Conservation jobs in Bicester, oxfordshire

Public Affairs and Water Policy Officer

This role is predominantly home-based with regular travel to locations across the UK specifically London. Office facilities are available at our Newark office (Tuesdays to Thursdays) for those within easy travelling distance.
up to £36,380 per annum

Permanent, Full Time (35 hours per week)

Closing date for applications: 12th July 2026

First interview: 21st & 22nd July (Online Interview)

Second interview: 29th July (Online Interview)

About Us

The Wildlife Trusts are a grassroots movement of people from a wide range of backgrounds and all walks of life, who believe that we need nature and nature needs us. We have more than 945,000 members, over 33,000 volunteers, 4,100 staff and 600 trustees. There are 46 individual Wildlife Trusts, each of which is a place-based independent charity with its own legal identity, formed by groups of people getting together and working with others to make a positive difference to wildlife and future generations, starting where they live and work.

Every Wildlife Trust is part of The Wildlife Trusts federation and a corporate member of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, a registered charity in its own right founded in 1912 and one of the founding members of IUCN – the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Taken together this federation of 47 charities is known as The Wildlife Trusts.

The next few years will be critical in determining what kind of world we all live in. We need to urgently reverse the loss of wildlife and put nature into recovery at scale if we are to prevent climate and ecological disaster. We recognise that this will require big, bold changes in the way The Wildlife Trusts work, not least in how we mobilise others and support them to organise within their own communities.

About You

The post will support the Head of Public Affairs in helping the Wildlife Trust movement make arguments and develop relationships with parliamentarians in order to influence policy in Westminster, to the benefit of nature recovery. You will work with policy, campaigning, and communications colleagues to build support for The Wildlife Trusts’ advocacy priorities, including work on water policy.

You will have an understanding of the legislative process and parliamentary procedures and will have the ability to communicate detailed policies in a compelling and persuasive way, especially in written form. Experience of and a proven track record of working with politicians is advantageous, as is experience of supporting successful advocacy campaigns and fronting policies and programmes. You should feel comfortable with policy work as well as parliamentary advocacy, any past experience of water policy will be particularly useful.

The Wildlife Trusts value passion, respect, trust, integrity, pragmatic activism and strength in diversity. We are passionate in promoting our aims, and we pride ourselves on being inclusive. We particularly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented within our sector, including people from minority backgrounds and people with disabilities. We are committed to creating a movement that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities.

RSWT take our Safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously. Please click here to read our commitment statement. The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk. For applicable roles, applicants must be willing to undergo checks with past employers and Disclosure and Barring Service checks at the eligible level.

RSWT are committed to increasing the diversity of its staff through its Levelling the Field recruitment pledge and, as a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to fostering an inclusive, equitable, and welcoming recruitment experience for all applicants. Applicants with disabilities and from ethnic minority backgrounds, will be considered for the next stage of the selection process should they meet all the minimum criteria for the role outlined in the person specification detailed as essential criteria in the recruitment pack.

As part of our Disability Confident Scheme, RSWT offers an interview to a fair and proportionate number of applicants with disabilities and therefore not all applicants with disabilities would be entitled to an interview as they must still satisfy the minimum requirements for the job. This commitment is designed to help reduce barriers and promote equal opportunity. We actively work to remove barriers throughout the recruitment journey and are dedicated to creating an accessible and supportive recruitment experience by offering reasonable adjustments at every stage of the recruitment process, as well as within the workplace. If you would benefit from any adjustments to support you during your application or interview process, please let us know and we will be pleased to put the appropriate support in place.

Groundwork South is seeking a motivated and experienced Senior Project Officer to lead on the delivery of our Climate Action Fund project over the next five years.

Senior Project Officer (Climate Action Fund Training and Development Lead)
Reference: CAF0626
Contract: Fixed term until June 2031
Hours: Full-Time, 37.5 hours each week
Salary: £28,000 - £32,000 per annum
Location: Home-based (with travel across England) – There is a focus on South West England during the pilot phase

About Us

Groundwork South works with communities across the south of England to transform their lives and the places where they live. We have been at the forefront of social and environmental regeneration for over 25 years, and today we have a simple mission: to create better places, improve people’s prospects, and promote greener living and working.

