Senior Reserve Manager – South West Cumbria

Natural England Cumbria Area Team are seeking a Senior Reserve Manager to join the South Cumbria Area Team as part of its National Nature Reserve (NNR) group of staff.

Our National Nature Reserves (NNRs) are at the forefront of nature recovery and people engagement and are at the heart of achieving Natural England’s ambitions outlined in our new 5-year strategy. This role is fundamental to the delivery of the NNR Management plans and the ambitions of NNRs, providing key operational delivery on the reserves, thereby ensuring the NNR series can achieve its role in delivering the Government’s ambitious 25-year plan.

Natural England’s Role

Natural England is the government’s 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.

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.

What you will do

The principal National Nature Reserves (NNR’s) to be managed by this role are:

• North Walney
• Duddon Mosses
• Hallsenna Moor

The role will sit within a wider team in South Cumbria who are also responsible for:

• Gait Barrows
• Great Asby Scar
• Roudsea Wood and Mosses

The post will be based at our new NNR base at Earnse Bay, North Walney, within the Earnse Bay Hub. The building will act as the main operational hub for North Walney and Southwest Cumbria NNRs and will support operational and strategic partnership work that delivers nature recovery and public health benefits across Morecambe Bay. It will also provide a base for staff, volunteers, visiting schools and participants, and host a wide range of activities delivered by the Cumbria Area Team and partners. The post holder is required to have an active onsite presence and be based at North Walney for a minimum of 3 days per week.

The role may require some weekend, public holiday and evening work.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

• To provide strategic leadership to deliver Natural England ambitions and drive the NNR / Nature Recovery Network agenda, across south Cumbria’s reserves on a landscape scale.
• To develop and oversee strategic and operational delivery plans for our SW Cumbria NNR group.
• To be responsible for delivering high value and strategically complex work programmes on our SW Cumbria NNR’s, dealing with challenging and complex external issues
• To support the Earnse Project partnership project by developing and supporting long-term volunteer development and access and interpretation improvements at North Walney NNR.
• To support the development of the new North Walney capital build project at Earnse Bay. Providing direct input to ensure the building is fully functional, kitted out and fit for purpose, working closely with both internal and design teams. (Once complete, the SRM will act as site supervisor, overseeing facilities management, maintenance, site health and safety, upkeep of the workshop and ensuring the building is fully resourced for NNR operational use.)
• To play an integral role pursuing and maintaining external partnerships to achieve and develop our SW Cumbria NNR ambitions.
• To provide functional line management to NNR staff and volunteers including responsibility for H&S across the reserves.
• To engage with the wider organisation across Programmes and Directorates helping to shape policy and future direction for NNRs.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Leadership (essential) – ability to line manage and develop others and manage volunteers in a remote setting to achieve good environmental outcomes. Motivate individuals and groups and use coaching and a range of engagement styles.
• H&S (essential) – Including risk assessment and management. Ability to demonstrate good judgement and decision making in complex situations. Experience of the range of tasks required on site and the equipment associated and ability to operate machinery.
• Work delivery (essential) – ability to manage complex, landscape scale or Area Team (AT) – wide NNR projects and programmes. Evaluate and assess priorities between NNR groups and balance NNR resources across their area of responsibility. Working with Reserve Managers, ensure delivery is on time and to budget.
• Collaborating and partnerships (desirable) – demonstrates honesty and integrity, steers, or leads NE’s contribution to existing partnerships, has skills for issue resolution. Understands partners’ objectives and needs; can apply strategic thinking to identify the potential for new partnerships/relationships and negotiating skills to establish them.
• Technical skills (essential) – knowledge of the purposes of NNRs, the principles of site selection and the mechanisms involved in tenure, declaration, and other relevant legal and regulatory processes. An understanding of the diversity of reserve activities and the types of methods, tools and equipment used. Competence in relevant IT. Budget management and planning skills, including external funding. Competence in prioritising and planning programmes of work across multiple sites and years.
• Environmental and organisational outcomes (desirable) – An understanding of (i) local, regional and national environmental issues; (ii) Local Nature Recovery

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.

You’ll receive a generous leave allowance of 33 days per year (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.

Contact and additional information

If you would like to discuss this role please contact:

Kristel Taylor, [email protected]

For general recruitment enquiries, please contact
[email protected]

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:

• Technical Skills
• Creating Resilient Landscapes and Seas
• Putting People at the Heart of the Environment
• Working Safely

Early application is encouraged as this vacancy may close once sufficient candidates have been identified.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

NE’s 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, recognizing 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 here.