Senior Nature Reserve Lead: Strategy, Partnerships & Recovery in North East

This position is based at Castle Eden Dene NNR.

Northumbria Area Team is seeking to recruit a professional and highly motivated individual to join the Northumbria Team as part of its National Nature Reserve (NNR) group of staff. Our National Nature Reserves (NNRs) are at the forefront of nature recovery and people engagement and are at the heart of achieving Natural England’s ambitions (such as Local Nature Recovery, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), NNR strategy etc.). This role is fundamental to the delivery of the NNR Management plans and the ambitions of NNRs, providing key operational delivery on the reserves, thereby ensuring the NNR series can achieve its role in delivering the Government’s ambitious 25-year plan.

The Senior Reserve Manager (SRM) holds a pivotal role in the comprehensive management and enhancement of National Nature Reserves (NNRs), actively promoting Nature Recovery in the broader landscape. The role demands an understanding of land management techniques, biodiversity conservation, and strategic planning combining technical expertise with practical land management knowledge. The Senior Reserve Manager collaborates with staff, volunteers, local communities, and partners, contributing to Nature England's Vision, Mission and Aims. The role will be actively involved in the wider Area Team leadership group, working alongside other Senior staff and Managers.

Key Tasks / Principal Accountabilities

• To provide strategic leadership to deliver Natural England ambitions and drive the NNR agenda, across reserves on a landscape scale.
• Develop, review and deliver NNR management plans along with Area Team staff and partners and lead the development and implementation of NNR work programmes providing strategic leadership, setting priorities and risk management.
• To be responsible for delivering high value and strategically complex work programmes on the NNR cluster, dealing with challenging and complex external issues.
• Be a champion for ambition and implement strategic direction for engagement, delivery and visitor experience across NNR groups that aligns with national strategic and programme priorities.
• Seek opportunity to link into wider partnership ambitions and promote inclusion with diverse audiences.
• To provide functional (and/or) line management to NNR staff and volunteers including responsibility for H&S across the reserves.
• Manage budgets and seek external funding and income generating opportunities, identify long term strategic resource requirements and work with teams to ensure spend is tracked and audited.
• Lead procurement processes relating to the spend of programme budgets and provision of capital goods and services including project management of capital works.
• Implementation of Health & Safety (H&S) Frameworks and Legislation, provide leadership of a safe working practice culture to all staff, ensuring robust management of all H&S risks pertinent to activities undertaken on the NNR are in place and controlled.
• Develop opportunities for local and regional networks and partnerships across NNR delivery, including with Approved Body partners and other potential NNR managing partners seeking mutual benefits.
• Identify opportunities for local NNR science, research, evidence and monitoring to support or contribute to wider organisational evidence priorities and programmes.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Leadership (essential) – ability to line manage and develop others and manage volunteers in a remote setting to achieve good environmental outcomes. Motivate individuals and groups and use coaching and a range of engagement styles.
• H&S (essential) – Including risk assessment and management. Ability to demonstrate good judgement and decision making in complex situations.
• Experience of the range of tasks required on site and the equipment associated and ability to operate machinery.
• Collaborating and partnerships (essential) – demonstrates honesty and integrity, steers, or leads NE’s contribution to existing partnerships, has skills for issue resolution. Understands partners’ objectives and needs; can apply strategic thinking to identify the potential for new partnerships/relationships and negotiating skills to establish them.
• Work delivery (essential) – ability to manage complex, landscape scale or Area Team (AT) - wide NNR projects and programmes. Evaluate and assess priorities between NNR groups and balance NNR resources across their area of responsibility. Working with Reserve Managers, ensure delivery is on time and to budget.
• Technical skills (essential) – knowledge of the purposes of NNRs, the principles of site selection and the mechanisms involved in tenure, declaration, and other relevant legal and regulatory processes. Strong understanding of the diversity of reserve activities and the types of methods, tools and equipment used. Competence in relevant IT. Budget management and planning skills, including external funding. Competence in prioritising and planning programmes of work across multiple sites and years.
• Environmental and organisational outcomes (desirable) – An understanding of (i) local, regional and national environmental issues; (ii) Local Nature Recovery.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.