District Ecologist

Job summary

You will lead Forestry England’s work making sure we meet our statutory duties to protect designated sites and protected species. You will be responsible for creating management plans, managing their implementation, and using evidence to review their success. You will play a key role in developing operational plans and forest design plans.

You will help to develop and lead delivering a scientific monitoring programme to produce the evidence we need to guide our land management decisions. Evidence will primarily focus on biodiversity outcomes but will be embedded in a wider a natural capital approach. Monitoring will include traditional fieldwork as well as
using innovative of molecular and digital tools such as EXAMPLE(s). You will recruit, train and collaboratively manage a network of ‘citizen scientists’ and volunteers to support this programme, helping people to understand the value of the nation’s forests and play a role in improving them.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

• Provide ecological support to the district’s estates team working on planning applications, post- minerals restoration projects, infrastructure upgrades, development mitigation and biodiversity offsetting opportunities.
• Identify projects in the nation’s forests to be ready for funding opportunities that become available.
• Manage existing conservation projects and provide support as required for new projects.
• Attend team and district meetings.
• Build and maintain good relations with partners in statutory and NGO conservation organisations.
• Build and maintain better links with local academia to support the sustainable management of the nation’s forests.
• Support the district’s beat teams helping to organise volunteering days.
• Liaise with colleagues and external contractors and giving ecological advice.
• Create and oversee implementing designated site management plans (including SSSI management plans) and provide expert ecological advice for developing operational plans and forest plans.
• Deliver strategic ecological monitoring and analysis, supporting the district’s developing evidenced-
  based and natural capital approach to making decisions.
• Set up and manage survey contracts and operational delivery projects.
• Develop and manage an ecological citizen science programme.
• Implement and manage biodiversity net gain projects.
• You may need to line manage staff.
• And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

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 license that enables you to drive in the UK. We are willing to consider any proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job
by other means.

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Good wildlife identification skills, especially for protected species.
• Able to design and deliver robust survey and monitoring programmes.
• An effective communicator, both written and spoken.
• Able to manage a complex workload, effectively prioritising and meeting deadlines.
• Able to analyse data and evaluate evidence to produce succinct reports.
• Competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Competent using Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Competently analyse data using Python, R or similar.

Essential knowledge and experience

• Up-to-date knowledge of environmental legislation, particularly biodiversity, and experience of its application to land management.
• Experience of working with and managing volunteers.
• Excellent team and partnership working, with a track record of interdisciplinary working.
• Experience working with local stakeholder groups, including landowners; non-governmental organisations; charities; and local government.

Desirable knowledge and experience

• Experience or understanding of the UK forestry sector, the UK Forestry Standard and UKWAS certification.
• Experience of citizen science projects.
• Experience of managing small nature recovery projects.
• Good knowledge of biodiversity net gain and/or experience of the planning system.
• An understanding of natural capital and how it supports making land management decisions.
• Strong ecological knowledge and understanding of the key ecosystems found in the district.

Qualifications

Essential

• Ecology or environmental degree, or equivalent professional experience

Desirable

• Member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,854, Forestry Commission contributes £9,807 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 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

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.

You will be assessed on a technical skill and strength based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• 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.

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.

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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 : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk
• 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.

Attachments

Forestry England Job Description - District Ecologist (PB5) 2 Opens in new window (pdf, 108kB)