HAMPSHIRE AND ISLE OF WIGHT WILDLIFE TRUST

Salary £34,000 to £36,000 gross per annum depending on skills and experience

Location Beechcroft House, Vicarage Lane, Curdridge, Hampshire

Published

15 days ago

Closing

in 16 days

This is a Temporary, Full Time vacancy that will close in 16 days at 23:59 GMT.

The Vacancy

Test & Itchen Programme Manager

Full Time – 35 hour per week

Salary: £34,000 to £36,000 depending on skills and experience

Fixed Term Contract until March 2031

Location: Beechcroft House, Vicarage Lane, Curdridge, Hampshire, SO32 2DP

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 Test & Itchen Programme Manager to join our cause.

The Programme Manager will focus on delivery of the Test & Itchen Recovery Plan; a new strategic pilot hosted by the Test & Itchen Catchment Partnership. Working closely with co-hosts, the Wessex Rivers Trust, this role will support coordination and reporting to a new TICP Strategic Leadership Group and tracking of delivery against the TICP’s Catchment Plans. This role is a critical link between HIWWT, the Catchment Partnership and Southern Water over the AMP 8 period 2025 to 2030, aiming to support Integrated Catchment management between Southern Water and the partnership with a focus on project development. The project has the following key functions:

• Project management & reporting for S20 activities, including supervision of contract delivery and reporting against monitoring plans, mitigation packages, and compensation packages on specified catchments.
• To act as programme lead & to supervise the T&I Projects Officer in enabling the collation and coordination of work between Southern Water and the Catchment Hosts/Catchment Partnership and the creation of a shared priority project pipeline plan.
• To support and help coordinate ongoing partnership projects running with Southern Water and the Catchment Hosts/Catchment Partnership/HIWWT.

About you:

• You’re an experienced and proactive environmental leader with a strong understanding of river catchments, their ecology, and the challenges facing lowland river systems. Confident in managing people, projects, and partnerships, you combine technical expertise with strategic oversight to deliver complex, high-impact programmes.
• You’re adept at building trust and collaboration across diverse stakeholders – from water companies and regulators to landowners and local communities – ensuring shared goals are turned into tangible outcomes for nature. Skilled in planning, coordination, and performance management, you balance attention to detail with a clear vision for long-term environmental recovery.
• With a passion for wildlife and a commitment to the Wilder 2030 vision, you bring leadership, professionalism, and drive to restore the Test and Itchen and help create a wilder, more resilient Hampshire.

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:  15 February 2026

Interviews:  To be confirmed

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 tash.stewart@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. And 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

Our values are at the heart of who we are and what we do – they propel our culture and shape our priorities, beliefs, and actions. They underpin the decisions we make and are fundamental to how we treat one another and our stakeholders.

Passion

We are inspired by our love for nature and driven by our cause. We are relentless in the pursuit of our Vision and Mission.

Integrity

Honesty and ethics underpin our work. We understand that our individual and collective actions form the essence of our reputation and trustworthiness as an environmental NGO.

Respect

We value our people and treat everyone with dignity and professionalism.

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.

Commitment

We are committed to doing our best for each other and for nature. We persevere through difficulties and setbacks, maintaining our commitment even in the face of challenges.

Collaboration

We support each other and our stakeholders. We feel motivation in shared success as well as individual progress.

Excellence

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

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