Senior/Principal Hydrologist (Ireland)

JBA are looking to recruit the right people to work at one of the leading suppliers of specialist hydrologic modelling and assessment in Ireland. Our existing hydrology team supports a range of clients including local authorities, the OPW, TII, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and international organisations such as the World Bank through strategic framework appointments as well as insurance companies, utility companies and developers to deliver a range of flood risk, hydromorphology / fluvial geomorphology, nature based solutions, climate change adaptation and environmental management studies. These roles will ideally be based in either Belfast, Cork, Dublin or Limerick.

You’ll be joining an established environmental and engineering consultancy who put sustainability and resilience to climate change at the heart of our company strategy. With offices in nine countries around the world and across Ireland and the UK, we like to think we make a difference. We are independent and employee-owned allowing us the freedom to focus on innovation and our commitment to exceptional client service. Our workforce is central to our success, and we invest heavily in supporting staff development. We are great people to work for. Visit https://www.jbaconsulting.ie/ to find out more about what we do.

Your role

With a background in hydrology, this role will principally be working on a range of flood risk projects ranging from detailed flood mapping studies to flood mitigation strategies and appraisal to hydromorphology / fluvial geomorphology, nature based solutions, climate change adaptation to manage flooding as well as helping solve complex engineering challenges. As such, the successful applicant will work alongside our engineering and design teams collaborating on projects in Ireland and internationally. These projects make a difference to local communities and the environment, serving a range of public and private sector clients including regulators, local authorities and water utilities.

The key areas of responsibility associated with this role will be:
· Taking a technical leadership role in ensuring flood management project deliverables meet clients’ needs including taking ownership and responsibility for the quality of project work to meet the highest standards.
· Working with other senior staff across JBA to develop medium and long term strategies for the development of existing workstreams and identifying areas for expansion for the modelling teams.
· Championing technical innovation to improve efficiency and quality of delivery, playing a central role in demonstrating and disseminating the latest methodologies and tools.
· Liaising with clients, hydraulic modellers, project managers and other design and management team members.
· Mentoring and supporting the technical development of less experienced colleagues in the team.
· Providing flood hydrology and modelling-related technical input to business development activities across the JBA Group.
· Working alongside colleagues in our Data Science and JBAi teams to identify opportunities for applying next generation techniques, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, across the modelling discipline.

The team member we’re looking for

We are looking for a candidate who:
· has a significant amount of experience in the field of flood hydrology and sector experience in flood management.
· is self driven, naturally curious and constantly learning;
· is able to identify which details matter and can influence the outcome and bigger picture;
· is able to produce high quality reports, presentations and deliverables to effectively communicate (verbally, written and present) complex issues with simplicity;
· is able to motivate, inspire, supervise, review, coach and mentor colleagues.

Qualifications

The right candidate will have:
· Master’s degree (or equivalent) in in hydrology or an equivalent science.
· Chartered status (e.g. CIWEM) is important to JBA and valued by our clients. Applicants should be Chartered or be able to demonstrate their commitment towards becoming Chartered with an appropriate professional body.

Essential attributes for the role

· Team player and ability to lead small project teams;
· Knowledge and understanding of flood hydrology and hydraulic processes and modelling – ability to understand the modelling process and model limitations so that you can challenge and ensure that models represent what is required;
· Highly proficient in the application of commonly applied hydrological methods in Ireland (especially Flood Studies Update (FSU);
· Proven experience in building semi-distributed rainfall-runoff models;
· Proficient in statistical analysis for hydrology;
· Experience of rating reviews;
· An understanding of Fluvial geomorphology, Nature based Solutions and an understanding of catchment and river processes;
· Competent user of QGIS and R statistics packages.
· Ability to deliver of innovative solutions to difficult challenges including complex hydraulic problems.
· The ability to produce high quality technical writing for bid and project work.

Desirable attributes for the role

Bid and tender preparation;
· Leading project teams;
· Understanding of project contractual management;
· Experience of developing and delivering training;
· Work experience in preparation of feasibility studies, flood risk management plans, strategies and other similar documents, will be considered an advantage.
· Coding with R or Python for processing of data sets.
· Experience of working closely with design teams to develop engineering solutions is desirable.
· Commercial awareness and evidence of ability to deliver projects and bids to time and budget.

Language and other skills
· Fluency in a foreign language would be considered an advantage.

Location and contact

The role is available at various different offices, if you would like to know more please contact us. We're always on the lookout for talented, committed and inspiring people to join us in our ambition to lead in the pursuit for resilience to climate change. In return, we offer rewarding careers with continued opportunities and dedicated support for personal development. Build your career with us and help us to build a more resilient future.

JBA supports hybrid working which provides for greater flexibility with the way that we work.

For further information or an informal discussion about this position, please contact Ross Bryant on ross.bryant@jbaconsulting.ie