Native Woodland Partnership Officer

  • Full time
  • £45,502
  • On site: Edinburgh
  • Closing 21st June 2026


  • Advertised from 22nd May 2026
  • 40 Hours Per Week

Role

JOB PURPOSE

The National Trust for Scotland is Scotland’s largest membership organisation and Scotland’s largest charity land manager. We manage many of Scotland’s most significant woodlands, from the extensive Caledonian pinewoods of Mar Lodge to rainforest hazelwood’s in the Hebrides and endemic Whitebeam woodlands on Arran.

As a founding member of both the Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest and Caledonian Pinewood Partnership and as a key delivery partners with the Scottish Government for landscape scale ecological restoration of native woodland in Scotland, we are recruiting a post to help drive this exciting work.

You will lead the Trusts outreach for native woodland restoration across Scotland, developing several large scale projects. You will build partnerships with private landowners, communities of place and communities of interest, including other eNGOs and conservation organisations. You will have the backing and support of our nature, fundraising, planning, community engagement, estates and media teams.

The focus of your work will be developing two Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest landscape scale projects in West Lochalsh and on Arran and provide initial contact and support to pinewood managers who look after threatened remnants, to bring their sites into recovery.

We are looking for strong communication & diplomacy skills, which can be influential at a network scale. Someone who can build trust and influence in land management situations, across a diverse range of partners with different interests and objectives. Someone who can develop partnership project plans, acting as the bridge between our internal expertise, existing and new partners. In particular you will develop delivery project content to a “shovel ready” stage, so your fundraising colleagues can draft applications.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Making initial contact, maintaining and/or developing ongoing communication and liaison with external landowners, stakeholders and associated organisations.
  • Understanding external landowner’s and communities’ values, objectives and constraints and communicating the Trusts, with a view to building trust, understanding and cooperation in relation to collaborative, nature positive land management.
  • Develop collegiate partnership operations and memoranda of understanding with both internal and external stakeholder input and support.
  • Liase with internal NTS expertise across multiple disciplines, to inform your delivery of external communications and advice to stakeholders.
  • Develop collaborative landscape scale funding bids across multiple estates and landholdings, including both NTS land and externally owned land, in association with the Trusts fundraising team.
  • Supporting applications for government grants including Scottish Forestry Grant Scheme, Agri Environment Climate Scheme, Nature Restoration Fund etc.
  • Coordinate delivery of landscape scale nature restoration projects across multiple estates and landholdings, including both NTS land and externally owned land, including budget management.
  • Procure and manage contracts associated with landscape scale nature restoration projects, monitor delivery of grant conditions and complete grant claims & reports.
  • Organise partnership meetings and events to strengthen networks and collaboration within the partnership.
  • Write reports for partners and funders showing progress against agreed objectives and funding obligations.

Application notes

For further information and to apply, please visit our website.


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