Environmental Geoscientist

Job Introduction

Job Description for Environmental Geoscientist:

NNL is where you’ll experiment to help solve global challenges. As part of our Waste Management & Decommissioning capability, your work will impact the lives of generations. By finding new ways to avoid, reduce, store and treat nuclear waste, and drive down the cost of decommissioning, you’ll help to deliver cleaner energy and influence our nation’s energy future. You’ll face new challenges every day, working in unique locations on ground-breaking projects. Whichever area you specialise in this is a place to do great science for a good cause.

This role is for a talented environmental geo-scientist in the NNL Environmental Science team. This is an important role working closely with Technical Leads and team members which will also require interaction with a range of internal and external customers.  Key day-to-day tasks in support of customer funded projects will include the characterisation, interpretation and 3D modelling of the geology of a variety of nuclear sites, related to contaminated land and radioactive waste management, including geological disposal; undertaking on-site and off-site geological characterisation field surveys. The successful candidate will also have a strong focus on data interpretation and analysis and will provide expert articulation of findings and results to our customers.  In addition, there will be the opportunity to work on internally funded R&D projects, author journal publications and contribute towards knowledge exchange activities within the wider nuclear industry.

The successful candidate should have a minimum of a graduate qualification (MSc) in a relevant scientific subject, i.e. geology, geoscience or environmental science and ideally will have a proven ability to work in a contaminated site environment.   

The role will provide the opportunity to contribute to a range of land quality and characterisation projects for several key customers and supports technical leads and project managers to identify requirements, writing proposals for research and other customer work, campaign design, providing characterisation data, data analysis, technical report writing, cross team communication.

It is expected that the successful candidate will be one of several team members in the area of Environmental Science. The role will involve working closely with leading experts within NNL and contribute to a wide range of key waste management programmes as well as wider environmental remediation activities both in the UK and internationally. The available role is both desk and site-based and it is anticipated that, while the primary focus will be in the waste disposal and land quality areas, there will be opportunity to support work in other areas including characterisation, decontamination, remediation and waste treatment. 

Currently SL is the primary customer for the team, however there are several areas which are currently expanding including EdF, Magnox and MoD for waste management and contaminated land, and AFCP (Advanced Fuel Cycle Programme) for DESNZ and the UK AMR (Advanced Modular Reactor) programme.  

Although the team member will primarily interact with members of the Environmental Science capability area and its customers, there will be interactions with other internal teams and technical leads such as Immobilisation Science & Technology, Measurement and Analysis, Innovation, Customer Experience etc.  It is also expected that the candidate would have a wider interest and understanding of the nuclear industry as a whole (e.g. AFCP) and get involved in S&T activities.

The location for this role is flexible and can be based at Risley, Workington, Preston or Stonehouse.

Role Responsibility

Main Responsibilities for Environmental Geoscientist:

• Undertake duties as directed by the Capability Manager, Technical Lead and / or Lead Technologist.
• Interface with Customers to develop project work and maintain relationships.
• Participate in the delivery of a range of projects supporting the 3D characterisation of geology (and potentially hydrogeology), and remote sensing for contaminated land and deep geological disposal studies.
• Undertake on-site characterisation operations including geological surveys.  
• Contribute to characterisation proposals and programmes.
• Deliver related internal and collaborative research projects including supporting team members and PhD students.
• Carry out analysis of results, interpretation and 3D modelling, produce, deliver and present on technical reports.
• Prepare safety paperwork and documentation and liaise with relevant stakeholders to ensure the safe delivery of work.
• Develop and maintain own expertise.

The Ideal Candidate

Essential Criteria for Environmental Geoscientist:

• Minimum graduate qualification (MSc) in relevant scientific subject, e.g. geology, geoscience and/or environmental science.
• Proven ability to analyse data and act upon findings.
• Proven ability to present technical information to others in the technical community, customers and academia where necessary. 
• Good problem solving, analytical thinking and decision-making skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a team environment.
• Strong computer skills including proficiency in MS Office. 
• Proven ability to communicate effectively. 
• Full clean driver’s licence and willing to travel.
• Ability to obtain SC level security clearance (this includes but is not limited to identity, employment, financial and criminal record checks plus 5 years’ worth of UK residency).

Desirable Criteria for Environmental Geoscientist:

• PhD in relevant scientific subject. e.g. geology, geoscience or environmental science.
• Experience in hydrogeology, sedimentology, geomechanics.
• Lab experience and/or familiarity with analytical techniques for radiological sample analysis. 
• Member of a professional institute (e.g. Geological Society).

About the Company

NNL is an incredible place to work A place where people do things that have never been done before A place where people push boundaries to further themselves, the business, and society as a whole.

This is a place where personal and professional opportunities are limitless. If you want to change the world, if you want to tackle climate change, if you want to help advance medical science, if you want to help put things in space, if you want to answer the big questions, if you want to work with extraordinary materials, if you want to meet great people, learn new skills, challenge yourself, work flexibly, and build a long successful career with the power to make a real impact… you can do it all here.

NNL has a vision for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity (ED&I) where NNL aims to be an inclusive workplace that attracts diverse talent through transparent and equal policies and procedures. We want you and the diverse mix of people that we employ, customers that we service, and stakeholders that we influence to feel valued. We encourage a workplace culture where everyone can thrive with a sense of belonging.

Recruitment Agency Notice

We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List (PSL) for the provision of recruitment services. Only agencies on our PSL may provide CVs and only when the role is released to them by our recruitment team. We will not accept unsolicited CVs from suppliers not currently on our PSL. We explicitly reserve the right to add candidate details from unsolicited CVs from non-PSL agencies into our own candidate database and to pursue/hire such candidate(s) without any obligation, financial or otherwise, to the agency concerned.

United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory