The post provides an opportunity to join an internationally respected and dynamic team leading on fisheries science and management advice.
The team delivers leading science and advice to both national and international marine management organizations including Defra, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, the International Council for Exploration of the Seas (ICES), and a variety of research projects to assess sustainability and fisheries management plans.
You will develop, lead and delivery novel scientific outcomes to support the sustainable use of marine fisheries and ecosystem resources and to provide scientific advice for fisheries management across coastal and shelf seas ecosystems.
You will be expected to work with national and international scientific and management organizations making a real impact to marine environmental management and policy. Travel, both domestic and overseas, is to be expected with the possibility of participating in field work.
Job Description
The main focus of this role is to develop areas of work and provide scientific analyses to deliver science and advisory support on the assessment of marine fish stocks.
You will develop and deliver fisheries assessments including genetic approaches and support fisheries management advice. Duties will include:
- Implement analytical methods to assess marine resources, relating to questions on a range of topics including sustainable fisheries, fishing impacts on ecosystems, marine spatial planning and management;
- Develop protocols for incorporating genetic and genomic tools to identify and manage populations of fish and shellfish;
- Contribute to R&D projects developing methods to improve definition and investigation of stock structures, including assemble and analysis of genomes of exploited fish and shellfish populations;
- Support the development and interpretation of scientific analyses to help deliver a wide variety of fisheries assessments, e.g., recreational, coastal, offshore and/or deep-water fisheries;
- Provide supporting analysis and evidence for international fisheries negotiations, Fisheries Management Plans, and other advice requests; and
- Provide advice and conduct assessments of fish stocks and ecosystem health at ICES Working Groups.
Person Specification
The following are essential criteria required for this role and you must be able to demonstrate your skills and experience in the following areas:
- Proven scientific background and experience in fish biology, genomics, other molecular techniques, and bioinformatics, with a post-graduate degree or equivalent experience;
- Demonstrable experience in generation and analysis of whole genome sequencing data;
- Laboratory genomic and molecular techniques;
- Quantitative skills to conduct bioinformatic and genomic research;
- Programming in R, and other computer languages such as python or SQL;
- Experience on the use of data analysis, statistical and graphical methods to provide scientific advice;
- Ability to undertake and deliver genetic, genomic and other molecular laboratory work.
- Good understanding of population genetics, phylogenetics and fishery resources;
- Experience of working across disciplines;
- Experience in identifying and solving problems as part of an interdisciplinary team;
- Excellent communication skills, ability to explain complex solutions to both specialists and non-specialists and to present results to a wide range of audience from colleagues and collaborators to customers;
- Good organizational skills and effective prioritization of workloads, including planning and prioritizing effectively to deliver high quality results at pace;
- Ability to work effectively either as part of multi-disciplinary teams or unsupervised within a professional working environment;
- Experience in writing scientific reports and/or publications; and
- A post-graduate degree in Population Genetics, Evolutionary Biology, or related disciplines, or able to demonstrate equivalent experience as stated in this person specification.
Salary
New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e., level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.
