Geophysical Lead

Geophysical Lead

Can be based in Glasgow G2 5AD or Tudor Street, London EC4Y 0AH 

Salary dependant on experience with up to 20% Annual Bonus, Family Healthcare and Car Allowance

Permanent

Flexible/Hybrid Working Arrangements 

Purpose 
The Geophysical Lead is a critical role within the Offshore Renewables Business, focussing on the delivery of large-scale global offshore wind projects. 

The Geophysical Lead role sits in the Ground Engineering Team within the Site Engineering Department and reports to the Ground Engineering Discipline Manager. The Ground Engineering team is a function that provides support to individual projects and the business. 

The successful candidate will work across the ScottishPower and global Iberdrola portfolio. As part of the ground engineering team, they will lead geophysical activities. They will provide support and expertise to offshore wind farm projects at all stages in the life cycle, from development, through construction, to operation. They may be required to operate across regions and may be attached to individual projects for an extended period of time.  Beyond project support, they shall also support the Ground Engineering Discipline Manager in leading and managing geophysical strategy, technical direction and growth within the Ground Engineering team. Line management responsibilities for the geophysical team may be required. 

The company adopts an intelligent client business model for ground engineering services. This comprises a relatively small pool of company permanent staff with differing sub-disciplines (e.g. geotechnical design, geotechnical survey, engineering geology, geophysical survey etc.). Projects are led by a Ground Engineering Lead (GEL) and supported by the internal ground engineering team members, and external contractors and consultants. The Geophysical Lead will support the GEL and / or directly the project / business on all matter relating to geophysics. 

Responsibilities

Working with, and reporting to, the Ground Engineering Discipline Manager within the Ground Engineering Team, the Geophysical Lead tasks will include but not be limited to: 

• Managing the geophysical resourcing across the company’s portfolio of projects 

• Acting as geophysical technical lead, defining and implementing the geophysical technical direction and strategy 

• Providing oversight of all geophysical activities across the global portfolio of projects; providing support and leadership to geophysical engineers working on those projects 

• Leading the development, maintenance and modification of geophysical related standard documentation and procedures to ensure optimised geophysical site investigation, and geophysical data interpretation and integration

• Leading the QA/QC activities of the geophysical activities within the Ground Engineering discipline 

• Identifying and leading areas of improvement within the Ground Engineering Team 

• Leading in the engagement with external suppliers related to the role, including but not limited to, bolstering existing technologies and methods as well as vetting innovative solutions 

• Supporting the development of geophysical team members 

• Identifying and leading innovation opportunities as well as proposing the relevant geophysicists to support these projects. When working on innovation projects, you will engage with the relevant steering committee and, based on the project pipeline, ensure the best interests of the company are kept as priority 

• Leading the process to ensure lessons learnt regarding offshore geophysics are captured, shared and solutions applied across the different projects through modification of procedures and processes 

• Leading practices to ensure compliance with industry guidelines and best practice, and awareness of latest developments in technology, including assessing suitable new technology to support the project pipeline (identifying potential to reduce cost and risk, or improve safety) 

• Note: Line management of team members may be required 

Working on projects, the Geophysical Lead tasks will include but not be limited to: 

• Managing site investigation activities from a geophysical engineering perspective across the offshore project portfolio, covering the life cycle of the project from early-stage project development through to operation and maintenance 

• Supporting and leading the development of survey strategy, survey and consultancy scopes of work 

• Maintaining overall responsibility for the successful delivery of geophysical surveys. This includes managing the Owner’s Engineer who perform the survey management, and regularly making important judgements, decisions and recommendations that will influence multi-million pound geophysical campaign contracts 

• Supporting tendering and contractual negotiations for geophysical surveys and consultancy work, ensuring appropriate risk management 

• Implement the use of geophysical datasets to ensure that ground engineering risks on projects are identified and mitigated 

• Providing technical support and advice on survey and equipment types to be used for all survey campaigns across the business. This shall also require an understanding of the specific engineering objectives, strategies and commercial agreements to ensure that cost effective technical solutions are identified 

• Managing and supporting ground model development activities for engineering design and installation purposes, ensuring all engineering design and installation objectives are accounted for and that all ground model development methods meet the technical requirements 

• Providing geophysical support and advice to different packages and stakeholders including transport and installation, cables, foundations, development, operation and maintenance etc 

• Supporting the delivery of multi-contract packages within time, to budget and to a high standard of quality following the best industry practice and observing the maximum respect for health, safety and the environment to ensure regulatory and legal compliance 

• The requirement to perform these tasks will vary depending on business, project and team needs 

Skills & Requirements 

To be successful in a role you will need to demonstrate the majority of the following: 

• Educated to degree level in a relevant geophysical, geological or highly relevant discipline 

• Excellent ability in planning, managing and executing offshore geophysical site investigations for large scale projects with multiple vessel survey campaigns 

