Forest Resilience Programme Manager

Job summary

In this pivotal role, you'll lead Forestry England's forest resilience ambitions at a critical moment for UK forestry. You will provide strategic leadership and hands-on programme management to help the nation's forests thrive in the face of climate change, biodiversity loss, and shifting societal demands. You'll deliver and evolve our Forest Resilience Strategy and Action Plan, ensuring it stays innovative, ambitious, and rooted in the latest science, alongside managing a three-year, £6.5 million Defra-funded programme that will significantly scale up resilience work across our forests. Working collaboratively with colleagues at national and local level, and representing Forestry England with key stakeholders across the Defra family and the wider forestry sector, you'll be at the heart of an organisation that is boldly setting the course for the future of UK forestry.

You will be part of the Forest Planning team in National Operations. The role will involve working with colleagues across England and there will be regular travel with overnight stays. You will have a reporting office but we can be flexible on the exact location, and we support blended working. If the successful applicant is new to Forestry England then they will need to be embedded within a Forestry England office for a significant proportion of the working week during an induction period.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

• Deliver our Forest Resilience Strategy and Action Plan, ensuring the two-year targets and actions are achieved.
• Provide strategic leadership and programme management oversight for Forestry England’s forest resilience approach, ensuring the organisation remains at the forefront of bold and innovative action in this field.
• Lead and manage a three-year, £6.5m programme, driving delivery across a portfolio of interdependent projects spanning multiple teams.
• You will hold primary accountability for achieving required outcomes, including supporting local delivery teams, leading organisational change, strategically distributing funding to maximise impact, setting targets, monitoring progress, and managing risks and issues.
• You will report progress to the Forest Resilience Steering Group and lead the strategy refresh in 2027.
• Oversee our bespoke forest resilience Service Level Agreement with Forest Research (~£200k/annum), commissioning and embedding applied research that strengthens our scientific understanding and effectiveness of our actions.
• Establish a Forestry England Research Forum to oversee our various research collaborations with Forest Research and other academic institutions, and disseminate findings to colleagues.
• Apply expert technical knowledge of forest resilience challenges and opportunities to shape organisational direction and decision making.
• Work closely with colleagues across Forestry England, supporting national and local teams to deliver forest resilience ambitions.
• Build strong, constructive relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, particularly within the Defra family and wider forestry sector. Represent Forestry England on relevant external working groups.
• Play a visible leadership role within the National Operations team, contributing to the team’s shared vision and collective activities.
• Contribute to wider forest planning, forestry and land management, and nature recovery activities across Forestry England.
• Line manage staff within the national forest planning team, as appropriate.

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

Person specification

Essential professional and technical experience

• Ability to lead complex programmes, with exceptional organisational and programme management skills.
• Excellent knowledge of forest resilience principles, challenges and opportunities.
• Comprehensive understanding of the UK forestry sector and management considerations.
• Strong communication and analytical skills, with the ability to interpret policy and evidence, and translate it into clear, actionable advice.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Competence in GIS and data analysis.

Qualifications

Essential

• Forestry, environmental sciences or equivalent degree, or equivalent professional experience.

Desirable

• Member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters • Association of Project Management qualification or similar.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• TBC

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £48,765, Forestry Commission contributes £14,127 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 Technical skills.

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 your technical knowledge and behaviours during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• 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.

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 - Forest Resilience Programme Manager (PB3) Opens in new window (pdf, 138kB)