MOD Heathlands Project Manager

• Innovation

We are creative and fearless in our work.

• Accountability

We take ownership of our work and lead from the front.

• Teamwork

We collaborate widely and build supportive environments.

Salary Up to £38,500 gross per annum

Location College Copse Farm, Ridge Lane, Rotherwick, Hook

Published

13 hours ago

Closing

in 21 days

This is a Permanent, Full Time vacancy that will close in 21 days at 23:59 BST.

The Vacancy

MOD Heathlands Project Manager

Full Time – 35 Hours per Week

Salary: Up to £38,500 gross per annum depending on skills and experience

Permanent Contract

Location: College Copse Farm, Ridge Lane, Rotherwick, Hook, RG27 9AU

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust is shaping a wilder future for our counties – protecting special places, restoring habitats and inspiring people to act for nature. As part of the UK’s fastest-growing movement for nature’s recovery, we lead with passion, integrity and bold thinking. Join a team where your work has purpose, your ideas matter, and you can help create lasting change for wildlife and people.

We are seeking an MOD Heathlands Project Manager to join our cause.

The MOD Project Manager is responsible for the general oversight and operational management of designated Ministry of Defence (MOD) project sites, ensuring the effective delivery of conservation objectives, contractual commitments, and habitat management programmes.

Acting as the primary day-to-day point of contact for the MOD and Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), the postholder will maintain strong relationships with MOD and DIO representatives, contractors, partners, and other key stakeholders. Along with the Senior Estates Manager, they will provide oversight of site operations and ensure that management activities are delivered safely, efficiently, and in accordance with organisational and contractual requirements.

The postholder will be expected to balance hands-on operational delivery with strategic planning, ensuring MOD project sites are managed effectively, within budget, and in line with organisational objectives.

What you’ll be doing:

You’ll coordinate the review and implementation of management plans across MOD sites, ensuring that conservation objectives are achieved while meeting the requirements of Countryside Stewardship agreements, the MOD training estate and any other contractual obligations. You’ll also be responsible for the procurement, supervision, and performance management of contractors, ensuring work is completed to the required standards and within agreed budgets and timescales.

You’ll lead major infrastructure and capital works programmes across MOD sites, overseeing projects from planning and development through to delivery and completion. The postholder will retain practical management responsibility for those sites and activities not delegated to the Reserves Officer or Heathland Officer.

You’ll also be responsible for direct line management of the Reserves Officer (MOD North) and Heathland Officer (MOD North), providing leadership, support, and performance oversight to ensure the successful delivery of site-based activities.

In addition, you’ll be responsible for the day-to-day welfare of livestock on MOD sites, ensuring high standards of animal husbandry and seek support from the HIWWT Grazing Team where issues arise beyond basic livestock knowledge. As part of the management programme, you’ll be expected to feed into grazing plans and ensuring compliance of livestock whilst grazing MOD sites.

About you:

You will be a highly motivated and self-directed individual with a practical, solutions-focused approach to problem solving. You will have the ability to build credibility and develop positive working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. Resilient and adaptable, you will be comfortable working in a fast-paced and evolving environment, responding positively to change and new challenges. You will demonstrate a strong commitment to maintaining high standards of animal welfare, conservation management, and health and safety. Flexibility is essential, and you will be willing to undertake occasional evening and weekend work when required.

Wild About Inclusion!
As an inclusive employer we recognise that our workforce needs to better reflect the communities in which we live and work.  We encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly those underrepresented within our sector, including people from black, Asian, minority Ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities. We are committed to creating a Movement that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities.

Disability Confident. We are proudly a Disability Confident Committed employer. The scheme is helping us recruit and retain great people to meet our workforce needs. As a member of the scheme, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this position will be offered an interview. You can request adjustments including accessible formats of this vacancy by emailing recruitment@hiwwt.org.uk.

To be considered for an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme you must:

• Identify as being disabled which under the Equality Act 2010 means a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial*, long term** adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day to day activities; or a long-term health condition; and;

(*Substantial is more than minor or trivial **Long-term means 12 months or more)

• Set out how you meet all the minimum qualifying criteria set out in the person specification for the post at the application and testing stages. This is a requirement for all candidates, not just those applying under the scheme.

We offer a wide range of benefits including a competitive salary, generous annual leave allowance, a contributory pension scheme, life assurance, learning and development support, 24-hour access to our employee assistance programme, discounted staff travel with our corporate partners Wightlink (subject to T&Cs), free parking at our sites and more.

