Senior Surface Water Scientist

About

Located on the eastern coast of the North Island, this employer plays a vital role in ensuring sustainable development, water quality, land use planning, and conservation initiatives. Receiving around 2,200 hours of annual sunshine, the Hawke's Bay is known as one of NZ's sunniest regions whilst also boasting a vibrant vineyard, art deco architecture, and hugely scenic landscape!

This employer focuses on environmental protection, flood control, regional planning, and promoting economic growth while preserving the region's unique natural heritage. With a commitment to community engagement and collaboration, they strives to address the diverse needs of its residents and safeguard the region's environmental well-being for current and future generations. And this is where you come in...

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About the role
As part of the Environmental Science team, the role of the Senior Surface Water Scientist is responsible for developing the council’s surface water programs and providing strategic direction to the management of surface water resources in Hawke’s Bay region.

This role will see you:

• Develop and manage surface water programs to assist with understanding the impacts caused by resource development in the region.
• Undertake field and research investigations to assist with characterising surface water systems, reducing uncertainty and assisting with the development of resource management plans.
• Produce technical reports, present findings, and provide advice to a range of stakeholders, including, when required providing expert evidence in relation to hearings and enforcement proceedings.
• Procure contractors, manage budgets and, co-ordinate and mentor staff

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Skills & Experience
They're are seeking someone with specific experience in surface water analysis and ideally 3 years' minimum experience in a similar role or relevant industry.

You will have a good understanding of the principles of surface water flow and methodology, and you will have the ability to critically assess the impacts of various stresses on instream values such as aquatic life, flow variability, and stream morphology.

Other key required skills include:

• Recognised tertiary qualification in an environmental science or engineering discipline, ideally with a specific hydrogeology post-graduate qualification.
• Knowledge of NZ (or country of origin) water resource management, including the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and the limit-setting process.
• Familiarisation with Instream habitat survey methods and models used to determine the relationship between flows and fish habitat in New Zealand waters.
• A thorough understanding of the broad suite of hydrological statistics and experience deriving these metrics.
• Proven experience with programming languages such as, but not limited to, R, Python, and FORTRAN for data manipulation, analysis and statistical computing.
• Experience with the design and use of rainfall runoff/catchment models such as SWAT or SOURCE.

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