6601 - Senior Data Scientist - Marine
| Posting date: | 10 June 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £39,660 per year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 28 June 2026 |
| Location: | UK |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 4 days per week |
| Company: | Natural England |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 6601 |
Summary
Data Science Services (DSS) is part of the Analysis Directorate. We are a large, national team and have broad skills including data science, analysis and statistics. We are passionate about quality technical delivery and continuous improvement, using novel data science approaches to help everyone understand nature recovery. We are looking for a Senior Data Scientist (Statistician) who can lead delivery and drive improvement on a range of projects.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone with a passion and expertise in spatial modelling and climate change impacts to marine ecosystems.
Job description
To lead the development and delivery of robust analytical and data programmes and projects to increase efficiency and provide improved evidence to support the organisation’s strategic objectives. To apply specialist skills and domain expertise to identify opportunities for data science to improve the evidence base to support the organisation’s strategic objectives. To ensure quality and promote appropriate use of data and analysis (including uncertainty) to minimise risk and increase robustness of evidence underpinning advice, decision-making and delivery.
This role has the initial focus projects involving analysis and modelling of climate change impacts on habitats. This work will primarily be working on Natural England’s Blue Carbon projects as well as projects around the assessment of risk posed to designated features due to climate change. This role would suit a data scientist who have an expertise in marine climate change impacts and spatial modelling.
Key responsibilities:
• Lead small teams and programmes of work to carry out complex statistical analyses, improving efficiency and quality, in order to meet the evidence needs of a variety of Natural England, Defra group and other stakeholders.
• Liaise with project managers and teams to establish project planning and resourcing so that projects are delivered efficiently, with appropriate resource and capability, to a high standard, and progress, risks and issues are monitored.
• Put in place project data standards, assurance processes and systems to ensure outputs are high-quality and robust (including through good documentation and automation) so that customer decisions and advice can be based on sound evidence and outputs can be reproduced.
• Understand organisational objectives and be able to communicate them with project teams. Engage with business planning processes to provide intel, develop ideas, and assist with prioritisation and scoping of projects and programmes.
• Engage with customers and partners to identify and exploit opportunities for new or revised projects (inc use of new technologies or approaches) which will improve the evidence base, improve efficiency / quality, build capability or generate funding.
• Build capability in others in the team and across NE (as appropriate) to enable effective delivery and support resilience to absence and change.
• Liaise with relevant partners/authorities/professional networks to understand and interpret advice, standards and best practice for relevant application in NE.
Knowledge, skills and experience
• People leadership skills / experience in a functional management context.
• Experience of planning and leading the delivery of projects.
• Knowledge of climate change impacts and marine ecology
• Data analysis skills such as:
• Data extraction/ingestion and preparation, exploratory data analysis, and data visualisation.
• Working with a range of large scale spatial and non-spatial data types in both structured and unstructured formats.
• Experience working with (preferably combining) a range of biological, geographical and social data.
• Experience of coding in Python and R.
• Knowledge of mathematics, statistics, and algorithms.
• Experience in GIS software (e.g. ArcPro, ArcGIS, ArcGIS Online, QGIS).
• Knowledge of relevant data/metadata standards.
• Understanding of good practice, ethics, and quality assurance for data analysis.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone with a passion and expertise in spatial modelling and climate change impacts to marine ecosystems.
Job description
To lead the development and delivery of robust analytical and data programmes and projects to increase efficiency and provide improved evidence to support the organisation’s strategic objectives. To apply specialist skills and domain expertise to identify opportunities for data science to improve the evidence base to support the organisation’s strategic objectives. To ensure quality and promote appropriate use of data and analysis (including uncertainty) to minimise risk and increase robustness of evidence underpinning advice, decision-making and delivery.
This role has the initial focus projects involving analysis and modelling of climate change impacts on habitats. This work will primarily be working on Natural England’s Blue Carbon projects as well as projects around the assessment of risk posed to designated features due to climate change. This role would suit a data scientist who have an expertise in marine climate change impacts and spatial modelling.
Key responsibilities:
• Lead small teams and programmes of work to carry out complex statistical analyses, improving efficiency and quality, in order to meet the evidence needs of a variety of Natural England, Defra group and other stakeholders.
• Liaise with project managers and teams to establish project planning and resourcing so that projects are delivered efficiently, with appropriate resource and capability, to a high standard, and progress, risks and issues are monitored.
• Put in place project data standards, assurance processes and systems to ensure outputs are high-quality and robust (including through good documentation and automation) so that customer decisions and advice can be based on sound evidence and outputs can be reproduced.
• Understand organisational objectives and be able to communicate them with project teams. Engage with business planning processes to provide intel, develop ideas, and assist with prioritisation and scoping of projects and programmes.
• Engage with customers and partners to identify and exploit opportunities for new or revised projects (inc use of new technologies or approaches) which will improve the evidence base, improve efficiency / quality, build capability or generate funding.
• Build capability in others in the team and across NE (as appropriate) to enable effective delivery and support resilience to absence and change.
• Liaise with relevant partners/authorities/professional networks to understand and interpret advice, standards and best practice for relevant application in NE.
Knowledge, skills and experience
• People leadership skills / experience in a functional management context.
• Experience of planning and leading the delivery of projects.
• Knowledge of climate change impacts and marine ecology
• Data analysis skills such as:
• Data extraction/ingestion and preparation, exploratory data analysis, and data visualisation.
• Working with a range of large scale spatial and non-spatial data types in both structured and unstructured formats.
• Experience working with (preferably combining) a range of biological, geographical and social data.
• Experience of coding in Python and R.
• Knowledge of mathematics, statistics, and algorithms.
• Experience in GIS software (e.g. ArcPro, ArcGIS, ArcGIS Online, QGIS).
• Knowledge of relevant data/metadata standards.
• Understanding of good practice, ethics, and quality assurance for data analysis.