6613 - Higher Data Scientist-Earth Observation Analyst- Living England project
| Posting date: | 11 June 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £32,240 per year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 03 July 2026 |
| Location: | UK |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 4 days per week |
| Company: | Natural England |
| Job type: | Contract |
| Job reference: | 6613 |
Summary
Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.
Our Role
Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.
Strategic Outcomes for Nature
Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.
• Recovering Nature– Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places– Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing– Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature– Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.
Find out more about the work of Natural England at:
Natural England’s Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK
Job description
The team is responsible for delivering Natural England’s part of the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme.
The NCEA is a transformative programme to understand the extent, condition and change over time of environmental assets across England's land and water environments, supporting the government’s ambition to improve the environment within a generation. Data will come from Earth observation, professional field data collection, citizen science and partner data sets.
Natural England’s Terrestrial NCEA delivery is organised into projects:
• Mapping and Earth Observation – Spatial data and maps on natural capital to inform national and local decision making and delivery.
• England Peat Map – Mapping the extent and condition of England’s peatlands.
• Field data collection – Data on habitats, soils, landscapes, and species to understand the condition of natural capital assets.
• Citizen science – Working with citizens and community science to fill gaps, provide local and landscape scale information and engaging the public.
• Data mobilisation and integration and reporting – Making NCEA, partner and volunteer data available for analysis, integration, and use, producing high quality evidence products by analysing and integrating NCEA data.
• Programme management – Managing Natural England’s NCEA programme.
This role sits within Project NE1 - Mapping & Earth Observation - Living England
The Living England project delivers a satellite-derived broad habitat map using machine learning using a standardised methodology. As a higher data scientist with Earth observation analyst skills (EOA), duties will include the acquisition, analysis and processing of EO data to meet the needs of Natural England’s Living England project. You will apply your knowledge of different Earth observation and data science techniques and data to environmental problems. You will support the implementation of Living England’s baseline workflow and contribute to innovation of habitat mapping and change detection. All Living England and change detection work is supported by field data collection to validate and improve methodologies used.
Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities
You will be expected to:
• Apply earth observation data, tools and techniques to contribute to the development of EO mapping and monitoring methods in support of Natural England NCEA needs.
• Work with others to collate and prepare existing survey data, from a variety of sources, for use as training and validation data.
• Work under the direction of senior colleagues to support NCEA projects by providing EO analysis and expertise.
• Provide high quality mapping and statistical analyses for the NCEA programme and external stakeholders.
• Develop new tools to improve the way NCEA projects use EO and geospatial information.
Knowledge, Skills & Experience
• Advanced level of Earth observation analysis skills and experience.
• Experience of scripting and writing reproducible analytical processes, e.g. R/Python scripting.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills using a range of software and techniques (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth Engine, eCognition etc).
• Basic knowledge of data governance, licensing, and management (Essential). Direct experience of using and applying a range of remote sensing data, tools and techniques.
• Experience of using EO techniques for environmental applications, e.g. habitat mapping and/or land management activities.
• Experience of using Google Earth Engine.
• Experience of using ArcGIS Online and/or ArcGIS Pro.
• Experience of data modelling (e.g. ArcGIS Model Builder, machine learning models).
• Apply the relevant methodologies and tools for collecting and collating data / evidence including metadata.
• Identify and apply the most appropriate data and methodologies for your analysis, utilising reproducible analytical pipelines and data science approaches where appropriate.
• Proactively communicate and present your data, evidence and analyses in ways that meet people’s needs, using clear and appropriate language so they can understand its implications and use it effectively to deliver positive outcomes for the environment.
Our Role
Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.
Strategic Outcomes for Nature
Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.
• Recovering Nature– Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places– Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing– Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature– Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.
Find out more about the work of Natural England at:
Natural England’s Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK
Job description
The team is responsible for delivering Natural England’s part of the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme.
The NCEA is a transformative programme to understand the extent, condition and change over time of environmental assets across England's land and water environments, supporting the government’s ambition to improve the environment within a generation. Data will come from Earth observation, professional field data collection, citizen science and partner data sets.
Natural England’s Terrestrial NCEA delivery is organised into projects:
• Mapping and Earth Observation – Spatial data and maps on natural capital to inform national and local decision making and delivery.
• England Peat Map – Mapping the extent and condition of England’s peatlands.
• Field data collection – Data on habitats, soils, landscapes, and species to understand the condition of natural capital assets.
• Citizen science – Working with citizens and community science to fill gaps, provide local and landscape scale information and engaging the public.
• Data mobilisation and integration and reporting – Making NCEA, partner and volunteer data available for analysis, integration, and use, producing high quality evidence products by analysing and integrating NCEA data.
• Programme management – Managing Natural England’s NCEA programme.
This role sits within Project NE1 - Mapping & Earth Observation - Living England
The Living England project delivers a satellite-derived broad habitat map using machine learning using a standardised methodology. As a higher data scientist with Earth observation analyst skills (EOA), duties will include the acquisition, analysis and processing of EO data to meet the needs of Natural England’s Living England project. You will apply your knowledge of different Earth observation and data science techniques and data to environmental problems. You will support the implementation of Living England’s baseline workflow and contribute to innovation of habitat mapping and change detection. All Living England and change detection work is supported by field data collection to validate and improve methodologies used.
Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities
You will be expected to:
• Apply earth observation data, tools and techniques to contribute to the development of EO mapping and monitoring methods in support of Natural England NCEA needs.
• Work with others to collate and prepare existing survey data, from a variety of sources, for use as training and validation data.
• Work under the direction of senior colleagues to support NCEA projects by providing EO analysis and expertise.
• Provide high quality mapping and statistical analyses for the NCEA programme and external stakeholders.
• Develop new tools to improve the way NCEA projects use EO and geospatial information.
Knowledge, Skills & Experience
• Advanced level of Earth observation analysis skills and experience.
• Experience of scripting and writing reproducible analytical processes, e.g. R/Python scripting.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills using a range of software and techniques (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth Engine, eCognition etc).
• Basic knowledge of data governance, licensing, and management (Essential). Direct experience of using and applying a range of remote sensing data, tools and techniques.
• Experience of using EO techniques for environmental applications, e.g. habitat mapping and/or land management activities.
• Experience of using Google Earth Engine.
• Experience of using ArcGIS Online and/or ArcGIS Pro.
• Experience of data modelling (e.g. ArcGIS Model Builder, machine learning models).
• Apply the relevant methodologies and tools for collecting and collating data / evidence including metadata.
• Identify and apply the most appropriate data and methodologies for your analysis, utilising reproducible analytical pipelines and data science approaches where appropriate.
• Proactively communicate and present your data, evidence and analyses in ways that meet people’s needs, using clear and appropriate language so they can understand its implications and use it effectively to deliver positive outcomes for the environment.