This is a significant and rewarding opportunity to make a real difference in supporting our ambition for nature’s protection and recovery across Birmingham and the Black Country. The post holder will help support the collection, collation, and digitisation of ecological data relating to species, sites and habitats across our landscape. Your work will be critical to the success of EcoRecord – the region’s Environmental Records Centre - and aid in the protection of local wildlife of great value to people, and communities in our region.
As a wildlife charity serving a heavily urbanised area, a major element of our work is to provide ecological evidence and related information, that supports the designation of wildlife sites and informs the protection of nature in the face of urban development.
You will work within EcoRecord to deliver high quality data products and services to a range of customers and users. EcoRecord is part of a network of Local Environmental Records Centres across the UK and provides information services to a wide range of users such as local authorities, statutory agencies, ecological consultants, national and local recording schemes, and others.
The post of Biodiversity Data and Evidence Officer is a central and varied role within EcoRecord, that will include making use of GIS mapping and specialised databases to analyse and digitise ecological data. The role will also include promoting high quality biological recording activities, supporting specialist recording groups, and engaging with volunteers, including through our social media channels. You will assist with key aspects of the day-to-day operation of the records centre, including the maintenance, management, and development of core data sets and analytic processes.
Key Responsibilities
- Assist with the development and growth of EcoRecord’s data infrastructure by supporting the collection, collation and computerisation of ecological and other relevant data (primarily species, sites and habitats data), through the competent use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and, though not exclusively, Recorder 6.
- Contribute to the improvement of data management systems and processes.
- Contribute to the delivery of projects that deliver nature’s recovery across Birmingham and the Black Country.
- Assist with the adoption and development of practices and tools that improve the efficiency of data management and data availability.
- Assist with data analysis and the production of high-quality data products and services.
- Be an advocate for and help to promote high quality biological recording in Birmingham and the Black Country.
- Assist in supporting specialist species interest groups and the wider volunteer recording networks throughout Birmingham and the Black Country and with enabling the development and formation of new interest groups.
- Assist and support surveys and local recording initiatives, including the City Nature Challenge.
- Contribute to EcoRecord’s and the Wildlife Trust’s online presence through producing content for social media and website etc. in collaboration with colleagues including the Trust’s Communication Department.
- Assist in the recruitment and supervision of volunteers in a range of activities, namely surveying and data entry.
About You
The successful applicant will be very well organised, highly motivated, collaborative, have a high level of attention to detail, and be used to prioritising a complex workload. You will have good ecological knowledge, and the confidence and ambition to affect conservation outcomes through the provision of high-quality ecological evidence. Above all, you will be driven by a commitment to see nature’s recovery across Birmingham and the Black Country’s urban landscape.
What We Offer
- A chance to make a real impact in local communities and the natural environment
- A supportive and inclusive team culture
- Flexible working arrangements
- Opportunities for professional development
Registered Charity
21 - 50
Lead Nature’s Recovery in Birmingham and the Black Country, empower & supporting positive local action for the benefit of wildlife and nature.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
About us
Carers UK’s vision is to create a society that recognises, values and supports carers. As the leading national charity for unpaid carers, we exist to make life better for carers, however caring affects them. Our support, advice, information and campaigning work are now needed more than ever, as unpaid carers are providing more and more care, adversely impacting on their own health and wellbeing.
About the role
We recognise the value of social media in communicating with all our audiences; whether unpaid carers or their friends and families, employers, politicians, service providers, supporters and all those people who may become a carer for a partner, family member, friend or neighbour and will need information, support, and to know that there are people working to make their lives better.
This role works with colleagues across the organisation, including our senior management team - but also in partnership with external organisations and agencies - with targets set for engagement (and other indicators of the success of our campaigns). We're working on multiple campaigns simultaneously; whether that's Carers Week, campaigns to influence changes to the law to better support carers, encouraging unpaid carers to join us as members, updating on activities in the devolved nations or getting people to fundraise for Carers UK. And we use a mix of owned, earned and paid communications to drive engagement in a challenging and crowded environment in order to get our messages to cut through. It's a busy, but varied role, in a supportive and collaborative team.
About you
Working within the communications and marketing team, you'll be confident in managing our social media accounts (we have many), ensuring we're using platforms to get our messages out to both wide and targeted audiences with engaging and timely content.
You'll be happy using tools for social listening, interacting with our audiences and building our reach. You'll be familiar with key metrics for social engagement and will be reporting back to colleagues and other stakeholders - and using this data to constantly improve our communications.
You'll be skilled in writing longer form content for our members' magazine, Caring, proof reading articles, posting content on our websites, creating graphics and making sure our content is engaging, audience focused and dynamic. Oh, and you probably know your way around an emoji set and are not scared of a well timed pun. Plus you'll have a great eye for detail and be confident in your ability to prioritise (and sometimes reprioritise) your workload as needed.
We're a small but effective communications team and pride ourselves on getting stuck in and supporting each other when we need to deliver big on fast moving projects, so you'll need be able to juggle lots of demands while recognising the importance of always hitting deadlines.
Diversity and inclusion
Carers UK is committed to becoming a diverse and truly inclusive organisation; fostering an environment and working culture that celebrates and promotes diversity and inclusion. We strive to create a workplace where our colleagues and volunteers can truly be themselves and feel like they belong and constantly seek to ensure all voices are heard.
To embrace this culture of diversity, our employee and volunteer recruitment should reflect our stakeholders and the society that we serve and support, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, physical abilities, disabilities or religious practices. We value individual diversity and are actively building diverse teams here at Carers UK and value our colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds.
As a membership charity for carers, we particularly seek employees and volunteers with a real understanding of the issues faced by carers. Reasonable adjustments can be made to the process and role, dependent on the needs of the applicant.
We are proud to be an Employers for Carers member. We have signed the Menopause Workplace Pledge and achieved the Disability Confident Employer accreditation. We aim to offer interviews to those who have a disability covered under the definition outlined in the Equality Act 2010 and who meet the minimum criteria for the role. The minimum criteria can be found under the Essential section of the Person Specification of the recruitment pack. Please let us know if your application is being made under the Disability Confident Scheme. You are not required to share the nature of your disability or long term health condition. You will need to state in your email application that you are making your application under the Disability Confident Scheme as you consider yourself to be disabled, or as having a disability. If you meet the minimum criteria then you will be offered an interview.
At Carers UK we want our application process to be as accessible as possible. If you need any adjustments to apply please contact us to discuss.
The closing date for applications is 5pm, Tuesday 18 August.
Carers UK anonymises all applications prior to shortlisting.
Carers UK reserves the right to appoint at any stage, should an outstanding candidate emerge.
Carers UK are actively interviewing as we receive applications.
Carers UK may carry out online and social media checks before a formal offer is made.
