Water Quality Environment Officer

We’re looking for someone who enjoys working with people, solving real environmental challenges, and getting hands-on outdoors. Based in beautiful North East Wales, this role is all about protecting and improving our natural environment.

As a Water Quality Environment Officer, you’ll help improve the health of our rivers and catchments through strategic, evidence-based action. You’ll tackle water quality issues, support sustainable water resource management, and play a key role in delivering high‑impact environmental campaigns that protect our rivers and coastal waters.

You’ll also carry out essential regulatory work under the Environmental Permitting Regulations and respond quickly to environmental incidents as part of NRW’s duties as a Category 1 responder.

Working closely with landowners, communities, permit holders, and public bodies, you’ll help drive practical, sustainable solutions on the ground. You’ll be supported by a friendly, forward‑thinking team that embraces flexibility, hybrid working, and professional development.

This is your chance to make a real impact—protecting North East Wales’ environment where it matters most. If you’re motivated, hands‑on, and passionate about safeguarding nature, we’d love to hear from you.

Driving is essential to this role. You must hold a full and current UK driving license.

As an organisation we support flexible working. You will be contracted to the NRW office at the above location and a suitable hybrid working pattern will be agreed on appointment. Any regular face to face meetings or training will be planned in advance.

To make an informal enquiry about this role, please contact Elizabeth Felton at [email protected]

Successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check. Appointments are normally made within 4 to 8 weeks of the closing date.

About us

We value working as a team to protect and enhance our Environment. You will be joining a fast-paced team who turn their hands to many different tasks. As an operational team we cover a range of remits, alongside the regulation of permits, we manage protected sites, bathing waters and respond to environmental incidents and provide local advice and guidance to others

What you will do

• Work with a wide range of internal and external customers including permit holders, landowners, businesses, public bodies, recreation groups, volunteers and third sector organisations to enable others to achieve SMNR.
• Establish, maintain and advise partners to support the development of partnership projects and plans through from concepts to implementation. These projects will deliver outcomes aligned with place priorities.
• Assess compliance with relevant legislation, permit or consent conditions. Where non-compliance is identified, determine and implement the most appropriate intervention option to ensure a return to compliance as quickly as possible. Take appropriate actions to collect evidence for enforcement purposes, in accordance with defined procedures.
• Draft valid consents and assents for operations affecting protected sites. For all work areas produce required advice, investigations, documentation and reports to agreed quality standards to support operational and management decisions, protected site notification, public enquiries, court cases etc so that information, evidence and NRW interests are accurately and effectively presented.
• Within your area of expertise, provide professional local advice and responses to consultations from planning and permitting teams. Maintain working relationships with these teams through regular liaison.
• Monitor progress of work, which may include interpretation of data, contractor management, project delivery or compliance with management agreements or statutory legal notices. Identify and support any remedial actions to ensure outcome delivery.
• Play a role in a resilient NRW Incident Management Service that follows NRW process to ensure effective, timely and safe response to incidents.
• Undertake health and safety duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post.
• Be committed to Natural Resources Wales Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy, together with an understanding of how it operates within the responsibilities of the post
• Be committed to your own development through the effective use of your personal development plan (known as Sgwrs).
• Required to take part in incident response activities.
• Any other reasonable duties requested commensurate with the grade of this role.

Your qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills

In your application and interview you will be asked to demonstrate the following skills and experience using the STAR method.

1. A good working knowledge of environment management, agriculture, fisheries, conservation or biodiversity, with focused experience in one of these distinct areas of the team remit.
2. An understanding of how these multi-functional teams can contribute to the sustainable management of natural resources.
3. Ensure continuing professional and personal development, expertise and competence through formal and informal learning and certification.
4. Strong and effective self-management and organisational skills.
5. The ability to influence, negotiate and gain cooperation of others. Experience of dealing successfully with difficult people / situations is important.
6. The ability to use specialised IT systems, such as GIS or NRW customised applications.
7. Able to work well as part of a team.
8. Hold a current full UK valid licence to drive NRW fleet vehicles (cars and vans).

Welsh Language level requirements

• Essential: Level B2 – Upper intermediate level

Welsh language levels

Benefits

This role will offer a range of benefits, including:

• Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 28.97% (successful internal staff will remain in their current pension scheme)
• 28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days
• generous leave entitlements for all your life needs
• commitment to professional development
• health and wellbeing benefits and support
• weekly wellbeing hour to use as you choose

See full details for all the employee benefits you will receive.

Please keep reading

We’re passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from under-represented communities. We embrace equality of opportunity irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

We are committed to equal opportunities, and we guarantee interviews for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

We want to attract and retain talented and highly skilled staff, so we make sure that our pay scales remain competitive. We advertise the full pay scale on our job descriptions. Appointed candidates start at the first point of the pay scale and annual increments are paid each year.

Unless otherwise stated in the ‘Role’ section of this advert, Natural Resources Wales is unable to offer visa sponsorship for this position. Although we hold a Skilled Worker visa sponsorship licence, it applies only to specific roles that meet both the eligibility criteria and salary requirements set out by the UK Government under the Skilled Worker visa route.

We want our staff to grow professionally and personally. From leadership development to access to further and higher education courses, our staff have opportunities to expand their knowledge on variety of topics, stay current in their field and continue to learn as their career progresses.

We are a Bilingual organisation which complies with the Welsh Language Standards. Welsh language skills are considered an asset to NRW, and we encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills.