This is a {Advertised Permanent / Temporary}, {Advertised Full Time / Part Time} vacancy that will close in {x} days at {xx:xx} BST.
The Vacancy
RSK Biocensus, part of the RSK Group, are recruiting for a full time, permanent Senior Ornithologist to join our growing ecology team in Cardiff. This position can be hybrid with home and office working options available. You’ll need to be willing to travel and stay away from home on occasions and in return we will offer you exciting and fulfilling projects and support you continuously with your professional development.
As an ornithologist at RSK Biocensus you can expect to get involved with management and delivery of all elements of ornithological field surveys, assessment, tender and report writing and project management.
Key responsibilities will include:
Co-ordinating and undertaking a broad range of BBS, winter bird surveys, species specific surveys, offshore surveys and vantage point surveys
Designing and implementing mitigation strategies
Financial management of projects
Production of tenders and reports
Project management, report writing and delivery
Providing ornithological support on projects for the wider team
Managing and mentoring junior members of the team.
We require someone who:
Has previous, relevant experience in a similar role, ideally working in commercial consultancy, although this is not a necessity
Is technically competent and able to undertake the full range of bird surveys
Good team player, with the ability to work independently
Enthusiasm, energy and drive to develop skills and deliver projects to the highest standard
Excellent report writing skills, including survey reports, EcIAs, HRAs and tenders.
Full driving licence
Appropriate membership of CIEEM (dependent on grade, or to have eligibility if not currently held).
Salary and benefits:
£32,000 - £45,000
Family friendly, flexible working opportunities
Choice of homeworking linked to multiple office / team locations.
Contributory Pension Scheme
A flexible benefits programme including the option to buy additional holidays and private health care
Regular structured training and career development
Life Assurance
Access to mental health support.
#Ecology #Consultancy #environmentaljobs
RSK Group is an Equal Opportunities Employer
More detailed job description attached
RSK will not accept unsolicited CVs from agencies other than RSK PSL or Secondary agencies.
About Us
Biocensus offers leading consultancy and contracting services in the ecological sector. Our interdisciplinary teams have operated on and contributed to dozens of specialised and multimillion-pound projects across the UK. Our refined service offering oversees a complete range of ecological services, including advising on purchasing land, undertaking surveys and environmental impact assessments and post-consent licensing and monitoring.
As a market-leading ecological consultancy, we rely on our expert and multi-disciplinary teams of more than 150 in-house staff, supported by a nationwide network of more than 700 quality-assured consultant ecologists. We have the scale and capabilities to progress large-scale projects and the range of expert skills for the most complex or sensitive programmes. We work with our clients to make their developments suitable for first-hand users and the surrounding wildlife. RSK Biocensus teams identify environmental risks and seek opportunities to enhance developments. We will not identify and highlight a problem without offering a corresponding solution.
RSK Biocensus is part of the RSK Group, a leading integrated environmental, engineering, and technical services business providing dynamic, multidisciplinary services to a wide range of sectors. RSK was founded in 1989 and has grown considerably since then.
At RSK, we operate as a group of businesses that work together seamlessly, aiming for growth through diversification. Our strategy helps us build a strong and resilient business, capable of weathering external challenges, while also providing greater value to our clients and more opportunities for our employees.
Since the beginning, our philosophy has remained the same: employ, develop and reward talented individuals. People are crucial to our company, and we recognise that our success hinges on our colleagues' growth. We're committed to preserving RSK's people-first culture, promoting innovation, and fostering a supportive and caring environment for collaboration. At RSK, we want you to be part of our successes and help you reach your career aspirations. We take pride in offering employees fulfilling and challenging careers by promoting ongoing growth and empowering individuals to excel.
We are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace that welcomes individuals from all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We firmly believe that embracing and celebrating the diversity in our workforce makes us a stronger and more innovative company.
By providing workplace adjustments, we make it easier for people to confidently explore and pursue our career opportunities and recognise that flexibility is key to fostering a dynamic and thriving workplace. Many of our office-based positions benefit from a flexible working arrangement, allowing our team members to achieve a balance between professional and personal commitments.
We actively encourage applications from candidates of all genders, races, ethnicities, ages, neurotypes, religions or beliefs, sexual orientations, and those with disabilities.
If you're passionate about making a difference, join us as we work together to build a brighter, more equitable, and sustainable future for all. Do you have what it takes?
You have already applied for this vacancy, please go to your account to see your progress.
Privacy Policy
RSK Group Limited: Recruitment Privacy Notice
RSK Group Limited and each of its subsidiary companies (we) are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. You are being sent a copy of this privacy notice because you are applying for work with us (whether as an employee, worker or contractor). It makes you aware how and why your personal data will be used, namely for the purposes of the recruitment exercise, your rights in relation to that personal data, how long it will usually be retained for and other information we are required by law to notify to you.
For the purposes of the recruitment process we are the Data Controller, and we will comply with data protection law and principles and a copy of our Data Protection Policy is available on request.
As defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) RSK Group is the Data Controller and ultimately responsible for ensuring the data you provide is kept secure, processed correctly and that you understand your legal rights in relation to the data you provide.
The recruitment software we use via this website is supplied by IRIS Software Group Limited and they are defined as a Data Processor under the GDPR. They will only process your data in accordance with our instructions.
IRIS can be contacted at: 4th Floor Heathrow Approach, 470 London Road, Slough, England, SL3 8QY
For Data Protection enquiries, please contact the Help Desk at support@networxrecruitment.com
The kind of information we hold about you
In connection with your application for work with us, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:
The information you have provided to us in your curriculum vitae and covering letter.
