Scientist Groundwater

Te Whakapakari Tahi I Tō tātau Taiao – Enhancing our environment together.

Our vision is a healthy environment and a resilient and prosperous community.

We focus on prioritising:

Te kounga o te wai, te haumarutanga me te mārohirohi ā-āhuarangi o te whakamarutanga | Water quality, safety and climate-resilient security.  

Kia koi, kia toitū hoki te whakamahinga o te whenua | Climate-smart and sustainable land use. 

Kia ora, kia āhei, kia mārohirohi ā-āhuarangi hoki te rerenga rauropi | Healthy, functioning and climate-resilient biodiversity. 

Kia toitū, kia mārohirohi ā-āhuarangi hoki ngā ratonga me ngā hanganga ā-whare | Sustainable and climate-resilient services and infrastructure. 

At Hawke’s Bay Regional Council our purpose is to work with our community to protect and manage the region’s precious taonga of rivers, lakes, soils, air, coast and biodiversity for health, wellbeing and connectivity. Our organisation is diverse and our work is varied. Our structure comprises of six key business units; Corporate Services, Integrated Catchment Management, Asset Management, Māori Partnerships, Policy & Regulation, and the Executive Advisory Group which also consists of the Civil Defence and Emergency Management.

About the Opportunity:

We are looking for a Groundwater Scientist to join the Environmental Science team. This role provides both strategic direction and technical analysis to support management of water resources in Hawke’s Bay. This will include developing and managing research and monitoring projects, the implementation and management of monitoring networks for state of the environment reporting and providing specialist technical advice. The role will have a core focus on groundwater with some crossover work into surface water hydrology. The role is supported by a team of 5 other water scientists, with enthusiasm for sharing their skills and knowledge to ensure that the person in this role develops professionally.

About you:

You will have a thorough understanding of environmental processes, particularly specific knowledge of groundwater systems including interactions between surface water and groundwater along with the ability to develop an integrated approach to environmental management at HBRC.

The successful candidate will have:

• Experience providing specialist environmental, scientific, and technical advice, for the effective management of groundwater resources.
• The ability to critically assess groundwater data (both quantity and quality) to determine and isolate the magnitude of changes caused by various stresses such groundwater water pumping, land use practise and climate effects.
• The ability to clearly and effectively report and present findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Project management skills for coordinating consultant expertise as required to better understand and manage the regions water resources.
• Experience with the design of groundwater monitoring networks to assist with managing groundwater resources and supporting surface water and groundwater flow models.
• An understanding of groundwater data collection methods and the uncertainty associated with groundwater level measurements, water quality sampling, and establishing monitoring sites.
• Experience with collecting, analysing, and maintaining data for regional and state of the environment reporting, environmental projects, and consent and compliance monitoring.
• An understanding of the complex interactions with groundwater and surface water and the various methods available to quantify and investigate the resulting physical and chemical changes. 
• Proven experience with programming such as, but not limited to, R, Python, and FORTRAN languages for data manipulation, analysis and statistical computing will be highly regarded.

Benefits of working for our team include limited income protection and life insurance, subsidised eye tests and lenses, flu vaccinations, and other well-being initiatives. HBRC also has a strong commitment to developing and upskilling people within a flexible and supportive working environment. To see a full list of our benefits please visit our website: https://www.hbrc.govt.nz/our-council/careers/working-with-us/

All applicants must have existing rights to work in New Zealand. 

We value diversity and as such we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability status although applicants must have existing rights to work in New Zealand. HBRC is responsible for Civil Defence emergencies and as such, all staff may be called upon to support the response.

To view the job description please click here

Please send your application to hr@hbrc.govt.nz.

Applications close 5 September however we may be interviewing suitable candidates prior to the closing date and may close the role early.

11 October 2022

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