• Experience or ability in successfully engaging with the different stakeholders of an offshore wind farm development and the ability to devise geophysical strategy to support the requirements at each project stage 

• Ability to balance technical, commercial and programme requirements to ensure that project objectives are achieved 

• Experience in dealing with health, safety and environmental legislation associated with site investigation and offshore construction projects 

• Excellent ability with the implementation of industry-standard geophysical systems as specified for offshore wind farm surveys, particularly: muti-beam echo sounders, side-scan sonars, magnetometers (including magnetometer arrays), sub-bottom profilers (including parametric echo-sounders), 2D ultra-high resolution seismic systems capable of imaging the upper ~100 m below seabed (specifically boomer and sparker systems) 

• Excellent ability in the interpretation of geophysical datasets 

• Ability of ground model development using geophysical datasets 

• Knowledge or experience of the integration of geotechnical and geophysical data to produce an integrated engineering ground model 

• Excellent knowledge of industry codes and standards and offshore regulations 

• IT literate with the ability to effectively operate MS Office systems and the willingness to learn other IT based project management software 

• Ability with use of geophysical software tools (e.g. Kingdom, Oasis Montaj, and GIS) 

• Ability to work independently and in a team environment 

• Good experience with managing small technical teams

• Ability to influence and develop key project and business decisions 

• Ability to work with, and support global teams and decision-making processes to achieve project objectives under challenging timelines and within a budget 

• Ability to communicate effectively and influence decision making with a diverse team of different expertise and experiences to achieve results; excellent ability to communicate complex problems in a simple manner to a variety of backgrounds 

• Excellent ability in document writing skills in English 

• Pro-active and diligent approach. Innovative and creative thinker. Problem solver 

The following aspects are considered desirable for this role: 

• Strong familiarity with additional geophysical systems benefitting offshore wind farm projects, such as: 3D ultra-high resolution systems, 3D sub-bottom profilers, synthetic aperture sonar 

• Excellent experience in line management of team members 

• In-depth experience with cable/pipeline/asset inspection surveys and/or asset burial surveys; familiarity with cable tracking systems and their limitations/opportunities. 

• Substantiated expertise and ability with design, management and QC of UXO surveys 

• Significant, experience in successful project management of geophysical surveys and components of geophysical surveys 

• Experience with using machine learning to generate and integrate synthetic CPTs and seismic reflection data 

• Experience of advanced seismic interpretation (e.g. seismic inversion) 

• A demonstratable understanding of geotechnical site investigations 

Whats in it for you 

As well as a competitive salary which is reviewed annually, you can also enjoy a number of other benefits. With our pension scheme, we’ll double match your contribution up to a company contribution of 10%.  

At ScottishPower, we believe it’s the little things we do in life that make a big difference. From helping you look after your family’s wellbeing, save for your future and take personal steps for climate action – our benefits are designed to help you do just that - so that you have everything you need to take care of your world – today and tomorrow. That’s why our benefits include: 

• 36 days annual leave 

• Holiday purchase – perfect your work/life balance with extra annual leave 

• Share Incentive Plan and Sharesave Scheme 

• Payroll giving and charity matched funding 

• Technology Vouchers – save more and spread the cost of your technology purchases 

• Count us in – pledge to reduce carbon emissions and help fight climate change 

• Electric Vehicle Schemes – to help you transition to green/clean driving 

• Cycle to Work scheme and public transport season ticket loans 

• Options to purchase dental insurance, private medical insurance, health cash plan and annual health assessments 

• Life Assurance (4x salary) 

• Access to ‘nudge’ financial wellbeing support 

• Plus shopping, leisure, restaurant and gym discounts, and unique employee deals on travel insurance and more 

Why ScottishPower 

ScottishPower is part of the Iberdrola Group, one of the world’s largest integrated utility companies and a world leader in wind energy. With a commitment to generate all of our energy from renewable resources and a drive to create the energy infrastructure of the future, we’re at the forefront of the journey to Net Zero and investing over £6m every working day to make this happen. With diverse opportunities across our businesses and a commitment to invest in our own internal talent, ScottishPower can offer people real career opportunities that meet personal and professional goals, in a global organisation. 

Inclusion, diversity, and a social purpose are at the heart of everything we do. Together with our values, they bringa us together into a stronger, more sustainable business with direct links to the communities we serve. It takes all kinds of people to build a large-scale business like ours, so whatever your background, you’ll fit right in. 

ScottishPower is committed to providing reasonable support or adjustments in our recruiting processes for candidates with disabilities, long term conditions, mental health conditions, or who are neurodivergent or require pregnancy-related support. If you need support, please reach out to careers@scottishpower.com

Mobility

Please note that any applicant who is not a citizen of the country of the vacancy will be subject to compliance with the applicable immigration requirements to legally work in that country. If/when required, the Company will support the employee with the necessary Immigration requirements.

IMPORTANT 

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