Nature Recovery Manager - North West

Job summary

What you’ll do…

This is an exciting and diverse job, with the opportunity to work on landscape scale projects across the north of England. Forestry England is already engaged in a number of important and high-profile nature recovery projects in Cumbria, including Wild Ennerdale, the Upper Duddon Landscape Recovery project, and Nature Rich Mitredale. The Nature Recovery Manager role will lead, co-ordinate and develop our active involvement in these partnerships alongside colleagues, ensuring they support delivery of our Biodiversity plan, forest plans and wider objectives. In addition the successful candidate will also focus on establishing and developing new projects where Forestry England has the potential to be involved, both on our land and working with local partners.

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

Where you’ll work…

The post will be based at Forestry England's Grizedale Office, with hybrid home working available. Travel across England will be required.

Job description

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

Main responsibilities

1) Detailed project planning, control and implementation, including:

• Managing a project in line with standard Project Management procedures, such as writing and following a Project Management Plan, working with a Project Board
• Identifying and managing project risks and issues, managing project scope, overseeing change control, and escalating where necessary
• Procuring, commissioning and managing contracts and contractors, especially for practical land management, ecological survey and monitoring, and feasibility studies
• Ensuring the project integrates Forestry England’s principal functions of timber production, nature recovery and engagement with visitors, resolving cross-functional issues at project level
• Monitoring project progress and performance, including through milestones and gateway reviews, and reporting on these to Project Boards and the Forest Wilding Programme

2) Provide strong technical leadership in ecology and nature-focussed land management, and its integration with forestry, especially through:

• Working with technical experts, contractors and colleagues to implement the strategic land management priorities on the ground
• Using best practice, technical knowledge and scientific evidence to develop nature recovery strategy in relevant projects to maximise the potential for progress
• Working with the Forestry England Resilience Strategy and forester colleagues, to lead new approaches to longer term forest resilience in the context of climate, wildfire and pests and diseases
• Working with the Forest Wilding Programme team to support the implementation of a coherent evidence framework, which both supports our decision making and monitors the outcomes of our land management
• Providing support and technical knowledge of strategic land management to support additional relevant projects when funding is available, such species recovery projects.

3) Develop and manage strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including:

• Supporting the Project Board, in providing confident and coherent leadership and governance to the project
• Managing the engagement and communications with colleagues and internal stakeholders about the project across the Forestry Commission family
• Managing the engagement and communications with external partners and stakeholders on the project, especially those with a high risk factor and high influence on the outcomes of the project.
• Representing Forestry England and the Forest Wilding Programme with relevant external projects,
  working groups, conferences and other forums, both in district and nationally

4) Work with Forest Wilding Programme team to explore, secure and develop external funding for the relevant projects, for example through:

• UK Government grants, especially DEFRA’s Environmental Land Management Landscape Recovery
  Scheme
• Corporate sponsorship
• Biodiversity net gain
• Green finance

Person specification

Skills, Knowledge & Experience

Essential Professional and Technical experience

• Previous knowledge and practical experience of managing change at pace in the environmental sector, including planning, risk, issue and dependency management.
• Strong ecological background, with experience in land management implementation for nature conservation outcomes.
• A skilled project manager, able to manage and prioritise workloads, meet deadlines and solve problems, and manage budgets
• Strong evidence of stakeholder management, demonstrating negotiation and influencing skills at a high level.
• A great team worker, with a strong track record of collaboration and relationship management.
• Strong leadership and communication skills.
• Experience of analysing and evaluating complex or conflicting evidence to provide usable advice and guidance to multi-disciplinary teams.
• An excellent communicator, both written and verbally, able to adapt to a range of audiences.
• Competent using IT and Microsoft Office.
• An understanding of the special qualities of the Lake District National Park, and contemporary issues relating to nature recovery in a cultural landscape.

Desirable Professional and Technical experience

• Sound experience in the forestry sector.
• Experience of managing upland ecosystems
• Experience of procurement and contract management.
• Competence in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
• Working knowledge of environmental legislation and designations, including their practical application.

Qualifications

Essential

• Ecology or environmental degree, or equivalent professional experience in nature-focussed land management.
• A full and current driving licence that enables you to drive in the UK.

Desirable

• A recognised project management qualification
• A member of a relevant professional body, e.g. Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, Institute of Chartered Foresters

Licences

A full and current driving licence that enables you to drive in the UK.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together
• 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 at interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Seeing the big picture

• Delivering at pace

• Working together

• Making effective decisions

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

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.

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.

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 - Nature Recovery Manager North West (PB4) Opens in new window (pdf, 253kB)