Evidence and Data Officer

Job summary

What you’ll do…

Forestry England manages more land and trees than any other organisation in the country. For over a century, we have shaped and cared for England’s forests for people, nature, and climate.

We’ve not always been known for our conservation work, but Forestry England have bold ambitions to be a leading force for nature recovery. Our progress is real and measurable: FSC certified since 1999, WWF’s 'Gift to the Earth' award in 2001, and commitments to restore all our ancient woodlands in 2007 and 11,000 hectares of open habitats in 2013.

You will lead the development and delivery of Forestry England’s evidence and data systems to support nature recovery and heritage conservation across the nation’s forests. This national role will be central to improving how we monitor biodiversity and ecological resilience, ensuring our decisions are informed by robust, accessible, and innovative data. You will design and implement new metrics and tools—such as biodiversity scorecards, eDNA sampling, bioacoustics, and remote sensing—to track ecosystem function and species recovery. From biodiversity monitoring to heritage asset management, you will help shape how we collect, manage, and use environmental information to guide decision-making and drive strategic outcomes.

You will champion the use of evidence in conservation decision-making, helping to embed a culture of data-driven practice across the organisation. You will also take responsibility for cleaning, managing, and integrating large and complex datasets, including heritage records, ecological surveys, and spatial data. Working closely with district teams, you will identify and resolve data anomalies, promote consistency, and support the development of national reporting tools such as Power BI dashboards.

This role will be instrumental in shaping Forestry England’s approach to ecological monitoring, heritage data management, and evidence-led conservation, helping us become a leader in environmental data innovation.

Where you’ll work…

This is a flexible national role.

Job description

• Develop and implement national monitoring dashboards on biodiversity and forest resilience, based on our strategic plans and targets.
• Develop and manage our monitoring of Biodiversity Plan delivery, including clearly defined Output/Outcome/Benefit monitoring.
• Manage and maintain national ecological and heritage datasets, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and alignment with organisational standards.
• Collaborate with district teams to resolve anomalies, and lead the integration of new data sources, including new surveys, Local Environmental Records Centre data, and Historic Environment Records, into internal systems.
• Lead the use of Power BI and other platforms to visualise and communicate environment team data and trends.
• Champion the use of evidence in decision-making, drawing on best practice such as Conservation Evidence reviews, and investigating whether Forestry England can become an Evidence Champion.
• Lead the integration of emerging technologies such as AI into Environment team policy and practice, to help make better evidence-based decisions.
• Lead the development and guidance of environment team data within internal GIS systems.
• Promote a culture of data integrity and innovation, helping Forestry England make better decisions through better evidence.
• And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager

Person specification

Essential professional and technical experience

• Strong understanding of ecological monitoring techniques and biodiversity metrics.
• Demonstrated expertise in applying statistical techniques to manage and analyse large datasets, preferable
• Environmental, including spatial and ecological data, ensuring robust and insightful interpretation.
• Proficiency in data visualisation tools such as Power BI, and familiarity with GIS platforms.
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to work collaboratively across teams.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Experience with eDNA, bioacoustics, and remote sensing technologies.
• Familiarity with heritage data systems and Historic Environment Records.
• Knowledge of Conservation Evidence and evidence-based conservation frameworks.
• Experience in developing national reporting tools or dashboards.

Qualifications
Essential

• Degree in ecology, environmental science, data science, or related discipline, or equivalent professional
  experience.

Desirable

• Postgraduate qualification in ecological monitoring or data management

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Working Together

Technical skills

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

• At interview a presentation will be required and half the interview questions will be supplied beforehand.

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.

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.

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, Experience and Technical skills.

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 experience, technical skills and behaviour based questions during your interview.

At interview a presentation will be required and half the interview questions will be supplied beforehand.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Making Effective Decisions: Use evidence and knowledge to support accurate, expert decisions and advice. Carefully consider alternative options, implications and risks of decisions.
• Communicating and Influencing: Communicate purpose and direction with clarity, integrity and enthusiasm. Respect the needs, responses and opinions of others.
• Changing and Improving: Seek out opportunities to create effective change and suggest innovative ideas for improvement. Review ways of working, including seeking and providing feedback.
• Working Together: Form effective partnerships and relationships with people both internally and externally, from a range of diverse backgrounds, sharing information, resources and support.

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.

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 : 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 - Evidence and Data Officer (PB5) Opens in new window (pdf, 134kB)