YOUR IMPACT:

At Jacobs, we’ll inspire and empower you to deliver your best work so you can evolve, grow and succeed – today and into tomorrow. With more than 55,000 people in 40 countries, working at Jacobs offers an exciting range of opportunities to develop your career within a supportive and diverse team who always strive to do the right thing for our people, clients and communities.
People are Jacobs’ greatest asset, and we offer a competitive package to retain and attract the best talent.
In addition to the benefits you’d expect, UK employees also receive free single medical cover and digital GP service, family-friendly benefits such as enhanced parental leave pay and free membership of employee assistance and parental programmes, plus reimbursement towards relevant professional development and memberships. We also give back to our communities through our Collectively program which incorporates matched-funding, paid volunteering time and charitable donations.
Work-life balance and flexibility is a key focus area for Jacobs. We’re happy to discuss hybrid, part-time and flexible working hours, patterns and locations to suit you and our business.
About the opportunity
We have an exciting leadership opportunity for an Associate Director of Ecology to develop and shape an award-winning dedicated technical team, build upon the existing extensive project portfolio and lead the team to change. We deliver some of the most challenging, diverse and innovative infrastructure projects. Presently, we are engaged on a variety of large projects including water infrastructure, highway and rail schemes, energy infrastructure for clients such as Anglian Water, National Highways, National Grid, Network Rail, Thames Water, The Environment Agency, Transport Scotland and a number of local authorities.
The successful person will join a respected and ambitious company with excellent career prospects both locally and internationally. We actively support the professional development of staff, through our Global Career Framework, Chartership Academy Programme, Employee Networks and our Community of Practice networks, which connect us to over 600 Jacobs ecologists globally.
We have ecology teams based in offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Peterborough and Winnersh (Reading) and would welcome applicants to all.

The role will include:

• Responsibility for setting the strategic direction of the team - join the management team for the wider terrestrial ecology team and business leadership responsibilities in the wider UK ecology group.
• Being the first point of contact - provision of high quality, expert advice to both clients and stakeholders.
• Extensive engagement - with clients, customers and environmental regulators.
• Support the growth, development and resilience of the team - through enthusiastic line management, empathic leadership and individuals’ personal development.
• Leading from the front - demonstrate your technical skills, contributing to Environmental Impact Assessment and Habitat Regulations Assessment, providing expert advice and managing the UK terrestrial ecology team.
• Develop networks across disciplines - many of our projects are complex in nature and you will be required to work with other disciplines to create effective solutions. Creating an environment accessible to other specialists is essential to our project success.
• Contribute to the identification, bidding and winning of work – working with the Water, Energy and Environment business unit Sales team. This will best leverage the capability of the team to win and deliver new and challenging work.
• Engagement with Jacobs wider corporate functions - to promote the capabilities of your team is an exciting component to the role, lifting our profile both internally and externally.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A background in terrestrial ecology with at extensive years of relevant industry experience.
• Chartered membership of a professional body (or experience to obtain chartership).
• Strategic mindset able to contribute to wider team leadership.
• Confident to take on a mentor role to staff.
• Flexible approach to working, with occasional travel required across the UK and Ireland.
• A ‘hands on’ work ethic and good self-awareness.
• Ability to adapt to working on a wide range of projects.

We are particularly interested in hearing from people with demonstrable skills and experience encompassing some or all of the following:

• Innovative scoping of ecological input to projects.
• Working knowledge of protected species licensing and the Biodiversity Net Gain process.
• Understanding of project consenting and construction.
• Effective stakeholder and regulator engagement.
• Experience of planning inquiries and examinations.

What’s more important though, is your ability to think outside the box, provide constructive feedback and recognise opportunities to improve the way we do things for our clients.

OUR CULTURE

Our values stand on a foundation of safety, integrity, inclusion and diversity. We put people at the heart of our business and we truly believe that by supporting one another through our culture of caring, we all succeed. We value positive mental health and a sense of belonging for all employees. Find out more about life at Jacobs.
We aim to embed inclusion and diversity in everything we do. We know that if we are inclusive, we’re more connected, and if we are diverse, we’re more creative. We accept people for who they are, regardless of age, disability, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, mental health, race, faith or belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and whether you’re pregnant or on family leave. This is reflected in our wide range of Global Employee Networks centred on inclusion and diversity – ACE, Careers, Enlace, Harambee, OneWorld, Prism, Vetnet, and Women’s – find out more about our employee networks here.
Jacobs partners with VERCIDA to help us attract and retain diverse talent. For greater online accessibility please visit www.vercida.com to view and access our roles. As a Disability Confident employer, we will interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for a vacancy. We welcome applications from candidates who are seeking flexible working and from those who may not meet all the listed requirements for a role.
If you require further support or reasonable adjustments with regards to the recruitment process (for example, you require the application form in a different format), please contact the team.
Your application experience is important to us and we’re keen to adapt to make every interaction even better. We welcome feedback on our recruitment process and if you need more from us before deciding to join Jacobs then please let us know.

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• Responsibility for setting the strategic direction of the team - join the management team for the wider terrestrial ecology team and business leadership responsibilities in the wider UK ecology group.
• Being the first point of contact - provision of high quality, expert advice to both clients and stakeholders.
• Extensive engagement - with clients, customers and environmental regulators.
• Support the growth, development and resilience of the team - through enthusiastic line management, empathic leadership and individuals’ personal development.
• Leading from the front - demonstrate your technical skills, contributing to Environmental Impact Assessment and Habitat Regulations Assessment, providing expert advice and managing the UK terrestrial ecology team.
• Develop networks across disciplines - many of our projects are complex in nature and you will be required to work with other disciplines to create effective solutions. Creating an environment accessible to other specialists is essential to our project success.
• Contribute to the identification, bidding and winning of work – working with the Water, Energy and Environment business unit Sales team. This will best leverage the capability of the team to win and deliver new and challenging work.
• Engagement with Jacobs wider corporate functions - to promote the capabilities of your team is an exciting component to the role, lifting our profile both internally and externally