Administrative Officer (Estates)

Job summary

What you’ll do…

Join our Estates team in the South and help support the people who care for the New Forest and wider South Forest District. Working closely with Area Land Agents, Senior Building Surveyor and a wide range of stakeholders, you’ll provide excellent administrative support, helping to coordinate repairs and maintenance work for our built assets across the district. You'll help safeguard Forestry England's legal, environmental and operational interests while supporting the sustainable stewardship of one of the nation's most valued landscapes. We're looking for an organised, proactive and personable individual with strong communication skills, attention to detail and a customer-focused approach.

Please see the job description attached for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

This role will be based at Kings House, Lyndhurst, New Forest, SO43 7NH.

Forestry England is the country's largest land manager, caring for the nation's forests for people, nature and the economy. The foundation of our organisation is our world-class sustainable management of the nation's forests.

Our South England Forest District is made up of around 170 people with a diverse range of roles, from foresters and wildlife rangers to civil engineers, and ecologists to marketing professionals. We all contribute towards the management of 46,000 hectares of public forest estate in East Dorset, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West Sussex, Surrey and Berkshire. Nearly all of our forests are within either a National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Much of this forest is of high importance for nature conservation and wildlife, and of international importance for biodiversity which impacts the way we work. We also provide public access to our forests with nearly 50 million visits every year.

Job description

To provide a high level of administrative support in a professional manner to the Land Agents responsible for managing the Public Forest Estate across the South District. Including but not limited to:

• Providing administrative support to the local team and business functions.
• Supporting colleagues carrying out tenders.
• Monitoring, actioning and following up on maintenance issues across the Built Estate
• Monitoring team mailbox(es), responding to or escalating queries.
• Raising and processing purchase orders and invoices.
• Organising meetings using the in-house booking platform and Outlook/Teams.
• Supporting the Senior Building Surveyor in managing reactive and planned works across the district.
• Monitoring, actioning and following up on maintenance issues.
• Updating internal systems and databases.
• Liaising with internal and external stakeholders, including contractors, tenants and building managers.
• Providing administrative support for team projects.
• Maintaining and analysing statistical data.
• General office duties to support the Area Land Agents.

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications.
• Experience of working in an office environment with a large, dispersed, and often remote, team.
• Experience working within a busy office environment.
• Strong literacy and numeracy skills.
• A sound working knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word/Excel/Outlook/Teams/Sharepoint).
• Good communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Excellent organisational ability and the ability to organise others.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Knowledge and experience in the use of financial systems.
• Knowledge and experience in the use of mapping applications.
• Basic knowledge and understanding of tenancy agreements and/or contract management

Qualifications

Essential

• a GCSE in Maths and English or functional skills equivalent.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £27,903, Forestry Commission contributes £8,083 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

How to apply…

We cannot accept applications via email. Please follow the steps outlined below. Any CVs and/or personal statements sent outside the system will not be considered for shortlisting.

You will be asked 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.

The selection process may include additional assessment and/or interview stages. Candidates will be informed of the assessment format and arrangements during the recruitment process.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Working together
• Delivering at pace
• Making effective decisions

You may also be assessed on Experience, Strength based questions, and/or the Technical Success Profile at the interview. The technical element could include a presentation, practical or written task.

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.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

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 : fcerecruitmentteam@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.

Attachments

Estates Administrative Officer Job Description October 2026 Opens in new window (pdf, 107kB)