Operations Manager - Forest Protection

Job summary

What you’ll do…

Forestry England’s Biodiversity Plan sets out a bold ambition of nature recovery in the Nation’s Forests. Working across five principal focus areas, Forestry England aims to restore resilient biodiversity in the nation’s forests, delivering our vision to ensure that these forests provide the most valuable places for wildlife to thrive and expand in England.

The post holder will provide leadership, management oversight, technical and professional guidance and support to staff for forest management activities under their remit across West England FD, ensuring business plan objectives are met, operations satisfy industry guidance and best practice and that delivery meets the requirements of UKFS and UKWAS.

They will promote a responsible and effective health and safety culture in the organisation through proactive support and guidance to staff and the delivery and implementation of effective health and safety systems expected from an outstanding organisation.

You will have the opportunity to work with experienced colleagues, passionate about their contribution to sustainable forestry, conservation and the organisation’s overarching strategy. You will help to connect everyone with the nation’s forests, caring for them for people to enjoy, wildlife to flourish and business to grow.

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

Where you’ll work…

The postholder will be based in the district office at Bank House, Coleford, Gloucestershire (other Forestry England office locations within the West England Forest District may be considered).

Job description

The post holder will provide district wide leadership supporting effective and efficient delivery through a culture of teamwork and mutual support and collaboration in the following areas:

• Wildlife Management,

• Tree Safety and Plant Health.

• General Forest Management, excluding woodland creation, restocking and establishment

• Lead on business sustainability and waste management for Forestry and Land Management

The post holder will line manage 2 Wildlife Ranger Managers

Champion high standards of health and safety and model our core value of ‘look-out and look-after’, take a stand against unsafe behaviours.

Lead on procurement and contract management support within their leadership area.

Foster a positive team working relationship between teams, as to inspire and engage everyone to drive beneficial change for the benefit of the woodlands in our care.

Proactively liaise with communications and marketing colleagues so as to champion success and promote our work.

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

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Experience of planning and delivering a range complex forestry & land management operations and or projects within the framework of maintaining UKWAS compliance.

• Experience of procurement and contract management.

• A track record in working in multi-disciplinary teams to achieve agreed tangible outcomes.

• Experience operating in an environment of competing priorities.

• Strong management and leadership skills.

• The ability to build and maintain highly effective working relationships with a range of people (both internally and externally).

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Competence in the use of MS Office applications and working with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to analyse spatial data.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Understanding of budgetary control and reporting.

• Experience of collating data and generating reports.

• Experience of legal compliance work including management of tree safety and waste management.

Qualifications

Essential

• The successful candidate will need either a relevant degree or vocational qualification, or be a chartered member of the ICF, or have significant experience in forestry or related land management field.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving

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 questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving

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.

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

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 - Operations Manager - Forest Protection (PB4) Opens in new window (pdf, 111kB)