Ocean Environment Scientists engage with other specialists and both internal and external stakeholders, in order to develop and maintain SME knowledge and communicate relevant technical information to the team. As Subject Matter Experts, postholders will be actively involved, in partnership with the Team Leader/Manger in process improvement and wider changes driven by Business direction.
Job description
The post holder will undertake activities that fall within these four key areas:
Development: The post holder will be tasked with the development of capabilities which will improve the customers tactical exploitation of the Ocean Environment. The post holder will develop a good understanding of the customers need for and use of environmental information and feedback from users is actively sought to inform development planning. New capabilities are delivered as projects led by the post holder.
Data analysis and presentation: Data is obtained and analyzed to create representative descriptions of the environment for situational awareness. The post holder will undertake analysis of data relevant to the teams tasking, to derive representative visualizations of the expected marine environmental conditions as well as improve analysis methodology in order to provide a better service, more efficiently. Methods and software tools used for analysis or presentation of results will be continually reviewed and updated to meet changing demands and improve services.
Capability: Liaison with organizations (both UK and overseas) to meet the needs of assigned work and keep abreast of developments in marine environmental data and analytical techniques. Make the necessary arrangements to obtain data and provide this information as a dataset in a form readily useable by the customer. Develop a network of contacts throughout the academic/government/NGO community to facilitate the best available current scientific understanding and enable collaboration activities to enhance the team’s capability. Take part in outreach activities to raise the profile of the team as a leading supplier of maritime scientific data and expertise.
Report writing and Quality Assurance: The holder will be expected to produce technical reports to record methodology and results or to present a case for changes to working practices, ensuring documentation is maintained for all analysis work.
Person specification
We are looking for candidates who can demonstrate the following:
- A postgraduate qualification and experience of working in marine science or related discipline.
- Strong numerical ability and a deep knowledge and understanding of the principles of marine environmental science.
- A deep working knowledge of data analysis and visualization techniques applied to marine environmental data, including computer programming skills (experience creating and managing projects within MATLAB, R, BASH or Python).
- Recent experience working with commonly used data formats within the marine sciences, such as gridded NetCDF, csv, geotiff and shapefiles.
- A good understanding of data presentation and visualization techniques as well as experience of applying that to marine environmental data.
- Experience of working independently on a scientific project(s) and making informed evidence-based decisions.
- Excellent communication skills at all levels, both written and oral. Including the ability to undertake scientific literature reviews, extract relevant information and summarizing for a non-expert audience.
To be successful in the role, you will need to have the confidence in your technical capability to undertake innovative approaches to complex tasks. You will be able to provide feedback, guidance and coaching in an inclusive and nurturing way to enable others to build their own capability.
As the Subject Matter Experts in a team, Ocean Environment Scientists are actively driving scientific development and support process improvement within the organization, so will need to have a positive approach to change and the drive to develop themselves to meet and embrace such challenges.
Salary: £38,173
Application deadline: January 7, 2025
