Conservation Projects Liaison and Communications Officer

Born Free works tirelessly to ensure that all wild animals, whether living in captivity or in the wild, are treated with compassion and respect and are able to live their lives according to their needs. As a leading wildlife charity, we oppose the exploitation of wild animals in captivity and campaign to keep them where they belong – in the wild.

We promote Compassionate Conservation to enhance the survival of wildlife, especially threatened species in the wild, and to protect natural habitats while respecting the needs and safeguarding the welfare of individual animals. We seek to have a positive impact on animals in the wild and protect their ecosystems in perpetuity, for their own intrinsic value and for the critical roles they play within the natural world.

Set up initially as Zoo Check in 1984 by Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna and their son Will Travers, Born Free has worked tirelessly for nearly 37 years to prevent captive animal suffering and phase-out zoos. Will continues to lead the organisation as Executive President, and Virginia remains active on the Board of Trustees, working closely with the team to share our vision and programmes on public forums. 

The Opportunity

There has never been a more exciting time to join Born Free’s team, as we invest more in our programmatic work than ever before. We are recruiting for a passionate Conservation Officer, who will be a key member of our small team, supporting all of the Foundation’s overseas conservation work in Africa and Asia, particularly around ensuring thorough and engaging communication as well as careful and accountable project admin.

This fantastic opportunity would best suit a reliable and enthusiastic individual who may be early career or new to the sector but is keen to gain experience, has a good understanding of the current and emerging threats to wildlife worldwide and is familiar with ecological and social science tools to address conservation problems. The Officer will ideally have some experience on the ground, and skills in written and verbal communication.

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The Role

The Born Free Conservation Projects Liaison and Communications Officer will be a dynamic and highly motivated team player, with good time management and people skills, and with the confidence and sensitivity to liaise with many different individuals and groups as a key part of this role.

Key tasks will include:

• Providing day-to-day support to the Conservation team on all matters relevant to project management and administration
• Assisting in the selection, preparation and submission of funding applications led by Conservation or Fundraising teams
• Collating information and preparing reports for technical grants overseen by the Conservation team, Fundraising team, corporate partners and other sponsors
• Conducting regular due diligence checks of our third-party partners (including child safeguarding)
• Liaising with our partner projects to ensure smooth project running, to build and enhance relations, to obtain additional and more detailed information and to encourage communications
• Assisting in the analysis of data from projects and writing technical reports
• Carrying out library and online research for the regular review and update of a series of literature reviews (used to guide our work, feed into publications and be extracted for internal and external communications/presentations) and managing the literature database
• Regularly reviewing, fact checking and updating BFF species and project webpages for accurate internal and external reference
• Collating, managing and communicating regular and drip-fed updates and resources from our field conservation (including managing the Conservation contribution to the BFF photo bank) for the website, magazines and social media channels
• Preparation of articles, blogs, news stories, etc., for BFF magazines, website and socials, etc., on BFF Conservation work and related conservation issues/topics
• Assisting the Communications and Fundraising teams with enquiries, campaigns, presentations to external partners and other requests for internal communication and organisational coherence
• Maintaining effective records using IT database systems
• Providing additional logistical support to the conservation team.

The successful candidate should ideally demonstrate the following attributes: 

• Qualifications: Degree in conservation biology, zoology or a relevant subject
• Knowledge: An understanding of conservation issues for highly threatened species and habitats in Africa and Asia
• Experience: Ideally, some experience working in the field
  • Skills/abilities: Proficiency in Microsoft Office, and database software; Excellent communications skills (verbal, written and presentational) – including an ability to speak confidently and cogently to a variety of audiences
  • Competencies/Behaviours:
  • Ability to work effectively as a team player both internally and in external relationships and to rapidly analyse significant quantities of information, prioritise and balance a diverse workload often to tight deadlines
  • Reliable, consistent and with the ability to support, motivate and inspire confidence with colleagues and a range of external stakeholders.
  • Excellent organisational and administrative skills, and strong attention to detail
    • A strong empathy and engagement with the work of the Foundation, and the desire to drive it forward, bringing energy and determination to its mission
    • Decisive and straightforward; a team player; high levels of drive and energy; a sense of humour; impeccable, innovative and creative story-telling capability, and a healthy level of curiosity for external and current affairs
    • Ability to work intuitively with a “can do”, entrepreneurial approach, in a small, fast-paced and dynamic team.

The Officer will report to the Conservation Manager and work closely with the whole Conservation team, both in the UK and internationally, and other programmatic, communications and fundraising teams. This role has no direct reports.    

Our excellent benefits package includes opportunities for continuous professional learning, a generous annual leave entitlement, working from home with regular team meetings (Covid permitting) to help you maintain a healthy work-life balance, wellbeing support, and a competitive pension.

Born Free is an Equal Opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates, regardless of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital/civil partnership status, or pregnancy and maternity. We welcome requests for flexible working.

Applications with a covering letter and CV should be sent to bornfreehr@aspiringhr.com by Tuesday 29^th March 2022 at midnight. Important: Please include CPLCO/22 in the subject of your email. 

Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert at any time.  Born Free politely requests no contact from recruitment agencies or media sales. We do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.

If you do not receive an invitation for an interview by the end of April, then you have unfortunately not been shortlisted. The first round of interviews is scheduled to take place from 12^th April 2022. Interviews will take place on Teams.

Thank you for your interest.