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 £25,390 gross per annum

Location Various

Published

a day ago

Closing

in a month

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

The Vacancy

New Forest Assistant Reserves Officer

Full Time – 35 Hours per Week

Salary: £25,390 gross per annum

Permanent Contract

Location: New Forest area, with work primarily taking place at Roydon or Blashford Lakes

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 a New Forest Assistant Reserves Officer to join our cause.

The New Forest Assistant Reserves Officer will be assisting in practical management and biological surveying of a suite of nature reserves across the Trust’s New Forest land holding. These sites hold significant wildlife value and cover a broad range of habitat types, priority species and management requirements.

This post is aimed at individuals who wish to pursue a career in the environmental sector with a focus on habitat and nature reserve management. In-house and external training will be provided to develop the successful candidate.

What you’ll be doing:

You will support Estates colleagues across a range of activities including habitat management, livestock management, operating and maintaining machinery and power tools, leading volunteer groups, contractor management and biological surveying.

About you:

You’ll be joining a team of passionate and enthusiastic about nature conservation delivering a varied work programme. You will have experience in the sector and will be ticketed and experienced in the use of a variety of tools and machinery.

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: 05 August 2026

Interviews: 18 August 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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HAMPSHIRE AND ISLE OF WIGHT WILDLIFE TRUST

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