Principal Ecologist
Meet the recruiter

Manpreet Atwal
Benefits
Life assurance
Private medical insurance
Additional holiday purchase opportunities
Matched pension scheme up to 7.5%
Enhanced family leave & policies
Share plan schemes
Free health & wellbeing services
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Green car scheme
Principal Ecologist
We're looking for a Principal Ecologist to join our Nature and Biodiversity team. Using your strong understanding of UK nature conservation legislation and policy you'll deliver expert ecological services on a range of exciting projects across the UK in the road, rail, water and property sectors Within this role, you can enjoy a fantastic, matched pension scheme, 24/7 virtual GP service for you and your family, a competitive annual holiday entitlement, with opportunities to buy leave and even more.
Can you envision a world without transportation links by land, sea, or air? Neither can we! Your journey is our journey. Join us at Kier Transportation, where we are working brilliantly together to make a difference, supporting the movement of people, goods, and equipment.
Location: Nationwide - remote working available, with travel to the office and sites as required
Hours: 37.5 hours per week - some flexibility on hours available if desired, just let us know when you speak to us
Salary: £45,000 - £55,000 per year + £5.9k annual car allowance + private healthcare + benefits
We are unable to offer certificates of sponsorship to any candidates in this role.
What will you be responsible for?
As Principal Ecologist, you'll be working within the Nature & Biodiversity team, supporting as a focal point for technical advice, lead surveys, mitigation and licences, and promoting nature-based solutions and innovation across the business.
Your day to day will include:
- Leading ecological surveys, developing management plans and designing mitigation strategies
- Authoring and reviewing technical ecological documents
- Overseeing management of construction risks associated with ecology
- Ensuring all ecological licences and consents are obtained on time
- Managing team resources, meeting deadlines and budgets
What are we looking for?
This role of Principal Ecologist, is great for you if:
- A degree in Ecology (or equivalent) and CIEEM full member (or equivalent)
- Demonstrable knowledge as Technical Lead on a range of projects
- Strong report writing skills including Preliminary Ecological Assessments (PEAs), Ecological Impact Assessments (EcIAs), Habitats Regulation Assessments (HRAs), survey reports, method statements, precautionary working methods and managements plans
- Hold at least 1 protected species licence
- Experience as named ecologist on mitigation licences
Rewards and benefits
We're proud to be able to offer our brilliant people a wide variety of benefits that you can tailor to your needs. You can see more information of benefits here.
Diversity and inclusion
Making Kier a diverse and inclusive place to work is a huge priority for us. We're proud of the steps we've taken so far, but we know we must always do more. Our employees are key in shaping Kier's diversity and inclusion initiatives and our people have made a huge impact on how we work, by using their experiences to shape our policies. You can see our D&I action plan here.
As a Disability Confident employer, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this role will be offered an interview.
We look forward to seeing your application to #joinkier
#LI-MA1
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Location: Nationwide
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Vacancy ID: 9202
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Background check: BPSS Checks
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Closing Date: 19 Jan 2026
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Flexible Working: Yes
Flexible working could include part time, job share, condensed hours, or flexible start/end times.
