Brook Manor Estate
Estate Ecologist and Land Manager
- Type of appointment: Starting in January/February 2024 or soon after, for at least 12 months, with potential for further permanent employment.
- Location: Buckfastleigh, Devon
- Hours of work: Full-time, 37.5 hours per week over 5 days, with flexible working required at times including limited weekends, and overtime in lieu.
- Salary: £20,500-£22,000 per annum, depending on skills and experience
- Free accommodation provided on site in self-contained studio apartment with utilities included. (On-site living a requirement of the job)
- Closing date for applications: 10th November 2023. Interviews Late November 2023
- Full driving licence with access to your own car
- We encourage you to apply even if you only have some of the desired skills as support in developing these and training can be provided.
We are seeking a self-motivated early career ecologist to deliver on site
monitoring, day to day habitat and land management and site visitor engagement
on a small estate managed using a nature first approach in South Devon.
This job is available as a career developing opportunity, including for new graduates with all encouraged to apply regardless of their past experience. During the role you will have some guidance and support to develop skills required to deliver the varied work that the role entails.
The estate is managed for wildlife with 60% woodland 40% meadows and other habitat with grazing cattle present year round. Year round monitoring is conducted with a key focus on birds, including a long term monitoring project on breeding Pied Flycatchers from April-July each year, when nest box monitoring will dominate workload.
We are looking for a general ecologist, with good to excellent bird knowledge to conduct ecological surveys throughout the year. Key work will also include day to day estate management, dealing with contractors, site visitors, maintenance, stock checks and moves, habitat creation and grant applications and delivery. Work will include both outside and indoors with a rough 80/20 split in summer and 50/50 split in winter.
The individual will need to co-ordinate and conduct a range of fieldwork activities predominantly on site, though off site working includes supporting RSPB conservation monitoring in spring, whilst balancing this with requirements on the estate on a day to day basis.
Flexibility of working is key and ability to react to deal with issues in a timely manner.
Person specification
Essential
- A BSc in a relevant biological discipline
- Full driving licence and your own vehicle (Manual preferred)
- Practical ornithological skills, e.g. competent bird ID
- Good organisational, communication and interpersonal skills e.g., co-ordinating fieldwork schedule, handling personal data, communicating work with estate owners
- Experience using and attention to detail required to maintain scientific datasets e.g. in Microsoft Excel, Word
- Good communication skills for report writing
- Ability to manage multiple tasks and workload priorities in a dynamic working estate, with flexibility to adapt and change plans often
- Willingness to undertake a range of tasks even those they may not at first be familiar with
- Ability to conduct hands-on land management and physical labour tasks
- Willing to live on site in provided accommodation and provide full time cover on site including weekends if owners away
- Physically fit and able to walk longer distances over steep and uneven terrain in spring
- Confident with lone working on the private site
For more information and to apply: https://www.countryside-jobs.com/job/nov23/estate-ecologist-and-land-manager-brook-manor-estate-1210-1