Forest Resilience and Planning Manager

Job summary

What you’ll do…

We’re looking for a Forest Resilience and Planning Manager to lead Yorkshire District’s forest planning work and drive our delivery of Forestry England’s Forest Resilience Strategy. You’ll ensure full, up‑to‑date Forest Plan coverage, embedding resilience and natural capital approaches into forest management while meeting UKFS and UKWAS standards and balancing timber production, nature recovery and public benefits.

You’ll develop and manage a small team of specialists and oversee delivery of high‑profile, Defra‑funded forest resilience projects. Working closely with partners and colleagues across disciplines, you’ll provide strategic leadership, manage programmes and budgets, and help shape resilient, diverse forests for Yorkshire’s future.

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

Where you’ll work…

The post will initially be based at Forestry England’s Yorkshire Office in Pickering. It will move to the Dalby Forest Office in autumn/winter 2027. Regular travel around Forestry England’s estate in Yorkshire will be required. There will be occasional trips outside of Yorkshire for Forestry England-wide meetings, which may require an overnight stay.

You will be required to react to call outs to site during working hours on any day and therefore you must be a reasonable commuting distance from the office or willing to relocate.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

Strategic and Leadership

• Lead forest planning and forest resilience delivery programmes and support the development of future
  projects and programmes.
• Focus on natural capital approaches; more, bigger, better, connected habitats and integrated land
  management approaches.
• Manage a small team of forest planning specialists and contribute to the leadership of Yorkshire’s
  Nature Recovery and Sustainable Forestry Teams.
• Support professional development of colleagues, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
  Promote an understanding of forest resilience and associated silvicultural skills and practices.
• Work closely with other team managers in Nature Recovery, Sustainable Forestry, Public Engagement,
  Civil Engineering and other specialism to ensure a district aligned approach, clear communication, and
  H&S consistency across functions.
• Represent Forestry England with professionalism in strategic partnerships with key stakeholders such
  as Natural England, National Parks, and eNGOs.
• Lead the district certification audits and ensure compliance with key standards including UKFS,
  UKWAS and Operational Site Assessments.

Forest planning

• Maintain full coverage of Forest Plans by leading the plan renewal programme.
• Look to maximise natural capital through forest planning land management decision making in
  Yorkshire.
• Implement Yorkshire’s Forest Resilience Programme.
• Support the Sustainable Forestry Team to plan for and deliver a programme of ancient woodland
  restoration.

Project Management

• Develop project plans for Forest Resilience Programme projects and PAWS restoration projects
• Manage delegated budgets for the delivery of projects
• Coordinate project delivery teams, with clear responsibilities allocated and decisions/actions
  recorded
• Proactively manage project risk and stakeholders.
• Work with colleagues to identify future funding opportunities for projects and programmes

Spatial Data and GIS

• Oversee management of the district spatial data sets, taking lead responsibility for the sub
  compartment database and timber production forecasting driven by accurate surveys and inventory.
• Lead on new survey technology within Yorkshire district e.g. drones, LiDAR, other remote sensing.

Any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager (Yorkshire’s Head of Environment) or the
Yorkshire Director. You will be required to participate in the Duty Officer rota, being on call out-of-hours for
three to four weeks of the year.

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Experience and knowledge of UK forest management and a strong understanding of forest resilience
  principles and implementation.
• Experience leading the development of strategic and operational plans, with exceptional
  organisational and project management skills.
• Strong communication and analytical skills, with the ability to interpret policy and evidence, and
  translate it into clear, actionable advice.
• Working understanding of the UKFS and UKWAS
• Competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Competent user of GIS

Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to degree level, with a degree in forestry, ecology or similar discipline, or equivalent
  professional experience.
• A full current driving license

Desirable

• Professional membership of the Institute of Chartered Foresters or can demonstrate working towards
  chartered status.
• Qualification in project management.

Licences

A full current driving license

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

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.

• 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…

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 and behaviour-based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Changing and Improving
• Working together
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

In the event of a high volume of applications, a pre-sift may be carried out.

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.

If candidates pass the interview but are not the leading candidate they can be placed on a reserve list. We may offer candidates on the reserve list for this role the opportunity to be considered for other roles at the same or lower pay bands.

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

Forest Resilience and Planning Manager - Job Description Opens in new window (pdf, 111kB)