Job Opportunities

This is a permanent contract after a successful 6 month probation period.

The starting salary for this role is £23,000.00 per annum

37.5 hours per week

 We support Hybrid working, so there will be the opportunity to work from home in this role and work flexible hours. Travel to sites throughout the Westcountry will also be required regularly; this role is a mixture of office and site based. During the probation period there will be an expectation to be in the office 2 days a week as a minimum.

There may be a requirement to work outside normal office hours and occasionally at a weekends.

Benefits while working for Westcountry Rivers Trust

• 25 days Annual Leave per annum, 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.
• 9% Employer Pension, plus Life Assurance cover
• Flexible working

Apply by midnight on Friday 27 September by CV and Covering Letter to:  https://hr.breathehr.com/v/junior-evidence-and-engagement-37225

Interviews will be held in person at our offices in Stoke Climsland on Thursday 10 October 2024

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

About Us:

Formed in 1994, the Trust was established to restore and protect Westcountry rivers. Spurred by a shared love of rivers, the Westcountry Rivers Trust is very much a grassroots organisation; in the early 1990s, 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; our 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. You can find out our full story here: Our History

The Role:

We’re looking for a highly motivated Junior Evidence & Engagement Officer to support our Evidence & Engagement team’s activities across a range of projects across the Trust.

Our work spans a huge range of projects to deliver change both in our rivers and on the land that they drain. We bring together stakeholder and interest groups in catchments across the South West to develop and deliver catchment action plans that will bring meaningful and lasting benefits for people and the environment.

The Evidence & Engagement Team supports the Trust’s on-going work in using a whole ecosystem approach to plan and deliver nature-based solutions for catchment management and river improvement initiatives for the river catchments of the South West and beyond.  The team is instrumental in ensuring that the Trust is delivering the right measures, in the right places, and in monitoring and reporting the impacts of our work. Effective engagement and communication is essential to ensure that key stakeholders, both external and internal at WRT, are well informed and engaged.

We are looking for an engaging and competent candidate who is passionate about the environment and who also has a keen interest in engagement and the communication of scientific data. This is an entry level role which will provide a range of experiences supporting the different work streams of the EE Team as well as the wider Trust.

The post holder will work collaboratively with colleagues across the Trust to ensure project delivery. While a broad knowledge of the issues currently facing our water environment is highly desirable, specialist knowledge is not essential for this role.

WRT is committed to investing they’re staff, therefore training, support and mentoring will be provided to the right candidate to develop into this role.

Key responsibilities include:

• Administration and support for various projects spanning a breadth of topics.
• Contribute to designing and delivering engagement and co-creation events and workshops.
• Fieldwork, monitoring and data collection including physical, chemical and biological water quality parameters.
• Data inputting, presentation and visualisation using a variety of software tools such as ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, QGIS or R
• Data collation, analysis and reporting.
• Assist with growing volunteer recruitment and support in maintaining volunteer retention.
• Delivery of other project work as and when required.
• Other administrative tasks required by the Trust including meeting H&S requirements; time sheeting & expenses; attendance at training, CPD & team away days; attendance at project inception meetings etc.
• Maintain appropriate confidentiality of information relating to WRT and volunteers and maintain compliance with the UK GDPR.

Person specification:

Knowledge and Experience

 Essential:

• A degree, or comparable qualification or experience in Environmental Science/Ecology/Geography or related discipline
• A good knowledge of, or background in, the environmental or conservation sectors
• A passion for protecting and restoring the natural environment
• Ability to manage workload and time effectively
• Good IT skills including Microsoft Office 365
• Organisational and admin skills, with good attention to detail
• Excellent presentation and communication skills for a wide range of audiences
• Excellent interpersonal skills, both face-to-face and in online meetings
• Good knowledge of requirements for data protection and confidentiality
• Ability to work flexibly, including occasional evenings and weekends
• The role requires travel across the Westcountry for meetings, events, workshops and to remote fieldwork sites.

Desirable:

• Experience of using Geographical Information Systems
• Ability to produce high quality, visually engaging science communications materials
• Experience of working with communities and citizen scientists
• Experience in environmental and biological monitoring
• A good knowledge of the current environmental challenges and an understanding of catchment-based approaches for river management.