can be maintained, updated and communicated clearly across multiple policy and planning contexts.
• Use your excellent interpersonal skills to support colleagues and external partners to trial and embed natural capital evidence and tools into business processes that support a source-to-sea natural capital approach and share learning for continuous improvement.
The team
The Natural Capital and Evidence Synthesis team is friendly, collaborative and supportive.
We lead the Environment Agency's work on natural capital - developing evidence and tools and helping embed their use in operational delivery.
Our team is based in the Chief Scientist's Group, which forms part of the national office. We help achieve our organisation’s vision to create better ways of delivering environmental outcomes through our evidence, expertise and innovation.
Experience/skills required
We are looking for a technical leader who can work at pace, with the curiosity to learn and respond to what our partners need from this innovative approach to environmental management.
Desirable experience and skills:
• Understanding of natural capital and its application to environmental management, or willingness to develop this from a background in a related discipline (e.g. freshwater, terrestrial or marine ecosystems, environmental economics, water management).
• Applied data and analysis skills including leading projects which develop evidence to shape operational practice (useful for evidence and tools role).
• Knowledge of Environment Agency business and our partners.
• Strong relationship building and influencing skills with experience of shaping and delivering ideas collaboratively.
• Organised and flexible, with strong planning and project management skills
• Problem solving, comfortable working with uncertainty, and experience of implementing innovative solutions.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Being inclusive and valuing diversity in its broadest sense.