Planning Ecologist

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council
Work Location: County Hall Leicester
Worker Category: Hybrid worker
Job Title: Senior Ecologist
Salary: Grade 11 £38 700- £41 373 (with Annual Pay Award pending) PLUS “Golden
Hello” recruitment incentive of up to 10% of annual agreed salary during year one*
Working Hours: 37
Contract Type: Permanent
Closing Date: 5pm Monday 11th August 2025
Interview Date(s): week commencing Monday 1st September 2025 and week commencing Monday
8th September

Would you like to join our growing team as a Senior Ecologist? Would you like to take part in
the new requirements for mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain, including the site monitoring
programme for BNG sites?

About the Role

We are seeking a Senior Ecologist at Grade 11 to provide expert advice to LPA partners for
ecology and biodiversity matters, in relation to Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and protected
species throughout the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and committed individual to join our team to develop our
approach to the additional requirements of mandatory BNG.

As such, the post holder would provide specialist planning advice from pre-application stage
through to discharge of conditions; and will be joining at an exciting time, when we are
starting our site monitoring programme, monitoring net gain which is being created on sites
throughout the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The posts will also be fundamental to
developing the link between BNG and new “opportunity areas” identified in our draft Local
Nature Recovery Strategy. We are also developing our recording processes for the BNG data and
newly created, restored and enhanced habitats with our in-house Local Records Centre (LRERC),
which is part of our team.

We have further team growth planned for 2025/26. It would be an exciting opportunity for a more
experienced, senior ecologist to be part of our expanding Ecology and Biodiversity Team. We can
make more of a difference than ever before, both to the quality of our natural environment and
to increasing its connectivity throughout the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland.

*This post attracts a “Golden Hello” recruitment incentive of up to 10% of the annual agreed
salary during year one, with a payment return on a declining scale if the successful candidate
does not remain in the post.

About You

To apply for this post, you must be able to demonstrate:

• a degree or equivalent in a relevant environmental or biological subject
• an ability to produce professional work relating to the natural environment, working as
  part of a team and meeting performance deadlines
• having experience of working within or with the public sector
• being able to offer expert advice to stakeholders or clients in relation to complex
  ecological or planning matters, working independently
• Knowledge of ecological survey methods and requirements for species and habitats
  appropriate to the planning system
• Knowledge and understanding of the principles and application of Biodiversity Net Gain
  legislation, policy and practice
• Experience of site monitoring methods and requirements would be an advantage

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equal opportunities, and the ability
to apply this to all situations.

In addition, we expect you to share our
commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as
part of the interview process.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments.
Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual’s
personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to
discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please
contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time
hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work.
The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out
more about our worker categories in the Our
Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Vanessa Evans Team Manager Ecology and Biodiversity

Telephone: 0116 3057859

Email: [email protected]

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and
celebrate equality, diversity, and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage
applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different
perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services, we offer our
communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities
and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the
communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the ‘About
You’ section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting
statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the
‘About You’ section above. For more information, see the How to
Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications
for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as
possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our
Employee Service Centre: emss.org.uk/support

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms
and Conditions.