Community Ecologist Intern in Southampton

Full Time – 35 Hours per Week Fixed Term Contract for 6 Months. Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust is shaping a wilder future for our counties – protecting special places, restoring habitats and inspiring people to act for nature. As part of the UK’s fastest-growing movement for nature’s recovery, we lead with passion, integrity and bold thinking. Join a team where your work has purpose, your ideas matter, and you can help create lasting change for wildlife and people.

We are seeking a Community Ecologist Intern to join our cause. The Community Ecologist Intern will play a vital role in supporting the delivery of community‑led environmental initiatives while contributing to the provision of ecological services to Team Wilder and a wide network of community‑based environmental groups. Working at the intersection of conservation and community engagement, the postholder will help facilitate inclusive action that delivers meaningful ecological outcomes. This position targets individuals new to the environmental sector, with a strong emphasis on promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion.

What you’ll be doing:

• Through a structured and supportive environment, you’ll gain valuable, hands‑on paid experience including practical ecological work such as habitat assessment and species monitoring.
• You’ll develop skills in community engagement, partnership working, and project delivery.
• You’ll have opportunities to build knowledge of conservation practices and contribute to initiatives that empower communities to take action for nature.

About you:

• You’ll have a passion to help wildlife and support our mission for nature to thrive.
• You’ll be approachable and have a friendly manner, be empathetic and culturally sensitive with communities and partners you support.
• You’ll have high standards of professional and personal integrity and values that align to the Trust’s.

Wild About Inclusion! As an inclusive employer we recognise that our workforce needs to better reflect the communities in which we live and work. We encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly those underrepresented within our sector, including people from black, Asian, minority ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities. We are committed to creating a Movement that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities.

Disability Confident. We are proudly a Disability Confident Committed employer. The scheme is helping us recruit and retain great people to meet our workforce needs. As a member of the scheme, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this position will be offered an interview.

Benefits We offer a wide range of benefits including a competitive salary, generous annual leave allowance, a contributory pension scheme, life assurance, learning and development support, 24‑hour access to our employee assistance programme, discounted staff travel with our corporate partners Wightlink (subject to T&Cs), free parking at our sites and more.