The information you have provided on our application form, including name, title, address, telephone number, personal email address, date of birth, gender, employment history, qualifications, personal achievements and interests, photographs.
Information you provide to us during an interview.
Information generated by us in the course of assessing your suitability to work for us, conducting interviews, and, if successful, offering you a position and onboarding, Identification documentation, National Insurance number, Right to Work data, references, etc.
Information provided to us by third parties in relation to your suitability to work for us (see below).
Aptitude, skills and psychometric scores and results.
We may, where it is lawful to do so, also collect, store and use the following types of more sensitive personal information:
Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions.
Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records.
Information about criminal convictions and offences
How is your personal information collected?
We collect personal information about candidates from sources including you (the candidate), recruitment agencies, background check providers, credit reference agencies, Disclosure and Barring Service (in respect of criminal convictions), your named referees and third parties holding personal data in a publicly accessible source such as LinkedIn and Facebook etc.
How we will use information about you
We will use the personal information we collect about you to:
Assess your skills, qualifications and suitability for the work.
Carry out background and reference checks, where applicable.
Communicate with you about the recruitment process.
Keep records related to our recruitment processes.
Comply with legal or regulatory requirements.
We need to process your personal information to decide whether to enter into a contract with you and we have a legitimate interest in assessing your suitability for work and deciding whether to appoint you.
If you fail to provide personal information
If you fail to provide information requested, which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications or work history), we may not be able to process your application accurately or successfully.
Automated decision making (ADM)
We may use automated decision-making (ADM) in certain HR processes (e.g., recruitment screening). Where ADM is used, you will be informed, provided with meaningful information about the logic involved, and notified of the significance and consequences. You have the right to contest decisions made solely by ADM, request human intervention, and express your point of view. ADM involving special category data will only occur where permitted by law or with your explicit consent, and additional safeguards will apply.
How we use particularly sensitive personal information and criminal conviction information
We will use your particularly sensitive personal information in the following ways:
We will use information about any notified disability status to consider whether we need to make appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process.
We may use information about your race or national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.
We will collect information about your unspent criminal convictions history. We are entitled to carry out a criminal records check in order to satisfy ourselves that there is nothing in your criminal convictions history which makes you unsuitable for the role.
We have in place an appropriate policy document and safeguards which we are required by law to maintain when processing such data.
Third Parties
We will only share your personal information with third parties to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing your application. All our third-party service providers and other entities in the RSK Group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use or otherwise access or process your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions relating to your application or, if successful, employment.
Our online recruitment portal through which you make an application via our website is supplied by Net-Worx (2001) Ltd (trading as Networx). If you have any queries regarding the portal, Networx can be contacted at: The Engine House, Wharfebank Business Centre, Ilkley Road, Otley, LS21 3JP. The Data Protection Officer for Networx is Rob Baker and can be contacted at dpo@networkxrecruitment.com.
If you submit information using the online recruitment portal, by email or otherwise your personal data and other information will be processed in accordance with this privacy notice.
Only our authorised personnel with a need to know and are involved in the recruitment process have access to personally identifiable information submitted through the portal.
How long will we retain your personal information?
If your application is not successful, your personal data will be retained:
I. If you apply directly to RSK through an advertisement or in response to an open vacancy listing, for a period not exceeding 2 years from your application date: or
II. If your application is referred from an Agency engaged to work on a vacancy for RSK, for a period of 6 months from your application date.
Unless you request that your data be retained following the appropriate period, you will be sent an automated email asking if you wish your details to be retained. If you do not respond to the email to confirm you wish to remain active, your candidate account will automatically be deactivated. You can also deactivate your account at any time. At the point of your account being deactivated, your data will be fully anonymised. This is so RSK can retain data for statistical purposes. All personal information will be removed.
We retain your personal information for that period for legal reasons and in order to show that we have conducted the recruitment exercise in a fair and transparent way.
If you are successfulin your application, your recruitment information will be transferred to your personnel file and you will receive our Privacy Notice for Employees, Workers and Contractors which explains how long your personal information will be kept for and the processing activities which will be undertaken in relation to your employment.
Your rights in connection with personal information
Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it and that it is correct.
Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
Request deletion of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no lawful reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below), or have withdrawn your consent
Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.
Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
Request the transfer of your personal information to another party (in some circumstances).
Right to withdraw consent of your personal information being collected, processed or transferred where you have previously provided consent for that specific processing at any time (in limited circumstances)
Right to complain, to make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) or
seek judicial remedy.
How to exercise your rights?
If you want to exercise the above rights in relation to your personal information please email us at HRCompliance@rsk.co.uk. For data subject access requests, we ask that you complete our Data Subject Access Request Form which is available on request. This is help us deal with your request more easily.
If you have concerns about how we handle your personal information, you have the right to raise a data protection complaint with us in the first instance. Complaints should be submitted in accordance with our Data Protection Complaints Procedure, details of which are available on request via HR Compliance.
We will investigate and respond to your complaint without undue delay. If you remain dissatisfied with our response, you have the right to escalate your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection, or to seek a judicial remedy. Further information about how to complain to the ICO is available at www.ico.org.uk
You will not normally need to pay a fee to exercise any of these rights. However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or how we handle your personal information, please write to our HR Compliance team at HRCompliance@rsk.co.uk. We have appointed our Data Protection Committee to oversee compliance with data protection legislation and best practice, they can be contacted at privacy@rsk.co.uk
This Privacy Notice is issued by RSK Group Limited, Spring Lodge, 172 Chester Road, Helsby, Cheshire, WA6 0AR.
Version 6, March 2026
Recruitment Privacy Notice, 5
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