Scientific Officer

Summary

We are an ambitious Council with an exciting green agenda for the future. We want to improve the quality of life for our residents, develop sustainable communities, and drive economic growth and prosperity. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far, and we’re committed to doing even better in the future. 

We are looking for a Scientific Officer to work within the Environmental Health & Licensing Department.  The role will be to lead on some of the key aspects within the team responsible for matters relating to Air Quality, Contaminated Land and considering the impact on human health of developments on both existing and prospective receptors such as noise.

What sets us apart from other organisations is our range of projects, including meeting the planning needs of Europe’s most important biotechnology cluster, the delivery of two new towns at Northstowe and Waterbeach, nationally significant infrastructure projects and developing the first joint Local Plan in an area that has the fastest-growing city economy in the country.

You will have the chance to work on a wide range of both residential and commercial planning applications and appeals, including major developments.  In addition, you will have an enthusiastic, supportive team around you to help you grow and develop your career within Environmental Health. 

Our ideal candidate will have a good knowledge and experience of the full range of environmental protection legislation with a particular emphasis on the successful candidate leading on the council’s Air Quality functions, including IPPC, as well as provide resilience to their colleagues in relation to the team’s other scientific duties such as Contaminated Land.  Further training will be provided and supported to the right candidate.

We know how important it is to find a job where you feel valued and have the flexibility to achieve a good work / life balance. With that in mind, we’re adopting a hybrid, flexible approach. We work in the best place for the job rather than having hard and fast rules about being in the office five days a week. As a result, this role will see you given the true flexibility to work from home and one of our offices, as required.  The majority of the team work remotely, with an expectation to attend monthly team meetings in person at the office. There are many more benefits to working for us too, not least our structured pay scales, secure, generous pension and flexible hours.

From January 2023 until May 2023, we are taking part in a 4-day working week trial. A 4-day week is when full-time staff work one less day per week (4 days instead of 5) but still get paid the same salary. It is not the same as compressed hours, which is working the traditional 37-hour week over four long days. A 4-day week for a full-time employee at the Council will consist of 30 hours. For part time staff, the amount of hours reduced would be calculated via a pro-rata reduction. A helpful way of explaining this arrangement is that staff will need to get 100% of their work done, in 80% of the time, for 100% of their salary. The purpose of this trial is to better support the health and wellbeing of our colleagues, while still delivering an excellent service to our residents. For more information please visit our website.

For more information about this job opportunity please contact Peter Gibson on 07749 711511 or Lesley Beevers on 07704 018451.

Closing Date: 9am Wednesday 5 April 2023

Interview Date: Week commencing 17 April 2023