Senior Officer for Protected Sites - ( Ref : 6586 )

Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.

Our Role

Natural England is the Governments adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.

• Recovering Nature Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at:

Natural Englands Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK

Job description

The Role

This role co-leads and coordinates Protected Sites delivery across the Area Team, with a primary focus on SSSI recovery while supporting effective delivery of statutory casework. Working alongside other Senior Officers and closely with the Principal Officer for Protected Areas, the post-holder will align local activity with national priorities identified in Natural Englands strategy and will drive forward targeted action to improve site condition and resilience.

The role contributes to business planning, commissioning, and oversight of delivery, ensuring that SSSI recovery is embedded across all delivery areas. This includes leading on SSSI Improvement actions, prioritising interventions, and using a variety of approaches to gain a better understanding of the condition of SSSIs across the Area Team.

The role promotes innovative and outcome-focused delivery, encouraging appropriate risk-taking while ensuring robust processes are followed and targets and deadlines are met.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

• Supporting staff working in land management advice by providing technical guidance and training and ensuring that what the team does supports and reflects the organisations wider strategy.
• Strong leadership and sound, pragmatic decision‑making in managing complex casework
• Lead the planning and delivery of SSSI recovery, setting clear objectives, timelines, and resource needs, and enabling collaboration across Area Team functions.
• Ability to manage risks and issues effectively, with sound judgement on when to escalate to senior management.
• You play an active role in the Area Management Team, using your expertise to help shape and deliver local work by contributing your specialist knowledge, helping design and deliver key place-based projects.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Excellent project management skills to deliver complex programmes of work.
• Proven experience in leading and collaborating with others to achieve shared outcomes.
• Broad knowledge of Protected Sites in England and the legislation underpinning them.
• Strong knowledge of UK ecology, including priority habitats and species.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong networking and stakeholder management capabilities.
• Demonstrates strong critical problem-solving skills, using sound judgment to evaluate options, assess risks, and make effective decisions.

Benefits

At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements.

We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.

Youll receive a generous leave allowance of 25 days per year (pro rata), increasing by one day for each year of service up to 30 days (pro-rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.

We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

Locations

Natural England has adopted hybrid working which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.

Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.

National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area.

View a map of our office locations here: online map of Natural England office locations

Pay

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

You will become an active member of the relevant local leadership community, the group of senior Natural England staff in each of the localities across England who we ask to provide support and co-ordination for the local group of staff.

How to Apply

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.

If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.

This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process. Please be aware that we reserve the right for roles that receive a high volume of applications to initially sift applications for one competence only .

• Technical Skills and Knowledge
• Leading and Managing People
• Work Delivery
• Putting People at the Heart of the Environment

When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your Action.

Please note that STAR format is not required when answering the Technical Skills & Knowledge competency.

Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all ...