We are passionate about creating a future where every neighbourhood is vibrant and green, every community is strong and able to shape its own destiny, and no-one is held back by their background or circumstances. This vision drives the work that we do. Each year we deliver over 100 innovative projects, tackling the biggest issues facing our communities and creating real and lasting, positive change.

About the Project

Communities Prepared works with volunteers and communities across England to help them build the skills, confidence and knowledge needed to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies. This includes supporting communities to plan for climate-related risks such as flooding, storms, heatwaves, and severe weather.

Despite the successes we have had through our programme to date, we are not currently reaching diverse enough audiences and too often there are people missing from the resilience sector. This needs to change. To address this we are now embarking on an exciting new UK-wide partnership programme funded through the National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund over the next five years.

The programme responds to growing evidence that climate-related emergencies, including extreme heat, flooding, fire, cold and severe weather, disproportionately impact marginalised communities, while those same communities are often excluded from resilience planning and decision-making.

The programme brings together Equally Ours, Communities Prepared (part of Groundwork South), and the VCS Emergencies Partnership (VCSEP, part of the British Red Cross) to strengthen climate resilience by ensuring that communities experiencing discrimination and disadvantage are at the heart of climate preparedness, response, recovery and policy-making.

Through a rights-based and co-produced approach, the programme seeks to shift climate resilience policy and practice away from models that frame communities as “vulnerable”, and towards approaches grounded in agency, participation, equality and shared responsibility.

Key Responsibilities

As Senior Project Officer, you will:

• Work with the project team to map stakeholders and co-develop a structured engagement plan to recruit and work with marginalised communities.
• Build a collaborative and trusting relationship with the partner organisations and other stakeholders for this project, ensuring this work meets their expectations and complements areas of the work programme led by others.
• Work with project participants and partners to co-design Communities Prepared material and delivery methods that are more accessible and relevant to diverse audiences.
• Lead on the delivery of resilience training and workshop sessions with diverse audiences, both in-person and online.
• Work with project participants and partners to co-design a train the trainer model that will enable diverse audiences to deliver resilience training within their own communities, amplifying reach and impact.
• Work with the core Communities Prepared team to adapt our offer with the long-term goal of the Programme reaching more diverse audiences, especially those seldom heard in this sector.

The role involves regular travel across the UK, with a focus on South West England during the project’s pilot phase.

We are looking for someone with:

• Experience in community engagement or community development.
• Experience delivering training or workshops.
• Strong organisational and project management skills.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, confident to engage people from a range of different backgrounds.
• Experience working with multiple stakeholders or partners.
• Confidence working independently in a remote role.
• An interest in climate change, community resilience and wider community development.
• A willingness to travel across the country.

Closing date for applications: 11.59pm, 30th June 2026
Interview date: 15th July over MS Teams
Interview panel: Representatives from Groundwork South, Equally Ours and VCSEP (tbc)

Interested?

If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.

Groundwork South is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all members of the community.

No agencies please.

About the role

Are you ready to use your marketing expertise to back Indigenous people and protect the world’s rainforests? 

As our Digital Marketing Manager, you won’t just be managing channels; you’ll be the voice for Indigenous and local communities on the front lines of the climate crisis. 

We are looking for a creative powerhouse to lead our digital and press presence, turning complex climate issues into compelling stories that inspire action. This is your chance to shape how the world sees rainforest conservation and drive the engagement we need to meet our most ambitious goals yet.

About Cool Earth 

Cool Earth is a climate charity that protects the rainforest by supporting the people who live there. We have been working alongside local and Indigenous rainforest communities for over 15 years in the three largest and most important rainforests in the world, the Amazon, The Congo Rainforest and the Papua New Guinea Rainforest. Indigenous and local communities have been protecting the rainforest for thousands of years, but unfortunately are now facing a humanitarian crisis, lacking necessities like safe drinking water, infrastructure, healthcare, and stable incomes.

This makes rainforest communities vulnerable to exploitation by illegal loggers and extractive industries, who pressure them to sell their land. Once these industries take over, Indigenous peoples are displaced, losing their ancestral homes, culture, and traditional ways of life, and the rainforest is destroyed. Without these forests to regulate the earth’s temperature the climate crisis will only worsen. So what do we do to help?

By working in collaboration with these communities we help support their livelihoods, improve health, sanitation and education and provide tech to help monitor their rainforest. Our main programme involves giving direct unconditional cash to rainforest communities so that they can decide how best to use it in order to improve their quality of life. Rainforest communities can only defend their land from illegal loggers and greedy land grabbers when they themselves are resilient and strong. We help them get to that point.

