Senior Specialist - Natural Grazing and Herbivory

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.

Established in 2022, Forestry England’s Forest Wilding Programme brings together two of these focus areas as part of a co-ordinated effort to deliver a step-change in nature recovery. Our species recovery work focuses on the reintroduction of key influential species, such as beaver, wildcat, pine marten, white-tailed eagle and wood ants. Alongside this nationwide effort, we have established Wild Areas on over 16,000ha of the nation’s forests, bringing innovative approaches together with a sound evidence base to shift our land management to restore and enhance natural processes.

As a Senior Specialist you will play a key role in the national Forest Wilding Programme Team, bringing your deep knowledge and experience to bear as we support the implementation of species recovery and wild area projects across England. The post holder will bring technical skills and insight, combined with the ability to interpret and apply evidence and good practice, helping to shape national and local decision-making, supporting ambitious nature recovery delivery on the ground.

Where you’ll work…

The post holder can be based anywhere in the country from any Forestry England office, but we support hybrid working from home.

Job description

Main responsibilities:

1) Provide strong technical leadership in natural grazing and herbivory, and their integration with
nature-focussed land management and forestry, especially through:

• developing, maintaining and disseminating technical knowledge, legislative and regulatory knowledge, reports and advice.
• providing support and guidance to inform project concepts and project delivery.
• ensuring natural grazing and herbivory are developed in tandem with Forestry England’s wider organisational objectives, for example considering forestry operations and presence of protected species.
• maintaining a strong sector presence and network within Forestry England and externally to learn from others and share experience.

2) Detailed programme planning and control including:

• supporting the programme manager in developing, agreeing and maintaining a detailed programme plan and contributing to the development of constituent project plans.
• managing programme and project deliverables in line with the programme plan.
• managing a delegated budget to support the delivery of the specialisms within the Forest Wilding Programme.
• managing risks and escalating where necessary.
• resolving cross-functional issues at programme and project level.
• contributing to the management of programme and project objectives, outcomes, outputs and benefits.
• Contribute to the interpretation and communication to colleagues of research, including technical reports, research summaries, website and scientific publications
• monitoring progress and performance, including through milestones and gateway reviews, and reporting on these to the Forest Wilding Programme Manager.
• procuring, commissioning and managing national contracts, and contractors, especially of ecological consultants and academic institutions.

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

• working with district-based project officers, and functional staff, without direct line management accountability, in support of programme delivery.
• working as part of project boards, providing confident leadership and governance.
• manage the coordination of internal and external partners and working groups engaged in the programme.
• represent Forestry England in relevant regional, national and international forums.
• supporting the implementation of the forest wilding communications and engagement plan.

4) Develop and support the evidence-base, embedding science for your specialisms into the Forest Wilding Programme and its constituent projects:

• Ensure the effective use of evidence relating to relevant specialisms in the forest wilding programme, providing expert input to the decision-making on key projects.
• Produce resources that help/guide conservation decision making that are based on the best available evidence for the effectiveness of actions and that ensure the sources of evidence used are transparent and clearly referenced.
• Represent Forestry England through at national and international conferences, workshops and other forums, presenting and cascading evidence across the forest wilding programme.
• Work collaboratively across Forestry England and its partners to develop innovative and interdisciplinary technical knowledge, advice and evidence to support nature recovery.
• Design, procure, oversee and where relevant, undertake research and report writing to address evidence gaps. Act as the main point of contact for researchers and funders in your specialisms, ensuring research is well coordinated, commissioned appropriately, and delivered to time and budget.

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

Person specification

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 technical background, with experience in natural grazing and herbivory for nature recovery outcomes.
• Experience of analysing and evaluating complex or conflicting evidence to provide usable advice and guidance to multi-disciplinary teams.
• 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.
• Strong leadership skills, and a great team worker, with a strong track record of collaboration and relationship management.
• An excellent communicator, both written and verbally, able to adapt to a range of audiences.
• Competent using IT and Microsoft Office.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Sound experience in the forestry sector.
• 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 in species recovery.

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

• Post-graduate qualification or demonstrable experience in the appropriate specialism.
• 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

Driving licence

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

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

• Presentation at interview

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, Experience and Technical skills.

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 a technical skill (you will be asked to prepare a short presentation) and behaviour-based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Seeing The Big Picture
• Delivering At Pace
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions

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 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 - Senior Specialist Natural Grazing and Herbivory (PB4) Opens in new window (pdf, 123kB)