Heritage Officer - Countryside Stewardship

Summary

Historic England is the public organisation that brings new life to heritage to build a better future for every place and everyone.

Historic England has a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Heritage Officer - Countryside Stewardship.

This is a Full Time, Fixed-Term Contract until 31st March 2027. There is potential scope to extend this contract beyond this date.

The location of this role is London, inclusive with hybrid working.

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive defined benefit pension scheme to which we make 28.97% employer contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

To view our full range of benefits please follow the link here.

You will support a portfolio of Countryside Stewardship recipients to achieve their stewardship funding objectives for heritage through Defra’s Higher Tier stand alone HE1 capital grants funding stream and PA2 feasibility studies, both directly and by coordinating expertise from regional teams and commissioned experts. This is as part of the Countryside Stewardship Heritage Service.

You will work in partnership with regional 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 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 and other professional advisers to ensure proposals meet best practice.

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

• 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 a proactive attitude to work, a team player who is always seeking to engage with colleagues and partners to seek ideas and solutions
• You will have a working knowledge of Countryside Stewardship and heritage assets, including an understanding of the statutory consents system as it relates to Countryside Stewardship and the historic environment.

Please note your application will be scored and assessed against the above criteria.

Historic England is a Disability Confident Leader and normally offers guaranteed interviews to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for the role, where it is practical and appropriate to do so. We want all candidates to shine in the recruitment process, so please tell us what we can do to help you show us your very best self. For more information, please visit our Everyone is Welcome page, or contact us at recruit men if you have any recruitment queries.

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 won the Gold Award from MIND for workplace wellbeing in seven consecutive years, 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…