Location
Croydon (other locations may be considered including Cambridge, Basingstoke, Leeds, Nottingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol, Dublin, and Cork)

Hours
Full Time - Flexible hybrid working model

Salary
Competitive salary and benefits package

About the Role
Join AECOM’s dynamic Nature team as a Principal Ecologist and help shape the future of the environment. You will lead and support the delivery of high-quality ecological consultancy and advisory services to both internal and external clients. Your responsibilities will include planning, scheduling, and organising all phases of ecological project work, ensuring resources, budgets, and controls meet programme requirements. You will develop technically robust and pragmatic solutions to complex ecological issues, lead the production of ecology chapters for environmental statements and protected species licence applications, and author or technically check project deliverables to ensure high-quality outputs. You will also support the continued development of our technical capabilities.

At AECOM, you will be part of a Nature business comprising around 150 professional experts across the UK & Ireland, including national and global leaders in impact assessment, habitat creation, ecosystem restoration, enhancement, and management. Our projects span power and renewables, infrastructure, environment, and transport sectors, collaborating with disciplines such as landscape, GIS, engineering, sustainability, and drainage. Recent projects include some of the largest solar farms in the UK, a cable tunnel below the River Thames, electricity network upgrades, habitats regulations assessments, and masterplanning of new residential developments.

Enjoy a supportive and inclusive environment with career development opportunities, flexible hybrid working, technical practice networks, AECOM University, and volunteering days. Join us and contribute to projects that create a positive and tangible impact around the world.

Experience
- Proven experience leading and managing ecological surveys, licensing, and impact assessments.
- Experience in work-winning, project management, budget oversight, and leading stakeholder discussions.
- Experience reviewing technical work and supporting wider team members.

About you
- A motivated and collaborative professional passionate about ecology and environmental consultancy.
- Strong leadership skills with the ability to deliver high-quality outputs and pragmatic solutions.
- Comfortable working in a dynamic, inclusive, and forward-thinking environment.
- Commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Qualifications
- Degree or equivalent in ecology or a related subject.
- Membership of an appropriate professional institution and working towards or holding Chartered Ecologist or Chartered Environmentalist status.
- Holder of protected species survey and/or mitigation licences.