Principal Ecologist; Regional Deputy Team Lead

Principal Ecologist (Regional Deputy Team Lead - Reading)

Mott Mac Donald is a global engineering, management, and development consultancy with over 20,000 employees across more than 50 countries and 140+ offices.

We work across incredible global industries, delivering exciting work that is defining our future and making an important societal impact in the communities we serve. Our people power our performance – we succeed when they do. With countless opportunities to collaborate, learn, and grow, the possibilities for excellence are as varied as every individual.

Whether you want to grow as a subject matter expert or broaden your experience with roles across our international community, you’re surrounded by global specialists who want to combine their expertise and champion you to be your best. As a proudly employee–owned business, we benefit our clients, our communities, and each other, investing in creating the right space for everyone to feel empowered, included, and valued.

Whatever your ambition, Mott Mac Donald is where people come to be brilliant.

Environmental and social considerations are central to Mott Mac Donald’s Purpose and its offerings across all sectors and territories. Our environment and social business provides essential services and innovative solutions which anticipate our clients' needs across all sectors.

Mott Mac Donald are leading way in Nature Services and we are looking for people to join our Ecology Team and to play their part in integrating nature into all developments so that together with our clients we can build a better future.

We pride ourselves on setting and maintaining high standards and are at the forefront of providing ecological advice. Our team has written guidance and delivered training on BNG and contributed to CIEEM’s raising standards documents.

We’ve developed innovative tools to more robustly and efficiently collect and manage ecological data to enable our team to focus on really making a difference.

We’ve provided detailed biodiversity advice to improve NHS hospitals for people and the planet, we’re delivering nature‑based solutions for water treatment and flood management and we’ve overseen the production of a Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

We have a large portfolio of projects and a healthy forward‑order book bringing with it fantastic opportunities for Ecologists at all levels.

The team in Reading has 4 members but we are looking to increase the numbers in this office. The team is currently joint with the London / Croydon team (7 members), and you would be the Deputy Team Lead for Croydon and Reading Ecology Team. We also work very closely with the rest of the Ecology Team. Across the team we have a wide range of skills and licences.

Our Reading Office is well situated close to Reading train station and has an active sports and social club offering a wide range of subsidised activities.

The team has a diverse range of projects from flood defence schemes, BNG strategies, BNG implementation and specialist species surveys. The Reading/Croydon team are particularly working in the transport sector and for water companies as well as providing support to Environment Agency schemes. We are also involved with landscape scale planning to deliver nature recovery for various clients.

Joining our team at Principal Ecologist level you will likely spend the majority of your time office‑based but may still get involved in some site work, especially in your area of technical expertise.

As the deputy to the Regional Lead, you will have responsibility for staff wellbeing, mentoring, and career development for the Croydon and Reading Ecology Team and will line manage some of the team members. You will work with the Regional Lead, Area Leader and UK Ecology Team Leader to manage utilisation, the appointment of people for specific roles, training and recruitment needs.

You will hold regular operational team briefings/meetings for effective team management and communications.

The projects you will be working on can span all stages of a project’s life cycle, from design conception to implementation; giving opportunities to positively…