Heritage at Risk Project Officer

We are the public body that looks after England's historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them. Historic England have a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as a Heritage at Risk Project Officer. This is a maternity cover. The location of this role is Birmingham where we offer hybrid working. Work across the Midlands region will be required, though an emphasis of East Midlands part of the region is expected.

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 28.97% employer contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

What you will be doing:

• As our Heritage at Risk Project Officer you will be part of our Partnerships Teams which work with internal and external partners on projects and programmes to enhance the historic environment and to increase knowledge and appreciation of our heritage.
• In the delivery of our corporate objectives within the regions, we use our expertise in advocacy and engagement, research, grant-giving and project management in flexible, creative ways in order to build partner capacity and conservation skills, address heritage at risk, improve historic places and widen public engagement.
• We ensure maximum public value in our work and strive for transformational and sustainable regeneration that builds inclusively on the historic identities and strengths of places and their communities.

Please note that the role:

• Requires regular travel to sites not serviced by public transport.
• Requires visiting and inspecting sites with difficult access, in poor condition and under repair, which is likely to require climbing scaffolding and negotiating heights and confined spaces (for example, church towers and roofs).
• Will require occasional attendance at community meetings which are usually held at evenings or weekends.

What we are looking for:

• A degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline.
• Substantial experience of working constructively with owners and other partners as a practitioner in the repair and management of heritage assets.
• A working knowledge of the historic environment and its assets.
• An understanding of the planning and statutory consents system.
• Good knowledge of the principles and practices of building and monument conservation as exemplified in Conservation Principles.
• Ability to approach Heritage at Risk problems, solutions and effects on heritage assets in a practical and creative way.

Please note your application will be scored and assessed against the above criteria. We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having just won the Gold Award from MIND, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don't prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can. We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working.

Why work for Historic England:

• We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work.
• We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email if you have any recruitment queries.

At Historic England we use a hiring system called Applied. Applied is a behavioural science-backed recruitment platform that reduces bias, improves quality of hire and increases diversity. We do not use CV application for the majority of our hiring processes. You will answer a selection of questions that allow our hiring teams to test your skills and suitability for the role. To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

Provisional interview dates: 23 June 2025.