Marine Senior Officer

Sussex & Kent area team are looking for a Marine Senior Officer to lead our marine nature recovery work, who will play an important strategic leadership role, working to reduce key pressures to enable nature recovery at sea.

As a Senior Officer you will fulfil a key leadership role and will be expected to be a role model for Natural England's ways of working and help drive the changes needed to deliver Natural England's Strategy. The role holder will have experience of statutory marine delivery work, and knowledge of current European and UK policies and legislative frameworks for the marine environment and have a drive to work in collaboration internally and with external partners.

The role requires strong organisational and communication skills, and experience of motivating, supporting, or developing others and experience of working with partners. Regular travel across Sussex and Kent is required to meet colleagues, visit sites, and engage with stakeholders, with patterns varying depending on project needs.

The role will sit within our Resilient Landscapes and Seas team alongside our Protected Sites colleagues and is an exciting opportunity to deliver a real difference for marine nature recovery.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

The successful candidate will:

Demonstrate expertise in the delivery of marine statutory casework

Lead a small team to support effective casework handling and delivery of evidence-based advice in a timely manner

Lead your team to deliver Marine Protected Area cycle work, which includes marine monitoring, condition assessment, conservation advice and designations.

Lead NE's fisheries work with Sussex IFCA and provide a supporting role for Kent & Essex IFCA. This includes coordinating committee attendance and leading NE's statutory consultation responses.

Support internal collaborative working between terrestrial, coastal and marine colleagues, sharing learning and identifying opportunities for continuous improvement.

Oversee and proactively engage with key partners to ensure effective communications and excellent stakeholder relationships.

Develop capability and capacity of your team through mentoring, coaching and contributing to relevant learning and development opportunities