Biodiversity & Conservation Specialist

Work location: Sines

About the Role

The Biodiversity & Conservation Specialist is Start Campus’ ecological Specialist, based at the SINES DC campus. The role is field-based, with regular surveying and monitoring, and covers the technical reports, project deliverables and practical guidance that the teams designing, building and operating Start Campus sites rely on.

With the biodiversity plan and commitments already largely defined, the priority is execution: delivering specific projects on the ground and documenting the results. The role also shapes how the plan develops as field data comes in and as the sites and regulation change.

Working closely with internal teams, environmental consultants, contractors, regulators and local stakeholders, the Biodiversity & Conservation Specialist will help minimise ecological impacts, identify opportunities for habitat enhancement and support the organisation’s wider nature-related commitments.

Key Responsibilities

Field survey and monitoring

• Provide technical oversight of field monitoring activities for the fauna and flora components, including species-specific monitoring, and process the resulting field and habitat mapping data in GIS.
• Run the biodiversity monitoring programmes during the construction and operational phases.
• Act as the reference ecologist on site: pre-construction checks, supervision of vegetation clearance and direct advice to construction management and planning.
• Monitor and track the mitigation, restoration and enhancement measures already in place, and flag possible ecological constraints early.
• Respond to ecological incidents and unexpected finds on site, coordinating with the authorities where required.

Technical reporting and compliance

• Prepare monitoring reports, field reports and technical notes for regulator and third-party review.
• Analyse monitoring data and turn it into clear findings and recommendations.
• Keep survey records, species and habitat inventories, monitoring results and GIS layers up to date and ready for audit.
• Track biodiversity commitments, licence conditions and mitigation measures, and report progress against them.
• Verify compliance with Portuguese and European nature conservation legislation, and provide technical input to licensing and permitting.

Project execution and technical coordination

• Execute specific biodiversity projects in habitat restoration, native planting, invasive species control, species protection measures and monitoring programmes, from scope to close-out, under overall project coordination.
• Translate ecological requirements into practical projects, specifications and contractor requirements.