Assistant Conservation Officer

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an Assistant Conservation Officer to help us protect and conserve Epping Forest. Our ideal candidate will be supporting the wider Conservation team and will be passionate about conservation, the natural environment, and ecology. You will have fieldwork and data collection experience working in the environmental, ecology, or conservation sector and you will enjoy working and learning as part of a team.

Epping Forest is amongst 11,000 acres of open spaces, parks, and gardens in and around London owned and managed by the City of London Corporation. Each open space is a unique resource for the use and enjoyment of the public and for the conservation of wildlife and the historic landscape.

Epping Forest stretches from London’s East End for 14 miles out into Essex and covers over 6000 acres along with a further 2000 acres of ‘buffer land’. It receives over 10 million visits each year. Two thirds of the Forest is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and is home to over 55,000 veteran pollarded trees, grassland plains, heathlands, ponds, lakes, two registered parks, scheduled monuments, and listed buildings. Because of these habitats, the Forest supports a range of protected and notable species including bats, birds, fungi, invertebrates, and amphibians. The unique ancient wood pasture landscape is managed with the help of a herd of 200 Longhorn cattle.

The Role

The role will support on the preparation of conservation/environmental grant applications and compliance, (e.g. countryside stewardship schemes), project and contractor management, as well as fieldwork covering habitat and species surveys and monitoring.

The role will help to develop and manage the biological records database, the Epping Forest Conservation Geographical Information Systems (GIS) database, leading on the conservation volunteers’ engagement and contribute to wider public communications about our conservation practices.

The Ideal Candidate

You are educated to degree level or equivalent qualification in a relevant Conservation or Environmental subject or possess demonstrable equivalent work experience.

You have experience undertaking fieldwork including surveys, habitat management, data collection, and the use of GIS for this. You will have the ability to identify broad habitats and species and are working to specialise in an area of your interest (knowledge and experience with botany and/or invertebrates is desirable).

Please, keep in mind you might have experience or strengths that make you a good candidate for the role, even if you don't meet every requirement.

 Benefits Include;

• Competitive salary starting at £34,210, depending on experience (clear incremental progress points).
• 24 days annual leave plus public holidays.
• Pension scheme is operated in accordance with Local Government Pension
• Employee assistance programmes including mental well-being support.
• Bicycle Loan and travel card schemes.
• Exclusive discounts, generous support for relevant training and up to two days paid volunteering leave

Closing date:   12 noon on 5 February 2025

Interviews will take place the week of the 17 February 2025

Alternatively, please contact 020 7332 3978 (24 hr answerphone) quoting reference number OENV0339.  A minicom service for the hearing impaired is available on 020 7332 3732.

The City of London Corporation want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to thrive in the work that we do. The City of London Corporation is currently undergoing a programme to ensure that our pay and reward practices are competitive and equitable. We are committed to regularly benchmarking and reviewing pay across the whole organisation and against external sectors.

The City of London Corporation is committed to Equal Opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

We reserve the right to close the advert earlier should we receive a high number of applications

Because our roles are so varied, we don’t have a ‘one size fits all’ policy for workplace attendance. How many days a week you’ll be required to attend your workplace will depend on the requirements of your role. It’s important that you understand the requirements before applying to ensure you are able to meet them. We are committed to considering requests to work flexibly and job share. Requests will be considered by the recruiting manager in line with our policies and business needs.

For more information on our categories for workplace attendance, please view our guides here. 

To apply click here.

We will be reviewing this policy and approach at regular intervals to ensure we’re meeting our attendance needs.