Wildlife Management Support Officer in Scotland

NatureScot is the Scottish Government’s lead adviser on wildlife management. Wildlife management has many facets; it includes protecting species and habitats, reintroducing and translocating species, and licensing otherwise illegal activities. It is also about shooting and country sports, protecting agriculture and human safety, and promoting conflict resolution and collaboration.

Two significant areas of our wildlife management work concern licensing and our duty to further the conservation, control and sustainable management of all wild deer species in Scotland. The NatureScot Licensing Team issues about 2500 protected species licences per annum. Licences cover certain activities, such as disturbance to protected birds and animals, and are issued for specific purposes, for example preserving public health and safety or preventing serious damage to livestock and development. The Licensing Team provides an efficient and responsive service that enables people to manage protected wildlife effectively and legally, balancing legitimate needs of individuals and business with statutory responsibilities.

Wildlife Management Support Officers work closely with Licensing Officers to support the delivery of NatureScot’s statutory licensing functions. Management of Scotland’s wild deer is vital to enhancing biodiversity and achieving a net zero future. Achieving the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy objectives of halting nature loss by 2030 and delivering nature restoration across Scotland by 2045, as well as addressing public safety issues and impacts to agriculture, requires a significant reduction in deer numbers. This necessitates working with a range of stakeholder interests to deliver large-scale changes quickly. Wildlife Management Support Officers work with both the deer policy and operational deer teams to support the delivery of deer-related policy and projects covering a wide range of deer management issues. Additionally, Wildlife Management Support Officers may be required to support the wider Wildlife Management Team by assisting with tasks relating to aspects of wildlife management other than deer or licensing, such as species reintroductions.

Areas of Responsibility

• Coordinating receipt of licence applications and uploading them to the licensing database.
• Assisting with processing licence applications in line with NatureScot policies and processes.
• Running regular licence return reports, following-up missing licence returns, recording non-compliance and licence return information.
• Gathering and checking data, preparing documentation and coordinating responses to requests for data and information from stakeholders (both internal and external), including FOI requests and Parliamentary Questions.
• Assisting with the processing of annual cull returns, checking and storing ‘Deer Authorisation’ and ‘Fit and Competent’ Applications and other administrative tasks associated with Deer Authorisations and licensing within the Deer On-line Services database.
• Assisting with the analysis of consultation responses, drafting of consultation report material, publication of consultation responses and development of any new or amended general licences.
• Making arrangements and bookings associated with meetings and hospitality, assisting with meeting agendas, preparing and organising information and taking notes/ actions at meetings.
• Using discretion to identify and resolve issues, referring to the line manager for assistance, as necessary.
• Day-to-day operation of systems and equipment necessary for the successful completion of assigned tasks.

Skills required

• An understanding of NatureScot’s work to address the climate and biodiversity crises, and the role licensing and deer management plays in that.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience gathering, handling, storing and disseminating information and data, including running reports.
• An effective and adaptable team player, comfortable working within a small team and as part of a larger, dispersed team.
• Working knowledge of IT systems, such as Outlook, Word & Excel. Training for non-standard internal software will be given where required.
• Effective planning, organising and prioritising skills with ability to understand how own priorities fit with those of colleagues.
• Can demonstrate accuracy and attention to detail when undertaking day to day tasks and meeting deadlines.
• Ability to work using own initiative and to ask for help when required.

Pre-requisites

• Right to work in the UK
• To undertake a disclosure Scotland Application
• Driving licence or other means of transport.
• Although Gaelic language is not a prerequisite it is a desirable skill in support of our commitment to our Gaelic Language Plan.

Working for NatureScot – what we offer you

• NatureScot offers some great benefits to reward and support you whilst you are working for us. Our benefits package includes the civil service pension scheme, a generous holiday leave allowance plus flexi time, and employee discount scheme.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% (7.35% employee contributions).
• 41.5 days of annual leave, including 5 fixed public holidays on St Andrews Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and 2nd January.
• Equivalent of 2 days paid volunteering leave.
• A focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme.
• Job satisfaction from contributing proactively to the twinned nature and climate crisis.
• Death in service benefits.
• Cycle to work and electric vehicle salary sacrifice schemes.
• Access to an employee discounts scheme.
• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.

We particularly encourage applications from people from Minority Ethnic (ME) backgrounds and people with a disability.