Summary

We are the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Historic England is excited to announce our new Heritage Service Officer (Countryside Stewardship) opportunities. We are seeking 3 full-time and 2 part-time Heritage Service Officers (Countryside Stewardship).

Do you care about the rural environment? Do you want to make a difference for rural heritage?

This is an exciting time to join Historic England as we set up the newly-formed Countryside Stewardship Heritage Service to support applications to and monitor delivery of projects from Defra’s Higher Tier Capital Grants and PA2 Feasibility Study funding streams for rural heritage in stewardship.

This is a great opportunity to help owners of rural heritage in stewardship deliver environmental gains for their communities, heritage and the rural environment.

Depending on the role, we are looking for people with experience of Countryside Stewardship and rural heritage. We are looking for people from landscape, archaeology, conservation architecture background or other relevant discipline.

The national hybrid remote team will be geographically spread across our regional offices with the Manager and Service Officers being the link for their region.

Members of the team will be expected to work nationally depending on expertise and case volumes and be based from one of the following offices, inclusive with hybrid working: Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, London, Manchester, Newcastle or York

What you will be doing

You will support a portfolio of Countryside Stewardship recipients to achieve their stewardship funding objectives for heritage through Defra’s Higher Tier Capital Grants funding stream and PA2 Feasibility Studies, both directly and by coordinating expertise from regional teams and externally commissioned experts.  This is as part of the newly formed Countryside Stewardship Heritage Service.

You will work in partnership with regional Partnership Teams, owners and agents, and the Rural Payments Agency.  You will encourage and facilitate applications that address heritage at risk in places identified by regional Partnership Teams.  You will review all heritage applications received by the Rural Payments Agency and monitor those that are approved to ensure heritage outcomes are delivered.  You will coordinate expertise from relevant regional teams or external consultants to ensure proposals meet best practice.

You will provide specialist building, landscape or archaeological Countryside Stewardship advice as part of a national team.  You will be the primary casework contact for a specified Historic England region.

 What we are looking for

• A degree or equivalent appropriate qualifications and accreditation in a relevant discipline (including landscape, archaeology, conservation architecture)

• Substantial experience of working constructively with owners and agents delivering Countryside Stewardship.

• Proactive attitude to work, always seeking to engage with colleagues and partners.

• You will have an ability to prioritise workload, meet deadlines and work within tight delivery timescales.

• You will have negotiation, influencing and problem-solving skills.

• You will have an ability to develop and maintain strong and credible partnerships with key internal and external stakeholders.

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having just won the Gold Award from MIND, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

We are open to discussing secondment options for this vacancy.

Why work for Historic England

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 26% contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the county and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at recruitmentteam@Historicengland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries.

Internal candidates should approach the Recruitment Team before applying to discuss the different options available for each role

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

Provisional interview date will begin: 12th and 13th March 2024.

(The vacancy will remain open until all candidates are selected. We reserve the right to close the vacancy at any time.)

To view the full job description, please visit:

https://historicengland.org.uk/media/q5rlcjws/heritage-service-officer-countryside-stewardship-jd-feb-2024.odt