At HR Wallingford, we design smart, resilient solutions across the natural and built environments to help everyone live and work more sustainably with water. By harnessing research, data insights and the power of our collective expertise, we help the world to better understand the changing influence and impact of water.

We have an exciting opening for an experienced drainage scientist to help lead and deliver our work in the drainage and sustainable surface water management sectors.

Current projects include:

  • Creating digital AI modelling solutions and applications
  • Evaluating impacts of CSO spills and urban runoff discharges
  • Creating tools for the planning, evaluation and design of SuDS
  • Developing climate-adjusted rainfall time series and risk-based approaches to drainage design for flood and spill risk mitigation
  • Modelling and masterplanning drainage asset portfolios
  • Governance of water company modelling and asset delivery strategies
  • Developing industry good practice guidance

Our Catchments & Drainage and Informatics teams work very closely in developing innovative bespoke tools, platforms and software with an increasing focus on web applications delivering forecasting, modelling and data insights. These are used by our clients to protect communities, infrastructure and the environment while building climate resilience.

The team sits within the Flood and Water Management Group. Across this Group, we have a wide variety of experts including in water resources, flood risk systems analyses, flood forecasting, international climate adaptation and resilience, statistical modelling, data visualisation and management, and the use of earth observation data.  Our work cuts across regulatory, government and private sector consultancy and research sectors – both in the UK and internationally, and we are continuously generating new knowledge, skills and tools through our ongoing programme of internally-funded research. Within your role, you would be interacting and developing solutions with staff in all of these fields, in order to win and deliver projects and support clients across the Group. 

The Group are recognised for our innovation.  We won the ‘Digital Excellence’ category at the Environment Agency’s Flood and Coast Excellence Awards 2024 with our Resilience and Innovation Northants (RAIN) integrated catchment modelling project. Our Intelligent Dam Safety Monitoring (DAMSAT) project won two awards at the New Civil Engineer Techfest Awards and  our Dengue forecasting MOdel Satellite-based System (D-MOSS) has won 9 different industry awards. We have recently been successful in securing Ofwat Innovation Funding (with Southern Water) for a national SuDS platform and are one of ten finalists for the Manchester Prize – for which we are being funded to develop an AI sewer spill water quality impact tool.

About the role

We are looking for an enthusiastic and highly motivated individual with specialist drainage expertise who can contribute to the further development of new ideas and solutions, whilst providing confident project delivery and technical support for our clients.

The role will span both research and consultancy projects – requiring both a strong technical background and excellent proposal and project management and delivery skills. 

About you

You will have at least 10 years of experience in a water environment discipline related to drainage.  You will have good understanding and exposure to solving problems relating to urban flood risk and water quality risk management.  You will have an extensive project management and delivery track record (ideally of projects involving hydrodynamic modelling, data driven modelling and numerical analysis).

You will be able to demonstrate commercial acumen and leadership experience on projects, the ability to drive change through innovative thinking and solutions, and the capacity to inspire others through training and mentoring. Good people skills are also important to us.

You will have a minimum professional qualification of a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline. A Master’s degree or PhD would be preferable and Chartership through an appropriate institution would be advantageous.

Further information

The closing date for this role is 29th September 2024.

Why choose us?

  • Exceptional benefits: Enjoy a defined contribution pension scheme with a minimum 10% employer contribution (matched up to an additional 5%), 25 days of holiday plus bank holidays, life insurance, and health insurance providing dental/optical cash back.
  • Inclusive culture: Our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion is embedded in our core values.
  • Inspiring the next generation: We are passionate about inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists through outreach with our STEM Ambassadors.
  • Reach your full potential: We invest in our people, offering a chance to make a real impact from day one.
  • Work-life balance: We understand the importance of a healthy work-life balance and offer both hybrid working and flexi time. We are also open to exploring other flexible working arrangements, including part-time.

HR Wallingford is a non-profit-distributing organisation allowing us to reinvest into strategic research and innovation. This ensures that our staff have the opportunity to work on exciting research and development projects to create the next-generation tools and technology and to apply them to solve water related problems around the world in novel ways. Collaboration and teamworking is at our core, both internally and with industry and academic partners. Consequently, we actively encourage ongoing training and development opportunities and pride ourselves on our open, inclusive and supportive work environment.

How to apply

If you are excited about this role but unsure whether you’re the right fit, we encourage you to apply. We’re also happy to answer any questions by emailing careers@hrwallingford.com

Interested? Please apply providing your CV with covering letter. 

Additional information

Our privacy notice for job applicants, available from our website, explains how we collect and process the personal data you may provide us when you apply for a job with us through our websites, or by any other means. This notice also explains how we’ll store and handle that data and keep it.

HR Wallingford are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity in our workplace. We do not discriminate, and work to create an inclusive culture across our business.

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