Data, Evidence and Engagement Officer

Westcountry Rivers Trust is recruiting a Data, Evidence and Engagement Officer.

This is a permanent, 37.5 hour per week contract after a successful 6 month probation period.

The starting salary for this role is between £23,300 and £25,500 per annum (dependent on experience).

There will be the opportunity to work from home in this role and to work flexible hours. Travel
to the Westcountry Rivers Trust offices and across the Westcountry for teamworking, meetings and events will be required in this role.

Benefits while working for Westcountry Rivers Trust

• 25 days Annual Leave per annum, with a reward for long service – an additional 1 day per year for each year worked over 5 years, up to a maximum of 30 days for employees serving 10 years.
• An additional 3 days Annual Leave for the Christmas Closure period.
• 9% Employer Pension, plus Life Assurance cover

Apply by midnight on Monday 29th April 2024.

Interviews will be held in person at our offices in Stoke Climsland on Thursday 9th May 2024.

About the Westcountry Rivers Trust

Formed in 1994, the Trust was established to restore Westcountry rivers. Measures to protect
rivers can help to save money for farmers, lower costs for water companies, boost tourism, reduce the need to dredge estuaries and even benefit human health. Everything the Trust does is informed
by the best available science. Their work is driven by an ‘ecosystems approach,’ considering the function of the entire catchment, not just the rivers that flow within them.

Today the charity works with a wide range of stakeholders from landowners to local communities, businesses, farmers and water companies to restore and protect the rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal areas for the benefit of people, wildlife and the local economy. There has never been a
more important time to work on the rivers of the West Country as the impacts of climate emergency
and the ecological crisis is forcing society to invest in building catchment resilience.

Spurred by a shared love of rivers, the Westcountry Rivers Trust is very much a grassroots organisation, brought into existence from the bottom up. In the early 90s, a group of
individuals, passionate – but concerned – about the waterways around them, began to stitch together their ambitions for restoring Westcountry rivers, laying the foundations for the Trust we know today.

Everything the Trust does is informed by the best available science. Their work is driven by an ‘ecosystems approach,’ considering the function of the entire catchment, not just the rivers
that flow within them.

It was this new perspective – not to mention the hands-on and tireless approach to river restoration – that grabbed the attention of so many supporters and funders and which lies
behind the flourishing rivers trust movement. Since then, the Trust now has circa 75 employees with an annual turnover of c£3m running multi-annual projects spread across a wide range of funders.

The Trust has three main delivery teams and a support services team. Our employees work on delivery sites, from home and from the office. Following the pandemic we have moved to a hybrid way of working and it is important that our IT enables and supports this change.

The Role

The Evidence & Engagement Team is instrumental in collating, analysing and presenting
visually engaging data to ensure that the Trust is delivering the right measures, in the right places,
and in monitoring and reporting the impacts of our work. A key element of this role will be to provide
GIS, data, evidence and engagement support to the Trust’s on-going work in using evidence led, catchment based/whole ecosystem approaches across the river catchments of the South West and beyond.

We are looking for an experienced and technically competent candidate who is passionate and knowledgeable about the environment and has a keen interest in GIS and spatial data analysis and presentation. Candidates should also be interested in keeping up to date with new approaches to data analysis and how data can be utilised and visualised to produce creative and engaging project outputs which support the delivery of positive environmental outcomes. Training will be provided on the job in relation to the variety of projects the post-holder
will support. The successful candidate will be required to proactively engage with stakeholders
across multiple sectors (e.g., water, energy, transport, waste, health).

Key responsibilities include:

• Data collection, analysis and interpretation of results, desk-based studies and project reports and recommendations.
• Data inputting, analysis, presentation and visualisation using a variety of software and online tools such as Excel, ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online or QGIS.
• Proactive and positive engagement with multiple internal and external stakeholders and project partners.
• Assistance in delivery and facilitation of engagement activities including workshops, presentations and other in-person events.
• Support Westcountry Citizen Science Investigations (CSI), our rapidly growing citizen science programme, including analysing CSI data and working with community groups wishing to undertake their own data analysis.
• Delivery of other types of project work, as and when required by project or team managers.
• Other administrative tasks required by the Trust including meeting H&S requirements, time sheeting & expenses, attendance of training, CPD & team away days, attendance at project inception meetings etc.

Essential Criteria:

• A good knowledge of, or background in the environmental or conservation sectors and a passion for protecting and restoring the natural environment.
• An undergraduate degree or comparable qualification or experience in a relevant technical discipline.
• Demonstrable experience in the use of GIS software, either ArcGIS Pro or QGIS in a professional environment.
• Confident, motivated professional with demonstrable experience of producing GIS or data visualisation outputs for a range of audiences. Excellent data analysis skills, including experience of data management principles.
• Excellent written & verbal communication skills for a wide range of audiences.
• Experience in data collation, presentation and report writing.
• Ability to coordinate multiple sources of information to inform the development of evidence, plans and reports for project delivery.
• Ability to organise and prioritise/manage workload and time independently and effectively.
• Good IT skills including Microsoft Office 365 and excellent interpersonal skills both
  face-to-face and in online meetings.
• Knowledge of the requirements for data protection and confidentiality.
• Ability to work flexibly, including occasional evenings and weekends.
• The role requires travel across the Westcountry for meetings, events, workshops and occasionally to remote fieldwork sites.

Desirable Criteria:

• A post-graduate degree in a relevant discipline.
• A knowledge of GIS catchment tools, catchment management and nature-based solutions, as well as environmental models.
• Experience of using R for data analysis and presentation.
• Experience of using VBA to automate processes.
• Ability to produce high quality, visually engaging science communications materials, such as infographics, ArcGIS Online apps and StoryMaps.
• Experience of working with communities and citizen scientists.
• Knowledge of relevant environmental legislation and statutory plans.

For queries about this role or the application process please contact [email protected].