Scientist Hydrology

Te Whakapakari Tahi I Tō tātau Taiao – Enhancing our environment together.

Our vision is a healthy environment and a resilient and prosperous community.

We focus on prioritising:

Te kounga o te wai, te haumarutanga me te mārohirohi ā-āhuarangi o te whakamarutanga | Water quality, safety and climate-resilient security.  

Kia koi, kia toitū hoki te whakamahinga o te whenua | Climate-smart and sustainable land use. 

Kia ora, kia āhei, kia mārohirohi ā-āhuarangi hoki te rerenga rauropi | Healthy, functioning and climate-resilient biodiversity. 

Kia toitū, kia mārohirohi ā-āhuarangi hoki ngā ratonga me ngā hanganga ā-whare | Sustainable and climate-resilient services and infrastructure. 

At Hawke’s Bay Regional Council our purpose is to work with our community to protect and manage the region’s precious taonga of rivers, lakes, soils, air, coast and biodiversity for health, wellbeing and connectivity. Our organisation is diverse and our work is varied. Our structure comprises of six key business units; Corporate Services, Integrated Catchment Management, Asset Management, Māori Partnerships, Policy & Regulation, and the Executive Advisory Group which also consists of the Civil Defence and Emergency Management.

About the Opportunity:

We’re looking for a Scientist Hydrology to join the Hydrology and Groundwater Science team in our Environmental Science Section.  This role is one of a technical expert, who provides strategic direction to water quality management in Hawke’s Bay, by informing policy development and water allocation activities throughout the Hawke’s Bay region. The role is well supported by the team of senior and principal scientists who are experienced surface water and groundwater experts, with enthusiasm for sharing their skills and knowledge to ensure that the person in this role develops professionally.

Waterways in Hawke’s Bay are valued extremely highly in their own right and water is also critical to the regional economy. Management of these resources requires fully informed decision making and the Senior Scientist Hydrology has a key role in that function. If you are passionate about hydrology and want to make a positive difference to the environment, this could be your opportunity!   

About you:

You will have a thorough understanding of the broad suite of hydrological statistics and experience deriving these metrics along with a specific interest and proven focus of the physical drivers of river flow and fluvial processes.  You’ll ideally have working knowledge of the Resource Management Act and recent developments in NZ water resource management, including the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and the limit-setting process, the National Objectives Framework and the National Environmental Monitoring Standards. 

 You will be technically savvy and can demonstrate experience with a range of software systems and data management suites.  This combined with your passion for the environment and the work we do supports your ability to communicate and convey and interpret information to meet a diverse range of audiences.  In addition to the above, candidates who have experience and knowledge of mātauranga Māori in combination with western science will be highly regarded.

 Successful candidates will demonstrate:

• Familiarisation with methods used to determine the relationship between stream flows and fish habitat in New Zealand waters.
• Familiarisation with methods and models used to determine surface water allocation limits for abstractive use.
• Experience with the design and use of rainfall runoff/catchment models such as SWAT or SOURCE.
• Experience with the design of regional surface water flow networks to assist with managing minimum flows, determining allocatable volumes and supporting surface water and groundwater flow models.
• The ability to critically assess flows to determine and isolate the magnitude of changes caused by various stresses such surface water pumping and climate effects.
• Be able to clearly and effectively report and present findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• An understanding of data quality and uncertainty associated with flow measurements; establishing long-term flows sites; concurrent flow gauging; and creating rating curves for determining stage-discharge relationships.
• An understanding of the complex interactions with surface water and groundwater and the various methods available to quantify and investigate the resulting physical and chemical changes. 
• Proven experience with programming such as, but not limited to, R, Python, and FORTRAN languages for data manipulation, analysis and statistical computing will be highly regarded.

 Benefits of working for our team include limited income protection and life insurance, subsidised eye tests and lenses, flu vaccinations, and other well-being initiatives. HBRC also has a strong commitment to developing and upskilling people within a flexible and supportive working environment. To see a full list of our benefits please visit our website: https://www.hbrc.govt.nz/our-council/careers/working-with-us/

All applicants must have existing rights to work in New Zealand.

To view the job description please visit our website HERE

Please send your application to hr@hbrc.govt.nz.

Applications close 10 August.

19 September 2022

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