Nuclear Waste Services has opportunity for a Principal Waste Specialist to join our busy team flexible working across the NWS estate.
Roles and Responsibilities
As part of this role you will provide waste characterisation technical leadership across the Integrated Waste Management delivery team, ensuring consistent and high-quality delivery of all technical aspects of the planning and preparation work programme. Your focus will be on implementation of our corporate strategy, developing the technical roadmap to create our in house expertise in characterisation.
You will also:
- Lead our centre of expertise for planning and preparation, working with key stakeholders across our NDA Group
- Take ownership of relationships and interactions with key stakeholders across Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) Group, other waste producing organisations, regulators, Government and devolved administrations.
- Oversee work outputs to ensure consistency, quality and alignment to the aims and objectives of the IWMP & Strategy business group and NWS mission. Your area of expertise will be on characterisation and planning and preparation techniques and analytics
- Influence and oversight of NWS’s characterisation technical programme to drive and deliver work in support of identified integrated waste management benefits realisation.
- Act as delegated authority for sign off of outputs from IWM.
- Act as the client to the characterisation technical programme on behalf of IWM and where appropriate the wider IWMP & Strategy business group.
- Technical authority in Planning and Preparation, accountable for advising the Head of IWM and IWMP & Strategy Director on key strategic waste management decisions and developing solutions to robustly underpin those decisions on extant and emergent strategic themes.
- Setting out and leading the technical elements for an implementation plan to develop our core characterisation and planning and preparation expertise
- The Principal Waste Specialist will be our expert representative and authorative voice on all matters relating to waste characterisation and planning and preparation, providing expert advice to the IWMP & Strategy Director and Heads of Function in driving authoritative engagement with other NWS business groups to ensure our vision and mission is enabled and implemented with key stakeholders.
- Responsible for ownership and maintaining working relationships and interactions with key stakeholders across NDA Group to ensure input and expertise is provided on estate wide strategic and tactical waste management initiatives and that these align with NWS’s mission. Your focus will be on the planning and preparation, working with the other Principal Waste Specialists across the rest of the waste lifecycle.
- The post holder will be responsible for ensuring that technical outputs from IWM work areas are compliant with stakeholder requirements, have been subject to appropriate company assurance and fulfil NDA’s Integrated Waste Management (IWM) strategic objectives.
- Where required the post holder will act as change owner and represent IWM at key governance bodies such as Strategic Governance Committee (SGC), Executive Technical Sub-Group, Disposal System Design Committee (DSDC) and the Nuclear Safety and Environmental Committee (NSEC) for relevant IWM change requests that materialise as a result of work outputs that may impact on NWS and the wider NDA Group.
- Represent NWS at senior level external engagement and lead on external communications to drive high visibility of the work completed through IWM and where applicable the wider NDA Group. You will lead specialist groups in characterisation and be a credible and authorative voice in the field of waste planning and preparation
- The post holder will also be accountable for ensuring that waste characterisation technical competence across the IWM team is developed to meet the needs of the NWS mission. You will develop and define the planning and preparation core competencies required for a waste professional career pathway
Experience Required
- Extensive working experience in the field of waste management, specialising in the identification, quantification and examination of waste material
- Expertise in waste characterisation and the planning and preparation stages of the waste lifecycle.
- Knowledge of characterisation techniques with experience of developing and defining requirements and application of techniques
- Proven track record of working with stakeholders, chairing and facilitating meetings.
- Knowledge of the inventory of radioactive wastes, including knowledge of the form, characteristics and hazards of the wastes.
- Extensive knowledge, understanding experience of developing national strategies for the management of waste management.
- A thorough understanding of NDA’s role in managing this national waste strategy, including a working knowledge of the emerging NDA topic strategies and programmes to fulfil the NDA mission.
- Working knowledge and delivery of strategic work in support of NDA’s Strategy Management System process.
Qualifications Needed
- Degree in science or engineering subject or equivalent relevant experience
- Chartered membership status in relevant professional institution.
What is in it for you
- On appointment to an RWM, full-time staff are entitled to a generous annual holiday allowance of 38 days’ annual leave. LLWR up to 43 days in addition to a buy/sell scheme
- Rewarding performance (bonus scheme)
- We offer a generous above average pension scheme
- learning and development support
- payment of relevant annual professional subscriptions
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Financial advice assistance
- Flexible working
- Extended family-friendly policies
- Cycle to work scheme
- We welcome flexible and agile working practices
- Flexible working requests can be submitted from day 1 of employment
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