Species Recovery Officer

Job Description

We are looking for an enthusiastic person to join our Global Species Recovery team to help us deliver a multi-year project with the European Commission on the continental scale recovery of wild bird species with unfavourable conservation status, including wildfowl, shorebirds and landbirds.

The role will involve compiling information from multiple sources on threats and their relative impact on species demography, as well as on solutions, management interventions and actions taken by competent authorities at various scales. You will need excellent writing and analytical skills and will be able to translate scientific and policy-related information into various types of reports.

This role will work closely with RSPB’s external project consortium lead partner (the Spanish Institute for Game and Wildlife Research: IREC), other European research institutions and colleagues in RSPB’s Global Species Recovery and Conservation Science and policy teams. It will liaise with experts in institutions across several countries, attend (online) international meetings and assist with the language review of technical documents.

You will need to be positive, organised, flexible and knowledgeable about the ecology and conservation needs of birds in a UK/European context, especially of those species for which hunting can play a role.

If you are passionate about nature conservation, and its planning and management, that is both evidence-based, and on a European continental scale, and believe you can make a difference, we'd love to hear from you.

Essential skills, knowledge and experience:

• A degree in a subject relevant to bird conservation or equivalent experience/education.
• Skilled in using Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook) and information-sharing collaboration software and systems (Sharepoint).
• Extensive knowledge of conservation issues affecting birds in the UK and Europe.
• Experience of working within project teams and conservation partnerships.
• Excellent communication skills to allow effective working with a wide range of colleagues, external partners and both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Excellent English written communication skills, including experience of writing technical conservation reports and the ability to understand and convey the level of scientific evidence underpinning specific conservation projects or conservation policy positions.
• Ability to develop and maintain good working relationships with a wide range of colleagues, external partners and contacts, who may have varying levels of technical expertise, different viewpoints and different priority objectives.
• Good organisation and time management skills, an ability to work to deadlines imposed by the business needs of colleagues, business processes or external partners, self-reliant, self-motivated and an ability to use own initiative to solve problems.
• Ability and willingness to undertake occasional travel to destinations in UK and Europe to visit colleagues, partners and contacts.

Desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• A higher education qualification in a subject relevant to wildlife conservation.
• Understanding of species population dynamics, especially the role of survival and productivity in species conservation.
• Familiarity with conservation planning tools such as Species Action Plans and with the use of indicators (e.g., population trends) to measure and guide progress towards conservation goals.
• Experience of international conservation projects and ability to work across different cultures and stakeholder viewpoints.
• Knowledge and understanding of RSPB; its range of conservation approaches and work programmes, and how it can best deliver international conservation through partnership and engagement with policy processes.

This is a Fixed-term (ends 31 March 2026) Full-time role working 37.5 hours per week, with the view of starting by early September 2023.

Interviews will be conducted remotely on Microsoft Teams on 21 or 22 June 2023. For further information please contact Guy Anderson (Migrants Recovery Programme Manager) guy.anderson@rspb.org.uk.

Before applying to this role, we encourage you to read through the candidate guidance notes attached to this advert.

The RSPB is an equal opportunities employer.

As part of this application process you will be asked to provide a copy of your CV and complete an application form including evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge, and experience listed above.

We are committed to developing an inclusive and diverse RSPB, in which everyone feels supported, valued, and able to be their full selves. To achieve our vision of creating a world richer in nature, we need more people, and more diverse people, on nature’s side. People of colour and disabled people are currently underrepresented across the environment, climate, sustainability, and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled, we are particularly interested in receiving your application. Contact us to discuss any additional support you may need to complete your application.

The RSPB is an equal opportunities employer. This role is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Before applying for this role, we recommend reading through the candidate guidance notes attached to the top of this advert.