Deputy North England Director

Job Introduction

We are Forestry England.

We live and breathe forests.

Job Title - Deputy North England Director

Salary- £60,293 - £66,375 per annum

Contract type – Permanent

Hours – 37 hours per week

Vacancy closes - 22nd July, 23:58

Join us. We're foresters, professionals and experts. We are a passionate team who love to share our enthusiasm and want to make a positive difference for you and the environment.

Together, we’re using our scale and expertise to grow the nation’s forests for everyone. We’re already adapting our landscapes for tomorrow, and getting stuff done today, like creating amazing places and experiences for you to enjoy. We're providing vital homes for wildlife, making our air cleaner to breathe and producing sustainable timber.

What you’ll do…

As Deputy North England Director, you will provide strategic and operational leadership in support of the North England Director, helping to lead all aspects of Forestry England's business across the North England Forest District.

You will be responsible for leading the day-to-day delivery of forestry and land management, civil engineering and recreation operations, supported by Heads of Function and their teams, while also contributing fully to the wider strategic leadership of the District. You will play a key role in translating Forestry England's national strategy, Growing the Future, into effective, integrated and sustainable local delivery.

You will act as deputy to the North England Director when required, representing Forestry England with partners and stakeholders, and coordinating input to major programmes and projects of regional and national significance.

At the heart of this role is programme leadership — coordinating complex, interdependent workstreams across forest planning, harvesting, civil engineering, recreation investment and land management, over both annual and multi-year timescales. You'll work closely with the Director and Finance Manager to drive the five-year business planning cycle, ensuring the leadership team is sighted on future opportunities, risks and resource needs.

You will provide visible, values-led leadership to senior staff and managers leading Land Management, Recreation and Visitor Experience, and Civil Engineering — building capability, sustaining strong health and safety culture, and championing equality, diversity and inclusion across a large team.

Delivering strong commercial and financial outcomes will be central to the role. You'll be accountable for budgets, contracts and supplier relationships within your areas of oversight, and you'll lead a culture of continuous improvement — driving modernisation and innovation across systems, processes and ways of working.

This is a role for an experienced forester and leader — someone equally at home in the operational detail and the strategic conversation; who can hold a "one team" culture together across a large, geographically dispersed district; and who takes genuine pride in delivering outstanding outcomes across 86,000 hectares of England's most spectacular landscapes.

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

Where you’ll work…

We are Forestry England. We are 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.

North England Forest District is the largest in England, covering some 86,000ha, made up of 61,000 ha of forest and 25,000ha of open land in Cumbria, Durham, Gateshead, Lancashire and Northumberland. The District is managed by a multi-disciplinary team of more than 140 staff.

Annual timber production is in the region of 550,000m3. The District has 45 SSSIs covering over 10,000ha and is a major contributor to nationally significant biodiversity projects which help support red squirrels, water voles, ospreys and red kites. Our built and agricultural non-woodland estate is extensive and we are engaged in a programme of business development and conservation initiatives.

The recreation experiences we provide are focussed on our five Forest Centres: Grizedale, Gisburn, Hamsterley, Kielder and Whinlatter. Around 1 million people enjoy these forests collectively each year, many staying overnight in the region. The outlying forests of Chopwell Wood, Ennerdale and the Forests of Rothbury are increasingly popular with local visits; enhancing the health and wellbeing of our local communities.

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.

How to apply…

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 Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Leadership
• Managing a quality service
• Changing and improving
• Seeing the big picture

You will be asked to prepare and deliver a short presentation within the interview process.

The provisional interview date is Tuesday 11th August 2026 at our Bellingham office.

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.

Nationality requirements…

Read more about nationality requirements here.

Working for the Civil Service…

Forestry England is part of the Civil Service. The Civil Service has a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS). This means candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria during the application process will be guaranteed an interview. We also offer a Redeployment Interview Scheme to current civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the role. This role is also part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans and Prison Leaver Recruitment initiative.

Within Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016, it is essential that applicants should have the ability to provide conversation in accurate spoken English.

Our recruitment process makes appointments based on fair and open competition and merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in in line with/according to these principles and you wish to make a complaint, please email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk.