Location
Scotland

Hours
Full time or flexible working patterns by agreement, including part-time, job share or compressed hours with a minimum of 28 hours per week

Salary
£49,401 per annum

About the Role
Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) is an independent non-ministerial office accountable to the Scottish Parliament, tasked with monitoring, investigating and securing public authorities’ compliance with environmental law in Scotland. ESS also scrutinises the effectiveness of environmental law and policy and identifies gaps in environmental protection legislation. ESS is expanding its role to include scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s delivery against new statutory biodiversity and nature restoration targets under the Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026, as well as local authorities’ reporting against climate change duties.

We are recruiting a Senior Policy Analyst to join the Nature Recovery Team within the New Scrutiny Duties Development Department. This role will support the establishment and delivery of scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s progress against statutory biodiversity targets.

Key duties include:
- Undertaking and commissioning analysis of environmental policy, legislation and regulatory frameworks to support ESS assessments on environmental targets and the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy delivery
- Identifying, gathering, analysing and communicating intelligence on relevant policy, regulatory and legislative developments to diverse audiences
- Leading the coordination and drafting of ESS’ statutory response to Scottish Government progress
- Engaging stakeholders to gather evidence, expertise and insight on policy and regulatory implementation
- Building and maintaining effective relationships with partners across central and local government and the wider environmental sector
- Collaborating across ESS to ensure target-related developments are reflected in operational work streams
- Representing ESS internally and externally to promote understanding of ESS and its new duties
- Supporting the development of practice and operational ways of working to implement ESS scrutiny of targets

Experience
- Experience working in a team at pace to deliver high-quality products or services
- Excellent communication and influencing skills with the ability to establish strong working relationships with internal and senior external stakeholders
- Strong organisational and prioritisation skills with the ability to work independently and deliver at pace without sacrificing quality
- Excellent analytical skills with experience delivering high-quality policy analysis, synthesising complex information and drawing out key strategic links and conclusions

About you
- Excellent oral and written communication skills, able to communicate complex information clearly and succinctly to senior decision makers and non-specialists
- Strong analytical skills with recent experience using multi-disciplinary analysis to support policy, regulatory or operational decisions
- Adaptable and proactive with the ability to respond to changing circumstances and deliver evidence-led decisions
- Strong management and interpersonal skills, able to lead matrix-managed projects and promote collaborative working within and across teams

Qualifications
- A degree or equivalent qualification in a relevant subject such as environmental science or public policy, or significant experience gained through working within policy development, implementation or analysis roles

Desirable
- Knowledge or experience of the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Government and wider public sector
- Experience working in environmental science, law, policy or regulation
- Skills in utilising scientific and data analysis to inform policy development and delivery
- Knowledge of environmental governance and policy in Scotland