Number of jobs available: 7
Region: East Midlands, North West, South West, Yorkshire and the Humber
City/Town: Bristol , Exeter , Nottingham , Sheffield , Warrington
Grade: Staff Grade 5
Post Type: Permanent
Role Type: Environment & Sustainability, Science
Working Pattern: Full Time, Part Time, Part Time/Job Share, Part Time Term Time, Compressed Hours
Salary Minimum: £43,198
Closing Date: 24/04/2026, 23:55 hours
Job description attachment 1
ER05 Job Family Role Profile Environment & Regulation, Grade 5
Candidate pack
Candidate Pack – 33695.docx – 2043KB
Converted File Candidate Pack – 33695.docx.pdf – 720KB
Security checks level: Basic Check
Job description
As a Senior Permitting Officer within our Water Quality regime, you’ll determine complex applications and deliver pre-application advice for water quality environmental permits.
You’ll play a crucial role in safeguarding the environment, proactively managing a range of permit applications for a wide range of activities including ground and surface water discharges, chemicals, including hazardous and sanitary pollutants, types of sewage connections, and habitats, delivering high quality and risk-based environmental permitting decisions to tight deadlines. You’ll support other Permitting Officers across Permitting using your strong coaching and mentoring skills, collaborate with professionals from various disciplines and engage with permit applicants, ranging from multinational companies and water & sewerage companies, to individual householders.
Your work directly contributes to creating a more sustainable and safer environment for all, ensuring compliance with EA processes and regulatory obligations. You will therefore need a passion for developing and supporting people and bringing others with you as well as strong knowledge/experience in the sector.
In addition to the essential criteria in the experience/skills section below, you will also possess:
- Confidence in providing direction as a technical leader.
- The ability to work collaboratively across teams, the wider business, and with stakeholders and partners.
- Excellent communication and influencing skills and experience of communicating technical topics to a non-technical audience.
- The ability to build strong relationships with customers and be capable of handling difficult conversations, displaying confidence in making risk-based decisions providing justifiable reasoning behind your choices.
- The ability to plan and prioritise work, respond to tight deadlines to ensure tasks are achieved.
- Proficiency in IT including experience with data management, information processing and tools such as MS Word and MS Excel and job specific digital platforms such as GIS and modelling tools.
The team
Water Quality Permitting has eight teams across England, made up of officers with varied expertise who assess applications for activities that may affect water quality and habitats. In a senior technical role, you’ll handle the most complex cases while coaching colleagues to support permit delivery. Our teams are friendly, committed, and strive for an inclusive, flexible workplace where everyone has equal opportunities to contribute, grow in their careers, and realise their potential fully.
Experience/skills required
Essential:
You will need strong experience of either environmental permitting OR able to demonstrate technical competency in at least one of the following areas:
- Water regulation (Environmental Permitting Regulations, Water Resources Act, Water Industry Act)
- Modelling of sanitary or hazardous pollutants
- Wastewater treatment and/or wastewater engineering
Additionally, we would expect successful candidates to:
- Have knowledge of water quality issues and policies surrounding them.
- Experience in coaching/mentoring others in a technical discipline.
- Be confident challenging, questioning and influencing a range of internal and external stakeholders.
Desirable:
Ideally you will hold a degree (or equivalent) in a science/environmental subject and knowledge/understanding of the Habitats Directive, Habitats Regulations and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Regulatory and operational experience of water industry processes is also desirable. We value a passion for the environment and a strong desire to protect it by regulating harmful activities.
Contact and additional information
All officers are expected to attend the office a minimum of 20% of their time, and occasional national travel will be required for meetings and training.
As an organisation we are fully committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce and strive to reflect the communities we serve. To achieve this we welcome applications from all backgrounds regardless of race, sexual orientation and religion, and welcome flexible working patterns, including part-time and compressed hours.
Applications are “blind” assessed using your answers to the competency questions – please use the ‘STAR’ technique when writing answers (Situation Task Action Result).
Interviews will take place virtually over Teams, with a technical assessment to complete in addition to this.
For further information, please contact the recruiting managers at WQPermitting.Recruitment@environment-agency.gov.uk
Competence 1: Takes Decisions and Solves Problems
Description
Finds and delivers optimal solutions by effectively analysing all the information, probing to develop alternatives and taking sound and timely decisions.
Question: Give an example of a situation where you had to make a decision using complex or incomplete information.
What was the final decision and how did you come to it? Describe the actions you took.
Please ensure you refer to the capability indicators when answering this question.
Competence 2: Coaches Others
Description
Uses variety of methods, including direct instruction, coaching and feedback skills to help others to develop.
Question: Give an example of when you have coached or mentored somebody through a complex piece of work. How did you adapt your style and deal with any challenges?
Please ensure you refer to the capability indicators when answering this question.
Competence 3: Uses Initiative
Description
Takes action before and/or beyond what is required, owning the outcome.
Question: Give an example of when you proactively looked for ways to support your team or add value (ideally in relation to water quality/permitting/regulation). What impact did your actions have?
Please ensure you refer to the capability indicators when answering this question.
If you are applying from the Civil Service please note that the Environment Agency is not a part of HM Civil Service and you would not be a Crown Servant in the event of being appointed. Therefore, you will not be eligible for continuous service. For applicants who currently work in local government or other bodies listed in the Redundancy Payments (Continuity of Employment in Local Government etc) (Modification) Order 1999, you may be eligible for continuous service for the purpose of calculating any future redundancy payment. If you are unsure of your status then you should contact your own HR Team.
We are fully committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. We welcome flexible working patterns for all our vacancies, including job share, so please include clearly any information regarding your preferred working arrangements on your application.
We also have a Guaranteed Interview Policy to support those with a disability who are seeking employment. We have committed to guaranteeing an interview to anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.
The Environment Agency, as a Non-Departmental Public Body, is committed to providing value for money and utilises Central Government frameworks and contracts for all external recruitment needs. For this reason, we are unable to engage with the market directly through post, email or phone calls . Should you wish to become a support supplier on one of these frameworks or contracts please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/become-a-crown-commercial-service-supplier/becoming-a-supplier-through-the-crown-commercial-service-what-you-need-to-know for more information.
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Although the Environment Agency is a non-departmental public body sponsored by Defra, we subscribe to and align with the candidate guidance on the use of artificial intelligence found on the Civil Service Careers website. Please review for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
