Head of Land Management

Job summary

What you’ll do…

We are seeking a Head of Land Management to guide our teams in delivering complex, sustainable forestry programmes. You’ll set strategic direction, manage resources, and inspire collaboration across teams.

This role combines leadership with innovation—driving climate resilience, biodiversity, and timber production while maintaining high standards of health & safety and compliance. You’ll oversee budgets, planning, and stakeholder engagement, ensuring our forests thrive for generations to come.

If you’re an experienced leader with expertise in land management and a passion for shaping the future of the nation's forests, we’d love to hear from you.

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.

Our South England Forest District team is made up of around 170 people with a diverse range of roles - from foresters and wildlife rangers to civil engineers, and ecologists to marketing professionals. We all contribute towards the management of 46,000 hectares of public forest estate that stretch from Sussex to Dorset, and from Berkshire to the Isle of Wight. Nearly all of our forests are within either a National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Much of this forest is of high national importance for nature conservation and wildlife, and of international importance for biodiversity. South England Forest District is therefore responsible for land that includes Special Areas of Conservation (for habitats), Special Protection Areas (for birds) and Ramsar sites (for wetlands). We also provide public access and recreation in our forests, with nearly 50 million visits every year to South England Forest District.

If the post you are applying for is PB5 or above, you will be asked to join the District duty roster, after a suitable period of time.

Job description

Leadership Responsibility

• Provide a clear sense of direction and accountability for the Land Management team: lead and inspire the team to work in synergy to deliver excellent results aligned with the District Strategy and wider organisational objectives
• Lead the team to deliver significant and complex forestry programmes, collaborating and innovating with others in order to embed shared delivery of goals and Key Performance Indicators in demanding and busy environments
• Promote a positive and inclusive culture in the Land Management team and actively foster cross-functional collaboration and support
• Ensure compliance with organisational guidance and procedures and communicate the importance of working safely, to manage risk across operations for staff, contractors, and customers.
• Embed a culture of continuous improvement, promoting learning and development opportunities amongst the team as well as wider network of partners, contractors, and volunteers

Strategic Responsibility

• Constantly develop the strategic direction for Land Management for the district, ensuring that it is consistent with emerging national priorities, with specific reference to the future availability of timber volume, species diversification and resilience to forest pests and diseases
• Communicate our strategy and the value of our work to colleagues, customers, and other stakeholders
• Implementation of the agreed plans is through the wider team of 12 beat foresters, supported by the area ecologists, area civil engineers and operations managers

Management of Resources

• Lead district team, efficiently manage resources to enable effective delivery of the district delivery plan and BAU operations
• Own, review and regularly update the FLM Business plan and investment pipeline, accurately construct, monitor, reforecast and report on budgets throughout the year, based on LTC plans and the district marketing plan

Stakeholder Engagement, Representation and Communications

• Maintain professional and productive relationships with stakeholders across the full range of land
management interests
• Engage proactively and respond constructively to existing and prospective customers. Ensure our marketing
approach generates the best possible outcome for sales of timber, venison, and other products
• Stimulate a climate of competition for our products and present the highest standards of professionalism
when representing Forestry England in the marketplace

Person specification

Essential professional and technical experience

• A proven track record in leading teams of staff & managing contractors, customer and other stakeholder relations is essential for this post
• Experience of planning and delivering sustainable land management as well as successfully integrating a collaborative approach to team working
• Experience of budget management, financial monitoring, and cost control
• Commitment to maintaining and improving approaches to health and safety and environmental protection
• Strong communication and coaching skills.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Working knowledge of wildlife management, conservation management, forest engineering, contract negotiation and built heritage management.

Qualifications

Essential:
• the successful applicant will have a Higher National Diploma (or higher qualification) in Forestry or closely
related discipline.

Desirable:
• chartered Forester or member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, or be working towards chartered status.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace

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.

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 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 during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Leadership
• 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.

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 - Head of Land Management (PB3) (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 84kB)