Any Forestry England office, with home based hybrid working available
Job Summary
What you’ll do…
Forestry England’s Forest Wilding Programme was launched in 2022, to deliver a step-change in our efforts to restore naturally functioning ecosystems to the Nation’s Forests. As part of this, we have developed one of the most ambitious initiatives to recover a select group of priority influential species, including beaver, wildcat, pine marten, white-tailed eagle and wood ants, predominantly through conservation translocation projects. We have over 30 projects in progress across England, including feasibility studies for wildcat in Northumberland, the reintroduction of pine martens in Devon, and a pioneering study of influential species which will inform our priorities through the next phase of the Forest Wilding Programme. These projects involve Foresty England colleagues across the country, as well as many other organisations, including Wildlife Trusts, the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, Vincent Wildlife Trust and Natural England.
As Species Recovery Manager you will lead this initiative, providing the inspiration, leadership qualities and managerial skills to ensure the effective delivery of these projects, and develop a pipeline of new species recovery projects, which together help drive nature recovery. The post holder will bring technical experience and insight, developing and maintaining standards, and ensuring robust programme and project management to deliver projects on time and on budget. This is an exciting and fast-paced role which is at the forefront of nature recovery efforts in England, working for England’s largest land manager.
Where you’ll work…
You can be based anywhere in the country from any Forestry England office, but we support hybrid working from home. You will also be initiating and supporting projects across England, including in the Lake District, Kielder Forest, the North York Moors, the Peak District, south-east England, the New Forest, Purbeck, the Forest of Dean and Dartmoor.
The duties of this post require the post holder to travel across England regularly, and occasionally to other parts of the UK. Whilst we encourage use of public transport wherever possible, some of the locations you will need to visit include remote locations that are not accessible by public transport. You will therefore need to hold a full and current driving licence that enables you to drive in the UK and be willing to stay away from home. We are willing to consider any proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by other means.
Job Description
Detailed programme planning and control including:
- supporting the programme manager in developing, agreeing and maintaining a detailed programme
plan and contributing to the development of constituent project plans
- managing programme deliverables in line with the programme plan, producing best practice guidance
- managing the species recovery workstream budget, and exercise oversight of the constituent project
budgets, as part of the overall forest wilding programme budget
- resolving cross-functional issues at programme and project level
- managing workstream scope and change control and escalating issues where necessary
- monitoring workstream progress and performance, including through milestones and gateway reviews,
and reporting on these to the Forest Wilding Programme Manager
- procuring, commissioning and managing national contracts, and contractors, especially of ecological
consultants and academic institutions
- overseeing the handover of projects back to district business as usual, according to agreed timescales
Provide strong technical leadership in species recovery and nature-focused land management, and
its Integration With Forestry, Especially Through:
- developing, maintaining and disseminating technical knowledge, legislative and regulatory
knowledge, reports and advice
- providing support and guidance to produce project concepts, reintroduction feasibility reports,
release strategies, and post-release monitoring and management plans
- ensuring species recovery efforts are developed in tandem with Forestry England’s wider
organisational objectives, for example considering forestry operations and presence of protected
species
Develop and manage strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including:
- working with district-based project officers, and functional staff, without direct line management
accountability, in support of programme delivery
- working as part of project boards, providing confident leadership and governance
- manage the coordination of internal and external partners and working groups engaged in the
programme
- represent Forestry England in relevant regional, national and international forums
- supporting the implementation of the forest wilding communications plan
Explore and support opportunities to secure external funding for the Forest Wilding Programme,
working With External Funding Colleagues, For Example Through:
- UK Government grants, especially Defra’s Environmental Land Management Landscape Recovery
Scheme
- biodiversity net gain
- corporate sponsorship
- green finance
- individual giving
The duties of this post require the applicant to sometimes travel to remote locations that are not
accessible by public transport. You will therefore need to hold a full and current driving licence that
enables you to drive in the UK, and be willing to stay away from home. We are willing to consider any
proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by other means.
And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.
working With External Funding Colleagues, For Example Through:
- UK Government grants, especially Defra’s Environmental Land Management Landscape Recovery
Scheme
- biodiversity net gain
- corporate sponsorship
- green finance
- individual giving
The duties of this post require the applicant to sometimes travel to remote locations that are not
accessible by public transport. You will therefore need to hold a full and current driving licence that
enables you to drive in the UK, and be willing to stay away from home. We are willing to consider any
proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by other means.
And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.
Person specification
Essential Professional And Technical Experience
- previous knowledge and practical experience of managing change at pace in the environmental sector,
including planning, risk, issue and dependency management
- strong technical background, with experience in species recovery for nature conservation outcomes
- a skilled project manager, able to manage and prioritise workloads, meet deadlines and solve problems, and
manage budgets
- strong evidence of stakeholder management, demonstrating negotiation and influencing skills at a high level
- a great team worker, with a strong track record of collaboration and relationship management
- experience of analysing and evaluating complex or conflicting evidence to provide usable advice and
guidance to multi-disciplinary teams
- competent using IT and Microsoft Office
Desirable Professional And Technical Experience
- sound experience in the forestry sector
- experience of procurement and contract management
- competence in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
- working knowledge of environmental legislation and designations, including their practical application in
species recovery
Essential
Qualifications
- ecology or environmental degree, or equivalent professional experience in nature-focused land
management
- a full and current driving licence that enables you to drive in the UK
Desirable
- a recognised project management qualification
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Making Effective Decisions
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- The assessment of abilities will include a 10 minute presentation to be given by the candidates at the interview stage, on a relevant topic which will be given to candidates when they are invited to interview.
Alongside your salary of £40,388, Forestry Commission contributes £11,700 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
Benefits…
Alongside your salary, Forestry England contributes an average of 28.97% towards your pension. You will become a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.
- 25 days holiday a year, raising by one day every year’s service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
- STaR is our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other things such as hotel stays clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, household bills, Headspace wellbeing app.
- free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
- a commitment to lifelong learning through career development. Forestry England will support your career development in a variety of ways, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies.
Read more about the benefits on the Forestry England website.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
How To Apply…
You will be asked to upload your CV and to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.
Please note, the post is suitable for secondment from Defra, its arm’s length bodies, and other relevant parts of the civil service.
You will be assessed on experience, behaviours and a technical skill during your interview.
The assessment of abilities will include a 10 minute presentation to be given by the candidates at the interview stage, on a relevant topic which will be given to candidates when they are invited to interview.
The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –
- Seeing the Bigger Picture
- Making Effective Decisions
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.
If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.
If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines
here first. Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job Contact :
- Name : FC Recruitment Team
- Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk
Further information
Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.
