Assistant Warden – North Suffolk Coast Reserves

Would you like to help manage the RSPB’s most biodiverse reserve? Based at the iconic Minsmere, home to over 6,000 species, and also covering Dingle Marshes and North Warren, this is a rare chance to join our conservation team. Opportunities like this don’t pop up every day!

Our North Suffolk reserves attract more than 120,000 visitors each year and are home to some incredible breeding bird species including avocets, marsh harriers, bitterns, bearded tits, common and sandwich terns, stone curlews, woodlarks and Dartford warblers. Non-breeding bird spectacles include starling murmurations, wintering white-fronted geese and over 30 species of passage wader every year. Non-avian highlights include antlions, silver-studded blue butterflies, rare reedbed moths, water voles, otters and starlet sea anemones.

We’re incredibly proud of the reserves we manage and are looking for someone who will help us keep these places special for wildlife and for people.

This role will be varied, covering a wide range of tasks, so you’ll need to be energetic, adaptable and have a desire to achieve. You’ll assist in the delivery of habitat management, species surveying, estate maintenance, engagement with a wide range of stakeholders and managing amazing volunteers.

It is important that you are a strong team player, with the ability to generate ideas and see them through to high standards. You’ll have a passion for natural history, and you’ll enjoy working outside in all weathers.

You’ll be organised, responsible, resilient, adaptable, practically capable and you’ll set yourself high standards . You’ll have plenty of energy and a keenness to learn and develop as part of your role.

If, so far, this sounds like you, then please read on!

Key areas of work:

• Habitat management as defined by the reserves’ management plans and agri-environment agreements to ensure conservation targets are met.
• Maintenance of tools and machinery to ensure they are operating safely and efficiently.
• Repair and maintenance of buildings and estate infrastructure to deliver an excellent visitor experience.
• Monitoring of key species and habitats to enable performance to be measured and reviewed against management plan targets.
• Managing, mapping and storing data, ensuring this can be accessed by the wider team and organisation.
• Maintaining high standards of health and safety to minimise risk to the RSPB and ensuring understanding and compliance of health and safety while undertaking duties.
• Developing, leading, and managing an effective team of volunteers, including work parties.
• Collaborating with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders including the wider reserve team members, Reserve Ecologists, Project Managers, contractors, work parties, neighbours and visitors.
• Assist with ensuring legal compliance of conservation and land management operations.
• Planning and implementing small projects.
• General administration and report writing, ensuring admin and reports are up to date and systematically organised.
• Assisting with off-reserve work in collaboration with RSPB Conservation Officers and a wide-range of other NGO’s and partners.

Essential knowledge, skills and experience:

• Experience of practical land management and delivering estate management tasks.
• Experience in the safe operation and maintenance of machinery, tools and equipment.
• Experience of managing and leading volunteers.
• Ecological knowledge of reedbed, heathland and wet and dry grasslands.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Proven time management and organisational skills.
• Working unsupervised for extended periods, as part of a team or leading a team.
• Experience implementing risk assessments and updating health and safety records.
• Problem solving skills, creating well thought through practical solutions.
• LANTRA, or equivalent qualification, in the safe use of brushcutter.
• Competent in the use of Microsoft Office packages including Word, Excel and Outlook.
• Full, manual driving licence valid in the UK.

Desirable knowledge skills and experience

• Experience of biological monitoring and surveying.
• Knowledge of woodland/scrub management.
• LANTRA, or equivalent qualification, in the safe use of tractors and trailed equipment, Pesticides (PA1 and PA6AW), chainsaw and ATV.
• Experience of using GIS mapping software.
• Knowledge of the requirements of agri-environment and cross-compliance regulations.
• Previous experience of working in the Environmental or land management sectors.

This is a Permanent, Full Time role for 37.5 hours per week. We are looking to conduct interviews for this position on Tues 13th January 2026.

For further information please contact Annette at [email protected].

As part of this application process you will be asked to submit a CV and complete an application form including evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge, and experience listed above.

The RSPB is an equal opportunities employer. This role is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

We are committed to developing an inclusive and diverse RSPB, in which everyone feels supported, valued, and able to be their full selves. To achieve our vision of creating a world richer in nature, we need more people, and more diverse people, on nature’s side. People of colour and disabled people are currently underrepresented across the environment, climate, sustainability, and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled, we are particularly interested in receiving your application. Contact us to discuss any additional support you may need to complete your application.