Senior Officer People and Places – Fisheries

The Role

We have an exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys collaboration, strategic influence and delivering tangible benefits for people and places to join us as a Senior People and Places officer.

This Senior Officer (Fisheries) role sits within the Mid Wales People and Places Team, covering Powys and Ceredigion, an area rich in opportunity and complexity. Mid Wales spans dispersed rural communities and market towns, extensive river catchments, and high-quality bathing waters. Its distinctive upland and coastal landscapes are shaped by forestry and land management and include nationally important habitats and designated sites.

The area also contains large, sensitive river catchments and communities increasingly vulnerable to flooding and climate‑related pressures.

This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in delivering fisheries and catchment priorities across Mid Wales. You will represent place interests in major programmes and partnerships, such as the Severn–Thames Transfer and the Upper Severn Catchment Partnership, providing technical input and ensuring that environmental and regulatory priorities are effectively reflected.

As a fisheries specialist, you will advise on Developments of National Significance, environmental permits, and planning applications, working collaboratively with colleagues to improve consistency and develop smarter, more efficient ways of working.

You will build and sustain strong partnerships as a key point of contact for strategic projects, catchment partnerships, and Rivers Trusts, supporting coordinated delivery of shared priorities. Working across teams, you will help align projects, manage risks and liabilities.

As a Senior Officer, you will translate complex evidence and policy into clear, accessible information, supporting effective decision‑making across a wide range of audiences, and provide project and programme management support for initiatives such as the Sustainable Fisheries Programme, coordinating delivery across teams and partners to achieve shared objectives and maximise benefits for people and nature.

Leading on fisheries for Mid Wales, you will actively seek opportunities to apply the principles of Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (SMNR) and support the delivery of the Mid Wales Area Statement, helping to deliver integrated, place‑based solutions that strengthen the resilience of communities and natural resources.

Driving is essential to this role as there is travel required across Mid Wales sometimes to remote locations with no public transport access. You must hold a full and current UK driving license.

As an organisation we support flexible working. You will be contracted to the NRW office at the above location and a suitable hybrid working pattern will be agreed on appointment. Any regular face to face meetings or training will be planned in advance.

Interviews will be face to face in Welshpool on 02/09/2026.

Successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check. Appointments are normally made within 4 to 8 weeks of the closing date.

This role sits within the Operations Directorate in Mid Wales, within the Mid Wales People and Places Team, a collaborative and diverse group united by a commitment to protecting and enhancing our natural environment and local places.

The team includes specialists across partnership working, biodiversity and conservation, protected sites, fisheries, recreation & access, forestry resource planning, and Public Service Boards. Working strategically and practically, you will join a supportive team where your expertise will deliver high-impact outcomes shaping the future of our rivers, coasts, and communities.

• Lead for Mid-Wales on fisheries, providing technical expertise and advice to the team and Head of Place, including developments of national significance, environmental permit applications, including abstraction and impoundment licences, Flood Risk Activity Permits, and fish pass approvals..
• Mentor others in the team to broaden their understanding of your specialism so the team develops a multidisciplinary understanding of environmental issues.
• Work with the team to develop innovative solutions to environmental issues, integrating multiple aspects of planning within the place. Identify gaps in the evidence base and work with National Operations & Strategy, Policy and Evidence to prioritise and commission research.