Senior Project Officer (Water & Land Stewardship)

Bring your environmental passion for rivers to life!

The South East Rivers Trust (SERT) has an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic individual
who is keen to gain more experience in river and catchment enhancement work – making a
positive, lasting difference to the aquatic environment in the south east of England.

The role

The Water and Land Stewardship Team (W&LS) lead the identification and delivery of
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to improve rivers and catchments across the South East. Through
evidence, stakeholder engagement and on-the-ground experience, this new senior role will lead
and develop NbS project opportunities. You will aim for impact, scale and collaboration.

You will be responsible for delivering projects to scale up NbS across the SERT area, and lead
the ‘South East demos’ for the Ofwat Innovation Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions project, a
flagship five-year innovation project with water industry partners across the UK. Working with
colleagues at SERT to deliver NbS measures on the ground will give you the opportunity to make
a real difference, using this to help regulators and policy makers address barriers and build
enablers for NbS at scale.

You will lead walkovers, report on project opportunities identified, and develop projects on
the ground, including natural flood management, riparian corridor enhancement and land
management to increase catchment resilience. You will work closely with land managers to
co-design feasible NbS options delivering multiple benefits. Your recommendations will be
informed by data and evidence, and part of your role will be contributing to the effective
collation of this across the Trust and the region. This will include identifying and reviewing
nature market opportunities including through Biodiversity Net Gain, water resource, natural
flood management and water quality, and you will look to capitalise on these opportunities and
find ways to combine them with public funding (e.g. developing agri-environment schemes) to
develop blended funding approaches. Working with our regional water companies, you will use
your understanding of their drivers and processes to find ways of delivering more nature-based
solutions with them in our catchments, building on existing relationships and projects within
the Trust and the wider Rivers Trust movement.

Crucially, you will take a collaborative partnership approach, building close relationships
with our regional water companies, farmer clusters and other NGOs as well as regulators and
local authorities, and provide a vision for these stakeholder groups to drive improvement of
our rivers and catchments.

This role is varied and allows for an individual to take ownership for their own projects,
seeking and developing resolutions whilst working collaboratively with several organisations
and individuals, as well as learn new skills and grow within a supported environment. You will
be personable and inquisitive, enjoy working with evidence, be able to explain technical
concepts in simple terms, engage positively with partners, and be passionate about rivers and
the environment.

While the role covers the entire SERT area, we expect to develop a geographic focus towards
either the East (Sussex, Kent) or West (Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey).

Follow the link below to see the full Senior Project Officer job description for more information.

The deadline for application is 11:59pm on Sunday 29 September
2024. We reserve the right to close the recruitment early.

Interviews will take place Friday 4 – Tuesday 8 October 2024.

If you would like to discuss the position please email [email protected] with your enquiry and
we will arrange to call you back.

Please note: All applicants must have the right to work in the UK. We do not sponsor applicants
from overseas.