Fishery Ranger - Visitor Experience Warden

The Fishery Ranger - Visitor Experience Warden position, based at Farmoor near Oxford, involves operating visitor facilities at the reservoir for anglers, birdwatchers, and other recreational users on behalf of Thames Water. This full-time, permanent role offers a salary up to £34,000 depending on experience. You will promote, manage, and interpret the site’s access and recreational offer, while contributing to facility development and monitoring fishery performance. The working pattern is 38 hours per week on a rotational shift basis.

What you will be doing as a Site Warden (Fishery Ranger)

• Site maintenance and inspections – plan and implement maintenance for visitor facilities e.g. signs and fencing, supervise contractors, keep the site clean and safe and undertake reservoir/health and safety inspections.
• Stakeholder engagement – listen to customers and take a proactive view to health and safety, customer experience and other ad hoc issues which arise. Willing to solve problems.
• Facility and equipment management – managing signage, car parks, hire equipment, boats, and general visitor infrastructure.
• Visitor Operations – run facilities on an agreed shift rota, manage permits and visitor behaviour, site promotion, and support with educational visits.
• Teamwork, reporting, and compliance – support team goals and supervise contractors when needed, monitor performance data contributing to annual reporting such as visitor numbers feedback and catch rates, operating within Thames Water policies including PPE and IDEvent Support.
• Help plan and run site events that promote recreation and engagement.

Essential Criteria

• A full, valid UK driving licence. You will be provided with a company vehicle.
• Proficient in MS packages, especially Word and Excel to monitor financial and performance data, with written communication skills to write reports.
• Strong interpersonal and teamworking skills, with the ability to quickly build rapport with the public.
• Evidence of ideas and innovations to develop a visitor site, showing enthusiasm to support this development.
• Willingness to support anglers during their visits, presenting as an ambassador for Thames Water to the public.
• Strong physical strength – ability to lift feed sacks, use hand tools, drive power boats, walk a minimum of 3 miles, and undertake general maintenance tasks.

Optional Skills and Experience

• A recognised fisheries or ranger/recreation management qualification, or at least 6 months experience of wildlife site work, fishery management work, or access/recreation ranger work on visitor sites.

What’s in it for you?

• Offering a salary of up to £34,000 per annum depending on skills and experience.
• Annual Leave – 24 days holiday per year, increasing to 28 days, and a wider benefits scheme.
• Performance-related pay plan directly linked to company performance measures and targets.
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON.
• Generous Paternity Leave, including 4 weeks paid and an optional 2 weeks unpaid.
• Enhanced Maternity Leave, 26 weeks full pay and 13 weeks half pay.
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of yourself and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy meaningful career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits. If you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region, and our planet.

Why choose us?

We’re committed to being a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and want to ensure you feel supported throughout the recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, whether that’s extra time, accessible formats, or anything else just let us know, we’re here to help and support.