About the job

Job summary

This position is based nationally

Job description

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Driven by government’s aim for clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas, MMO’s purpose is to protect and enhance our precious marine environment, and support UK economic growth by enabling sustainable marine activities and development.

We are the independent regulator for England’s seas, professionally delivering service-focussed outcomes for our customers.

We are a team of around 500 people and combine our Newcastle upon Tyne and London operations with a local presence around the English coastline in Brixham, Beverley, Harwich, Hastings, Lowestoft, North Shields, Hayle, Plymouth, Poole, Portsmouth, Preston, Scarborough, Shoreham, Whitehaven.

We also have colleagues based in Defra offices, including Bristol, Cambridge and York where we share office space.

More information about our work is on the GOV.UK website and you can read the MMO’s Story here.

Job description  

We are recruiting for a Principal Marine Conservation Manager in the Marine Conservation Team, a passionate and supportive team of 30 within the MMO’s Operations Directorate.

The Operations Directorate also includes our Fisheries Management Team and Future Fisheries Team, as well as our Regulatory Assurance and coastal teams.

The Marine Conservation Team is a positive, engaging and rewarding environment with a fantastic team spirit. We deliver high impact projects critical to the government’s ambition for marine nature recovery.

The Marine Conservation Team works closely with other teams across the MMO, including our Marine Licensing and Marine Planning teams, Fisheries Management and Future Fisheries teams, and our key support functions including colleagues in MMO’s Data and Analysis Directorate as well as Communications and Legal teams.

We also work closely with a wide range of partners and stakeholders including other government bodies, commercial businesses, industry representatives, scientific institutions, environmental organisations and individual sea users.

The roles can be based in any MMO office across England, subject to capacity.

This is a really exciting time to join the MMO as the UK is now independent coastal state, embedding new repatriated functions and services with an increased focus on the protection and enhancing of the marine environment. This Principal Marine Conservation Manager role will be central to delivering critical aspects of the Government’s ambitions for marine nature recovery.

In particular, this role will focus on the management of marine non-licensable activities (mNLA) in marine protected areas (MPAs) and managing impacts on protected marine species by issuing wildlife licences​.

This role is offered on a permanent basis. You will manage up to three HEO colleagues. Working with senior MMO managers, Defra policy teams, and relevant partners and stakeholders to shape the management of mNLA in MPAs and for wider conservation purposes. You will be responsible for reporting to senior managers through various Governance Boards, on the progress of the project.

The Marine Conservation Team has a broad and fluid workload and staff resource is applied flexibly to best meet the team’s priorities; you may therefore be required to work on other MCT functions.

Person specification

Please refer to job description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,730, Marine Management Organisation contributes £10,495 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Please refer to job description

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.