Hydrology & Water Resources Advisor

Team / Directorate: Hydrology, Geomorphology and Water Resources Management / Operations

Starting salary: £36,246 rising to £39,942 per annum through annual increments being paid each year (pro rata for part time applicants).

Contract type: Permanent.

Work pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week (Part time, annualised hours, compressed hours or term time working considered - discussions at interview stage welcome).

Interview Date: 12/09/2025

Post number: 200897 (For office use only: GGL / ENV)

The role

Join our Flood and Water Management team in South Wales and take on a vital role in addressing some of today's most pressing environmental challenges. As one of four Hydrology Advisors, you'll be at the forefront of efforts to build climate resilience and manage water resources, delivering expert analysis that informs decisions across both local and national levels.

This is a technically rich and varied role where you'll apply your hydrological expertise to a wide range of critical tasks. From drought planning and river flow regulation to flood consequence assessments and post-event reviews, your work will directly influence how we respond to extreme weather events and long-term water pressures. While the role is primarily office-based, you'll also have the chance to get out into the field, visiting some of South Wales' most iconic rivers, including the Teifi, Cleddau, Wye, and Usk.

Working in close collaboration with colleagues across Hydrometry and Telemetry, you'll play a key role in ensuring the accuracy, integrity, and application of hydrological data. Your insights will support not only internal teams, but also external partners such as Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, helping to shape sustainable water management across the region.

We're looking for someone who thrives on solving complex problems and who brings strong technical skills-ideally with experience in tools such as R Studio and Python-to drive innovation in hydrological analysis. In return, you'll find a role with real purpose, where your work helps protect communities, ecosystems, and water supplies in the face of a changing climate.

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:

• Lloyd Jones
• Tim Cross

Interviews will take place via Microsoft Teams

What you will do:

• Analyse, interpret and prepare reports on technical scientific data, providing good quality information to the relevant teams, to support their decisions and to help them to protect the environment.
• Investigate and comment on referred permit applications, providing a technical response to NRW permitting centre, authorities, developers, NRM teams in line with current NRW policy, to influence and promote sustainable permitting and development.
• Respond to internal requests for hydrological assessments for flood risk operational and consenting purposes (includingflood flow audits for Flood Consequences Assessments & Flood Defence Consents, flood estimates for Flood Risk Mapping, hydrological impact assessments for abstraction and impoundment licensing and Town & Country Planning.
• Co-ordinate and develop environmental improvements plans, in accordance with national legislation and policies to ensure that NRW is compliant.
• Support the technical audit of Water Co. Plans and Drought plans by analysing and commenting on hydrological and hydraulic implications.
• Contribute to the successful development and implementation of emergency plans including drought and flood incident management.
• Quality assure water resource data and information, and the associated storage and retrieval systems. Ensure that information is up to date and fit for purpose. Support management of data on internal and "national" archives.
• Support health & safety best practice by actively promoting awareness and ensuring the provision of safe working practices to comply with Environment Agency policies and standards.
• 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).
• 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. Degree in relevant scientific subject (e.g. physical geography, environment science or civil engineering).
2. Graduate member of appropriate professional body (e.g. CIWEM or ICE) working towards becoming chartered.
3. Able to demonstrate competency in hydrological science and have the ability to apply practically and innovatively at an operational level.
4. Experience will have been gained over and number of years to include low flow estimation using hydrological software and gauged data and high flow estimation using a range of techniques which specifically includes the use of the Flood Estimation Handbook software for statistical analysis.
5. Able to demonstrate an understanding of the principles of field hydrometry and be able to interpret, manage, analyse and quality assure hydrometric data through the use of database, telemetry systems and statistical analysis techniques.
6. Able to demonstrate an understanding of open channel hydraulics and the principles of hydraulic modelling would be an advantage as would some ability in the use of river modelling software such as HEC RAS.
7. Understanding of topographic surveying techniques.
8. Demonstrable experience in technical report writing.
9. Experience of coaching/mentoring people and the development of "junior" members of staff.
10. Must have a full UK driving licence.

Welsh language level requirements

• Essential: Level A1 - Entry level (able to use and understand simple, basic phrases and greetings, no conversational Welsh)

Please note if you do not meet the A1 requirement i.e., ability to understand basic phrases and ability to pronounce Welsh names correctly, then NRW offers a variety of learning options and staff support to help you meet these minimal requirements during the course of your employment with us.

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.

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.