6809 - Higher Officer - Sussex and Kent (Farm Advice and Protected Sites) - Ashford
| Company: | Natural England |
|---|---|
| Salary: | from £33,780 a year |
| Hours: | Full-time |
| Location: | Ashford, NP10 8FZ |
| Working pattern: | Hybrid - 4 days remote |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Posting date: | 29 Sept 2026 |
| Closing date: | 18 Oct 2026 |
Summary
Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.
Our Role
Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.
Strategic Outcomes for Nature
Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.
Recovering Nature – Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
Building Better Places – Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
Improving Health and Wellbeing – Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
Delivering Security through Nature – Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.
Find out more about the work of Natural England at
Natural England’s Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK.
Job description
Sussex & Kent Area Team are looking for 3 Higher Officer’s to push forward our nature recovery work. There are two roles within our farm advice and land management team, and one role within our protected sites team, which team the successful applicants will be placed in will be dependent on the applicants’ skills and experience. The principal aim of all three roles is to help our deliver against the Environment Improvement Plan (EIP) commitment to ensure 50% of SSSI features are on track to achieve favourable condition by 2030. You will provide technical support and advice to farmers and land managers, combining habitat management expertise and stakeholder engagement skills, with a primary focus on delivery within Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).
A higher office role in our Sussex & Kent’s farm advice team will primarily work to deliver Countryside Stewardship schemes by delivering clear, informed and trusted advice to farmers and land managers, enabling them to create and protect nature rich habitats. We focus on implementing plans and building partnerships around work that contributes most to Local Nature Recovery Strategies and wider Environmental Improvement Plan targets. By working with farmers, land managers and other partners, using the appropriate mix of advice, incentives and schemes, we are able to deliver environmental benefits across multiple holdings, and increasingly at a landscape scale.
A higher office role in our Sussex & Kent’s protected sites team will be focused on our SSSI Action of Track work which aims to ensure our SSSI features should have an action on track to achieve favourable condition by 2030 (with 32% delivered by March 2027). Favourable condition on SSSIs will be achieved through actions delivered by Natural England, landowners/managers and external partners, these actions include management plans, condition assessments, and utilising funding roots such as countryside stewardship.
Overall, there will be a strong steer to working closely with colleagues across work areas, as well as build relationship with land managers and partners organisations. You will help secure positive outcomes for protected sites and landscape-scale conservation across Sussex and Kent.
All roles will require regular car travel across Sussex and Kent.
Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities
Undertake 1:1 site visits, events, and communications to engage with land managers & partners.
Negotiate Agri-environment schemes to help maintain and improve the condition of protected sites and deliver nature recovery in the wider landscape.
Apply technical knowledge and advice on delivery of protected sites casework.
Collaborate with partners and stakeholders to identify and deliver shared objectives.
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