Peatland Programme Communications and Engagement Lead

Permanent  

Full time: 35 hours per week (1.0 FTE) or 28 hours per week (0.8 FTE) 

Closing date for applications: 13 October 2024

First Interview: 22 October 2024

Second Interview: 31 October 2024

About us  

Our host organisation, The Wildlife Trusts, are a federated movement of 46 charities, supported by a central charity, the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts. Together we have 870,000 members, 38,000 volunteers and 3,400 staff across the UK. We are at an exciting moment in our 110-year history, with the development of an ambitious new strategy, setting out a vision of nature in recovery, with abundant, diverse wildlife and natural processes creating wilder landscapes where people and nature thrive.  

About you  

The successful candidate will be employed by the IUCN UK Peatland Programme’s host organisation, The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts. The new team member will be pivotal in the delivery of the Peatland Programme’s objectives to champion peatland values. They will have the level of knowledge and experience to drive forward and promote peatland restoration in the UK and be able to advocate the multiple benefits of peatlands through partnerships, strong science, sound policy and effective practice, and communication.  

We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated Communications and Engagement Lead to drive and deliver the IUCN UK Peatland Programme’s communications activity to promote the benefits of healthy peatlands to a national audience. This will be done primarily through establishing and maintaining good relationships with external contacts and partners and using these networks to identify opportunities and to build the Programme’s reach. You will lead the production of communications materials through design and appropriate messaging, assist our advocacy work, and plan and deliver events such as online workshops and our annual conference.  

We are looking for someone who is passionate about communicating peatlands to a wide audience and is creative and proactive in their approach. The peatland agenda has expanded exponentially over the last 10 years and you will need to be an excellent team player and networker to capture what is happening and communicate this to multiple partners and stakeholders. The Communications and Engagement Lead post is a standalone communications post within a small team (9 people) and your ability to quickly develop good relationships with partner organisations will be critical to your success in the role. 

You will be lead on the delivery of the communications strand of the Peatland Programme’s activity. You should have experience of designing publications, creating digital content, newsletters, running stakeholder events and managing social media accounts. You will support the wider Peatland Programme team in networking, identifying opportunities for collaboration, as well as in the production of resources such as briefings and web content. 

The Wildlife Trusts value passion, respect, trust, integrity, pragmatic activism and strength in diversity. Whilst we are passionate in promoting our aims, we are not judgemental and are inclusive. We want our people to be as diverse as nature, so we particularly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented within our sector, including people from minority backgrounds and people with disabilities. We are committed to creating a movement that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities. 

RSWT take our Safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously. Please click here to read our commitment statement. 

 As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to offering an interview to anyone with a disability that meets all the essential criteria for the post. Please let us know if you require any adjustments to make our recruitment process more accessible. 

 RSWT are also committed to increasing the diversity of its staff through its Levelling the Field recruitment pledge and will put any ethnic minority applicants that meet all the essential criteria for the post through to the next stage of recruitment. 

 To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications. 

 This role may be subject to a DBS check.