What you’ll be doing

Strategic leadership and impact: we have the digital strategy, now we need someone exceptional to deliver it and keep us on our upwards trajectory.

You’ll lead the charge across our website, social media and email to skyrocket our visibility and engagement. By managing our talented Digital Officer, you’ll ensure every campaign isn't just seen, but drives action. Helping to deliver the KPIs that will define our success through 2026 and 2027. 

Social Media and storytelling: in collaboration with our in-country coordinators, you’ll turn raw, frontline stories from people who live in the rainforest, and experts across the team into compelling, high-quality content. You’ll also help us develop key individuals to become the face of Cool Earth’s social. You’ll oversee our organic and paid social strategies (awareness and lead gen), working with our agency partners to ensure every post and every ad isn't just noise, but a meaningful step toward increased engagement and donor conversion. 

Digital innovation and website excellence: you will champion our digital home, working with our web agency to deliver a seamless, high-performing website experience. From SEO housekeeping to major content overhauls for AEO and GEO visibility, you’ll ensure our site is more than just a resource, it’s an accessible, optimised journey that captures the imagination of every visitor and converts visitors into supporters and/or donors. 

PR and influence: You’ll amplify our press work to help break through the noise. By nurturing relationships with our ambassadors and seeking out global influencers, you will secure the kind of content that puts Cool Earth at the center of the climate conversation.

Movement building via email: you’ll lead our email marketing strategy, working with our fundraising team to email supporters weekly with impact, stories from the forest, quizzes and more. You’ll use DotDigital and Salesforce to build deep, automated journeys for new supporters. By working with our CRM lead, you’ll ensure our donors receive the right message at the right time, turning one-time supporters into lifelong advocates for the rainforest.

Data-Driven Growth: You’ll constantly monitor performance and review the data,  providing the Head of Marketing and Communications with the insights needed so we can keep pivoting and growing. 

You’ll be proactive, testing, optimising, and implementing agency recommendations to ensure our supporter base is constantly expanding and our conversion rates are always climbing.

Who you are

You’re a strategic storyteller: You have a proven track record of building high-impact PR and marketing strategies that don't just reach people, they move them.

A digital native: You live and breathe social trends and AI capabilities, knowing exactly how to optimise content for engagement and conversion across every platform.

A natural leader: You thrive on coaching and inspiring teams, whether they are Digital Officers in the UK or content coordinators across the globe.

Data-driven and creative: You can dive into Google Analytics or CRM data to find insights, then use your imagination to turn those numbers and our exceptional content into a winning campaign.

Relationship builder: You’re as comfortable negotiating with a national journalist as you are collaborating with our advocacy and programmes teams.

Mission-aligned: You have a genuine, deep-rooted commitment to environmental justice and the humanitarian principles that define Cool Earth.

Desirable skills & abilities 

• AEO/GEO understanding 

• Experience in the environmental or social justice sector 

• Experience in international fundraising and marketing 

• Fluent in written and spoken Spanish 

Equal Opportunities

At Cool Earth we are committed to equal opportunity and celebrate the unique backgrounds, identities, and experiences of all applicants and employees.

We don't discriminate based on factors like gender, race, age, physical abilities, religion, or sexual orientation. 

Our application process is designed to be accessible and inclusive, and we value your contributions regardless of these characteristics.

Frequently cited statistics show that women and underrepresented groups are more likely to only apply to jobs if they meet 100% of the listed qualifications. We encourage you to apply even if you feel that you do not meet all of the above requirements.

Safeguarding

Cool Earth is dedicated to strengthening the rights and resilience of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) living in rainforests. Cool Earth believes that a child, young person, or adult should never experience abuse of any kind. Protecting their safety and their freedom is integral to our work and our values.

Cool Earth is committed to keeping the IPLCs we work and engage with safe from any harm that could be caused by coming into contact with our organisation. This includes potential harm arising from the conduct and behaviour of staff, partners, or affiliates of Cool Earth, or the design and implementation of our programmes and activities.

We maintain a strict zero-tolerance approach towards any attitudes, behaviours or actions that put others at risk of harm.

Therefore, all offers of employment are subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks as per the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. For more information see our Job Applicant Privacy Notice.