Scotland’s leading nature conservation charity, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, is looking for a new Chair.

Do you have the ability, empathy and commitment to make a major contribution to the conservation of Scotland’s wildlife and wild places?

Are you an experienced leader?

If so, we would love to hear from you!

We’re looking for an outstanding individual with excellent leadership, diplomacy and communication skills, who is used to building consensus and has a natural affinity for cultivating relationships.

Understanding of current conservation challenges and issues would be an advantage, although a focus on maximising long-term impact is more important than in-depth expertise.

This post is eligible for a Disclosure Scotland check.

RSPB Scotland recently secured funding from a variety of partners to explore how it might deliver a ‘gold standard’ ethical investment model for biodiversity enhancement in Scotland.

We need a Project Manager who can take us on the first part of the journey so that, in time, we may be able to offer biodiversity credits to what will be a new market, potentially comparable to the emerging climate / carbon credits market.

Whether RSPB ultimately gets involved or not, we want to shape the market so that nature is the principal beneficiary.

What's the role about?

The nature crisis is increasingly recognised as being comparable to the climate crisis. Scotland’s recently published Revised Draft National Planning Framework 4 explicitly recognises that there are dual crises, and will introduce a requirement for development to contribute to the enhancement of biodiversity. Along with other legislative and fiscal initiatives to protect and boost nature, this is likely to result in significant private investment into nature conservation and biodiversity enhancement.

This job will seek to take advantage of the growing acknowledgment of the nature crisis by leading the development of a model for private finance investment in enhancing biodiversity, primarily on behalf of the RSPB, but which can be transferable to other ENGOs.

The RSPB owns and / or manages 77,000 hectares of land in Scotland, so there are plenty of opportunities to invest in helping nature to recover. Prioritising investment is likely to be part of the challenge and, looking to the future, there will be a need to positively influence the market for biodiversity credits, so that nature continues to benefit over the long term, rather than speculators who might trade those credits.

The job will largely involve working with internal colleagues to determine how best to go about offering opportunities for private investment in biodiversity enhancement, and would suit someone who is comfortable working to deliver practical initiatives in rapidly changing and sometimes uncertain contexts and circumstances.

Essential skills, knowledge and experience:

• Good communication skills, ability to quickly develop and sustain positive working relationships with internal and external colleagues and partners to achieve beneficial outcomes.
• Ability to adapt to changing circumstances and capacity to lead without line management.
• Confident and persuasive when working in uncertain policy environments and with a range of people.
• Ability to quickly assimilate information, understand and take opportunities, and to take the initiative.
• Ability to see the big picture, and to cut through but at the same time understand and appreciate the detail.
• Creative thinker, able to find innovative solutions to problems.
• Good written, verbal, and presentation skills, including report writing.
• Understanding of the practical and policy challenges inherent in delivering biodiversity enhancements.
• Time management and organisational skills.
• Competent IT user (e.g. Word, Outlook, Excel, etc).

Desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Experience of working to a standard project management approach, e.g. RSPB Project Management Framework, Prince II.
• Appreciation of what constitutes ethical investment.
• Appreciation of private finance investment models and mechanisms.
• Experience of working with and giving direction to contractors.
• Experience of organising and facilitating meetings and discussions, including with community organisations and social enterprises.
• Experience of delivering projects.

The job can be done from anywhere in the UK, but there is likely to be a need to be in Edinburgh on an ad hoc but, potentially, reasonably recurrent basis.

The RSPB reserves the right to extend or make this role permanent without further advertising dependent on business needs at the end of the contract term.

This is a Fixed-Term for 18.5 hours per week - The RSPB reserves the right to extend or make this role permanent without further advertising dependent on business needs at the end of the contract term.

The suitable candidate will be based in Scotland (be that home/hybrid based)

What's the role about?

This role aims to support key projects and initiatives as well as to support Scotland’s regional operations team with all their education, families, and youth work, enabling more and more diverse people to connect with and act for nature.

Duties include - Non-Exhaustive

• In line with RSPB’s Youth Strategy, support staff and volunteers across Scotland in their delivery of projects in order to contribute towards agreed targets.

• Deliver a recognised and respected source of leadership, support and advice to regional/country teams engaged on Education, Families and Youth work.

• Enhance the regional/county teams understanding of working with young people through co-design approaches, enabling them to increase their confidence in working with them – so that more young people have a positive experience of nature.

• Support the development of capabilities and knowledge of regional/country staff and volunteers delivering education, families, and youth work, to ensure delivery of the regional/country plans.

• In line with RSPB standards, the Scotland context and reflecting the needs of the Scottish curriculum, help develop, and support agreed Education, Family and Youth projects which contribute towards country targets.

• Monitor, evaluate and review agreed areas of Education, Families and Youth delivery to ensure it meets RSPB policy and standards and is achieving agreed Youth strategy targets.

• Lead (with Line Manager/other staff members where appropriate) on awareness raising, training and advice for safeguarding policy and procedure across the region to ensure staff and volunteers are aware of key issues and feel confident in engaging with young people.

• Support capability and knowledge development of volunteers delivering education, families, and youth work to help raise awareness and understanding of volunteering as a positive way of meeting business needs.

• Seek opportunities to develop new approaches to deliver the Youth Strategy to help meet agreed targets.

What we need from you

Essentials:

• Good leadership – ability to motivate and influence people to deliver objectives without direct line management.

• Excellent communication (both verbal and written) and interpersonal skills, successfully influencing, persuading, guiding, listening to, and negotiating with others, constructively challenging thinking where appropriate.

• Ability to build and manage effective and productive internal stakeholder relationships.

• Excellent time management, planning and organisational skills; ability to manage and deliver a diverse portfolio of work and administration within a limited time.

• Ability to be proactive, use initiative and work independently.

• Ability to balance a strong focus on achieving successful outcomes with the need to empower, enable, motivate, inspire, and develop others.

• Competent in the use of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Excel for normal business use.

• Working with young people and/or supporting/managing those that do.

• Experience of working as part of a team and with volunteers.

• Enthusing others about the benefits of working with young people and their families to themselves and the organisation.

• Experience of working in the charitable sector or in an organisation that works closely with young people or families.

• Experience of providing operational advice and guidance to people at all levels and building effective stakeholder relationships.

Desirables:

• Teaching qualification.

• Youth Work qualification.

We are currently seeking a well organised and supportive Business Administrator who will be responsible for the financial and administrative aspects of the charity in association with the three other members of staff plus a voluntary board of directors.

The Wildlife Information Centre (TWIC) is an environmental charity with an established reputation for excellence in the provision of biodiversity data within south-east and part of central Scotland. TWIC currently holds over 3.6 million species records as well as extensive habitats and designated sites information. Our programme of events supports new and existing recorders and stimulates interest in biological recording amongst the wider public.

Key responsibilities:

• Prepare and monitor the annual budget and prepare financial and work reports.
• Carry out day to day financial transactions and bookkeeping, and liaise with the accountants regarding annual reports and returns.
• Manage TWIC’s client contracts including the Service Level Agreements and NatureScot grant claim.
• Coordinate regular board meetings, AGM and prepare appropriate reports and papers.
• Oversee office operational requirements, including office security, Health and Safety and UK GDPR.

Download the application form, full job description and person specification below.