Senior River and Fisheries Officer

Contract: Permanent Contract
Report To: Head of Fisheries and Ecology
Grade: 4
Hours: Full Time (37.5 hours)
Location: Westcountry Rivers Trust’s office is in Stoke Climsland and whilst we have adopted hybrid working there is an expectation to work from the office on a regular basis and to travel to sites across the delivery area.

Westcountry Rivers Trust is recruiting a Senior River and Fisheries Officer. This is a permanent contract after a successful 4 month probation period.

The starting salary for this role is £31,800.00 – £36,000.00 per annum (dependent on experience)

Benefits while working for Westcountry Rivers Trust

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• 25 days Annual Leave + Bank Holidays, with a reward for long service – an additional 1 day per year for each year worked over 5 years, up to a maximum of 30 days for employees serving 10 years continuous service
• Additional leave covering the Christmas Closure period
• WRT contributes 9% of salary to a personal pension scheme (following a three-month postponement period), plus Life Assurance cover
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Hybrid & Flexible Working

Apply by midnight on Sunday 28th June 2026.

Interviews will be held in person at our offices in Stoke Climsland on Thursday 9th July 2026.

For queries about this role or the application process please contact [email protected]

About the Westcountry Rivers Trust

Formed in 1994, the Trust was established to restore Westcountry rivers. Measures to protect rivers can help to save money for farmers, lower costs for water companies, boost tourism, reduce the need to dredge estuaries and even benefit human health.

Today the charity works with a wide range of stakeholders from landowners to local communities, businesses, farmers and water companies to restore and protect the rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal areas for the benefit of people, wildlife and the local economy. There has never been a more important time to work on the rivers of the West Country as the impacts of climate emergency and the ecological crisis is forcing society to invest in building catchment resilience.

Spurred by a shared love of rivers, the Westcountry Rivers Trust is very much a grassroots organisation, brought into existence from the bottom up. In the early 90s, a group of individuals, passionate – but concerned – about the waterways around them, began to stitch together their ambitions for restoring Westcountry rivers, laying the foundations for the Trust we know today.

Everything the Trust does is informed by the best available science. Their work is driven by an ‘ecosystems approach,’ considering the function of the entire catchment, not just the rivers that flow within them.

It was this new perspective – not to mention the hands-on and tireless approach to river restoration – that grabbed the attention of so many supporters and funders, and which lies behind the flourishing rivers trust movement. Since then, the Trust now has circa 75 employees with an annual turnover of c£3m running multi-annual projects spread across a wide range of funders.

The Trust has three main delivery teams and a support services team. Our employees work on delivery sites, from home, and from the office.

About the Role

A Grade 4 River and Fisheries Officer will support the River and Fisheries Team and other departments at WRT in a specialist delivery and advisory capacity. You will have appropriate level of knowledge and experience to provide support to projects and other team members at a senior level. You will be managing projects or bespoke work packages within larger schemes which require specialist fisheries input. In this role you will be supporting the Rivers and Fisheries Team management to develop the skills, competencies and capacity in the team and Trust for delivering a range of grant and commercial based projects which support us in meeting our charitable aims. Project workload may include but is not limited to: delivering and management of fish passage improvement projects, electrofishing, monitoring, watching brief and rescue activities, river restoration, report writing, fisheries management. You will be required to line manage and/or mentor junior team members and others at WRT, developing both practical CDM skills, including producing and reviewing high quality reports and other documents. Part of this role will require developing project ideas and writing bids to secure small to medium scale funding. This role is primarily based in the South West, but you may be required to travel and work further afield when required to work in other regions, or to represent the organisation at events. Reporting to the Rivers Team managers you will continue to develop your expertise of working in the environmental conservation sector and maintain regular CPD with a focus on fisheries management, fish biology, fish passage, river restoration and morphology in an applied fashion to deliver tangible benefits to the freshwater environment. Working alone and as part of a team you will be responsible for managing your own workload and that of a team, often in a dynamic delivery environment. A background in fisheries and freshwater conservation is essential.

Responsibilities

• Managing projects and providing specialist support on projects and work packages.
• Managing project budgets to deliver maximum conservation impact within funding constraints’
• Supporting the Rivers Team management with the development of the team in relation to Fisheries, fish passage and other complimentary focus areas.
• Develop project ideas and seek funding.
• Ensuring a high level of Health & Safety standards are maintained during fieldwork and project deliverables, including fish passage work. Work with H&S advisor.
• CDM, procurement and contract management.
• Engaging with the public, volunteers, landowners and other key stakeholders.
• Line management and mentoring, including the development of junior members of staff, apprentices and trainees.
• Collection of robust data, analysis and presentation of data.
• Drafting, writing and reviewing high quality reports.
• Representing the Trust at various events, meetings or panels.

Person specification

Knowledge and Experience

• Experience of working outdoors in aquatic environments and remote locations.
• Previous experience of leading or supervising a team.
• Good understanding of Health and Safety standards and codes of practice.
• Experience of project management and delivery.
• A background in river restoration, fisheries science/management or aquatic ecology.
• A good understanding of legislation, fisheries law and statutory requirements.
• Experience in other fisheries and ecological monitoring and surveying
• Data and analysis
• Experience of using various software from the MS Office suite, ArcGIS (D), CAD (D) etc.
• Electrofishing qualification and adequate level of field experience some of which in a team leader/supervisory capacity (D)
• An understanding of fish migration and barrier assessment / prioristation, process of barrier optioneering (D).
• Experience in NEC contracts and CDM Regs (D)

Skills and Competencies

• Ability to plan and manage workloads including suitable delegation and supervision of tasks.
• Good communication and team working skills, dissemination of technical information to wider stakeholders.
• Contract management, procurement and tendering.
• CDM regulations knowledge and use. NEC 4 contract training and use.
• Management of monitoring and survey programmes.
• Experience of fish passage projects
• Experimental and field study design.
• Experience of mentoring and training others

Qualifications

• Minimum of Level 6 qualification (Bachelors degree) in a relevant subject AND/OR
• Level 3 diploma in a relevant subject combined with a minimum of 5 years’ experience
• Fisheries related qualification(s).
• Electrofishing Trained, electrofishing Team Leader Trained.
• Holds professional membership of relevant organisation and continued development through CPD.

The above are Essential criteria unless indicated as Desirable.