Programme Development Officer

Location: Newark – Home based, office facilities available, some UK travel will be required
Full time: 35 hours per week
Fixed Term Contract: 12 months

About Us

The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) is the central charity which supports the
federation of 46 independent Wildlife Trusts working for nature’s recovery across the UK,
Alderney and the Isle of Man. The Wildlife Trust’s vision is of a thriving natural world, with
abundant wildlife and healthy natural habitats playing a valued role in addressing climate and
ecological emergencies, and everyone is inspired to take action for nature’s recovery.

Collectively, The Wildlife Trusts have more than 900,000 members, look after over 2,300 nature
reserves, operate 123 visitor and education centres and own 29 working farms. The role of RSWT
is to ensure a strong voice for wildlife at a UK level and to provide strategic leadership,
support and development for The Wildlife Trusts. We provide shared expertise in areas such as
climate change, digital fundraising, nature-based solutions, policy and safeguarding. We
facilitate UK-wide communities of practice to share learning and replicate successful
approaches so that together we are more than the sum of our parts. We support the individual
Wildlife Trusts to be a strong force for nature in their local areas and to work together to
achieve an even greater impact as a collective.

The Wildlife Trusts are on a mission to bring about a people-powered nature and climate
recovery by empowering people to take meaningful action for nature and to create an inclusive
society where nature matters to everyone, everywhere. We are ambitious in our desire not just
to slow, but to reverse the declines in nature. Together we have developed a bold, new
collective strategy which outlines our vision and the actions we will take to restore nature
over the next eight years.

Central to our strategy are our three goals which set out what we are striving to achieve by
2030 in pursuit of our vision of a thriving natural world. Goal 1 is to put nature into
recovery with abundant, diverse wildlife and natural processes creating wilder land and
seascapes where people and nature thrive. Goal 2 is to inspire people to take action for nature
and climate, resulting in better decision-making for the environment at both the local level
and across the four UK nations. And Goal 3 is to enable nature to play a central and valued
role in helping to address local and global problems, such as by helping tackle climate change
and supporting wellbeing and education.

Achieving these ambitious objectives means that we must develop new ways of working which
increase the scale and impact of our work. Therefore, we have embarked on a programme of
strategic transformations that are essential to achieving our goals, and which will result in a
stronger and more effective Wildlife Trust movement for the long term. RSWT is leading the
transformation programme across The Wildlife Trusts including in community organising,
equality, diversity and inclusion, and funding nature’s recovery. The Wildlife Trusts have
existed for over 100 years thanks to a strong membership base and traditional fundraising
activities.

About You

Do you want to be part of a team leading the field in the development of large-scale nature
restoration projects driven by private and public investment into nature’s recovery?

In Wales, the Wildlife Trusts are setting an ambition to scale up and increase the pace of
nature’s recovery. We have a proven track record of delivering nature conservation projects.
However, we now need to scale this to all Wales programmes. We now have support teams from
political advocacy, green financing and corporate engagement to match our unique ability to
deliver nature restoration at the local level. In the past 18 months, The Wildlife Trusts have
been developing new approaches to funding nature’s recovery from the private sector as well as
maintaining close links with funders. These are exciting times and we are building on our
unique position to develop major programmes with partners across Wales.

We need dedicated expertise and capacity to work with Wildlife Trusts to bring this work into
coherent programmes and develop models and plans that build revenues for nature’s recovery
allowing much greater investment. This post is designed to provide the expertise and capacity
to work alongside Wildlife Trust staff who are already committed to developing these
programmes.

You will be from a nature restoration background with an ambition to drive forward a step
change in scale and pace of action. You will be organised and motivated, able to take the
initiative and lead the effective delivery of nature restoration programme development in
Wales. You will have an understanding of issues facing nature. You will likely have experience
in project development work and, ideally, an understanding of Welsh partners. You are used to
keeping accurate records and can present clearly and professionally. You will be a great
communicator, with a personable style who can work with many different people across the
wonderful variety of geography and activities of the Wildlife Trusts.

You relish challenging the status quo and problem-solving. This is a new and ambitious role
which will evolve following your appointment so you should be excited by the flexibility and
opportunities to take an innovative approach.

The Wildlife Trusts value passion, respect, trust, integrity, pragmatic activism and strength
in diversity. Whilst we are passionate about promoting our aims, we are not judgemental and are
inclusive. We particularly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented within
our sector, including people from minority backgrounds and people with disabilities. We are
committed to creating a movement that recognises and truly values individual differences and
identities.

RSWT take our Safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously. Please click here to read our
commitment statement.

As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to offering an interview to anyone with a
disability who meets all the essential criteria for the post. Please let us know if you require
any adjustments to make our recruitment process more accessible.

RSWT are committed to increasing diversity of its staff through its Levelling the field
recruitment pledge and will offer an interview to any ethnic minority applicants that meets all
the essential criteria for the post.

Please be aware we may not accept applications if we have reason to believe they have been
wholly produced using generative AI tools.

This role may be subject to a DBS check.

Closing date for applications: 11th September 2024
First interview: Provisionally 27th September 2024
Second interview: 30th September 2024