Closing date:  01 September 2026. Please note, we may close this vacancy early when we have received enough applications that meet the required criteria.

Interviews:  10 September 2026

To apply for the role, please click on the 'Apply Now' button at the top of the page. In the ‘supporting information’ section, you’ll need to demonstrate, with detailed examples, how you meet the job requirements using the Job Description and Person Specification below. Please note that we may occasionally close vacancies early when we have received enough applications that meet the required criteria.

Please do not use artificial intelligence tools to assist you to complete the application form. We may not accept applications that have been completed utilising AI tools. If you would usually use tools such as these to assist you in filling in a form, please contact amelia.greenbank@iris.co.uk to discuss this further and understand other options. 

The Company has experienced unprecedented growth over the past few years. We have a vast number of employees, and provide support to clients from all over the country. Recently, the company has won multiple workplace environment awards and has an outstanding record of employee satisfaction.

The Benefits

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The Values

• Innovation

We are creative and fearless in our work.

• Accountability

We take ownership of our work and lead from the front.

• Teamwork

We collaborate widely and build supportive environments.

Well most importantly you get to work in one of the most magnificent parts of the UK! Here in Hampshire we have globally important wetlands around the coastline of the Solent and medieval heathland landscapes in the New Forest.

Our thriving cities and suburbs are surrounded by exceptional places for wildlife, including gin-clear chalk rivers, flower-rich grasslands, and ancient woodlands. Our jewel in the crown is the Isle of Wight where you can walk all day across downland turf and along spectacular cliffs.

That’s our working environment and you could share it with us!

Pay
Whether you are Reserves Officer shaping habitats for wildlife or a Finance Officer crunching the numbers, you are vital to the achievement of our vision for a wilder future. We want to make sure that you stay with us and feel valued, recognised and rewarded. So we benchmark our salaries against similar organisations to make sure we offer a competitive salary for all. We are also a living wage employer.

Pension
Securing your future is as important to us as securing the future for wildlife!

All our employees are auto-enrolled into our pension scheme. Those on permanent contracts, or fixed term contracts for over 2 years, receive 8% contribution from the Trust with an employee contribution of 2%.

Those on temporary or shorter termed contracts are auto-enrolled onto our NEST pension scheme, receiving a 3% contribution from the Trust and paying 5% themselves.

Holidays
Whether you want to hibernate or travel south for the winter, you will receive 25 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays each year (pro-rated for part time staff). Your holiday entitlement will increase with your length of service to a maximum of 30 days per year.

Flexible Working
As we work to tip the balance in favour of nature, we are keen to ensure that our employees have a healthy work life balance too. We are always ready to talk to staff about ways we may be able to support this. We have a number of staff who work part time, from home and have flexible working patterns.

Health and Wellbeing
Like nature, should you need support to recover, we offer enhanced sick pay above your statutory entitlement.

We also fund counselling sessions for employees who would like help with their mental health and wellbeing as part of our Employee Assistance Programme.

Learning and Development
We ensure that wildlife has a habitat to thrive in and we do the same for our staff. We commit to ensuring that our employees have the skills, knowledge and experience they need in order to excel at their role. We recognise talent and actively support professional and career development.

As an inclusive employer we recognise that our workforce needs to better reflect the communities in which we live and work. We encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly those underrepresented within our sector, including people from black, Asian, minority Ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities. We are committed to creating a Movement that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities.

Based on our gender pay gap calculations, on average (median) men and women are paid equally at the Trust and our mean calculations report that on average women get paid slightly more than men.

Our Values

We lead with purpose

We bring passion, commitment and focus to everything we do for nature and people.

We act with integrity

We do what's right, with honesty, accountability, and trust at the heart of our work.

We work together

We collaborate with openness and respect, embracing diverse voices, partnership and shared goals.

Inclusion

Collectively and as individuals we recognise that it takes people with different ideas, strengths, identities, interests, and cultural backgrounds to make our organisation succeed.

We are bold and creative

We face challenges with courage and curiosity, embracing innovation and always seeking better ways to make a difference.

We strive for excellence

We aim high, learn constantly, and take pride in doing things well, seeking to continually raise the bar for wildlife.

Excellence

We are committed to continuous improvement, adapting, and evolving to meet and exceed the expectations of our stakeholders.

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