Fisheries Project Officer Vacancy
This page has information on:
- Job status: This is a temporary post, with 12months contract.
- Location: Edinburgh/Grimsby/Homebased (based in the UK)
- The starting salary for this post is: £27,736 per annum
Seafish is here to give the UK seafood sector the support it needs to thrive. Our work makes a huge difference. We collaborate with a wide range of partners – from seafood businesses and trade bodies to government, regulators and environmental organisations – and we engage in everything from research to campaigns, insight and training.
In the Seafish Fisheries Management team it’s our job to support sustainable management of some of our most important fisheries by working closely with seafood industry stakeholders, regulators, and scientific researchers. We facilitate collaborative working between different groups to identify and address knowledge gaps, explore issues impacting UK fisheries, and develop fisheries management plans. We support an industry going through significant changes in the way our fisheries are managed; this means we have a real opportunity to effect meaningful change and deliver long-term fisheries management improvements.
The Fisheries Project Officer works across all our Fisheries Management team workstreams. This means the role is very varied and responsibilities range from providing secretariat support for our extensive stakeholder groups to undertaking desk-based research and data analysis to support development and delivery of management plans.
At Seafish we operate a Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) which focuses on performance not presence. Working with ROWE means having autonomy and accountability in equal parts and working in a way that is most effective for you, as long as your work gets done to the expected standards. You’ll have a personal development plan which clearly outlines the objectives and competencies for your role and your learning and development goals. You’ll also have regular catch ups with your line manager, along with mid-year and end of year reviews to discuss your work and performance.
The main purpose of this role is to play a central role in the sustainable management of the UKs fisheries by supporting the coordination and delivery of a series of national fishery co-management groups. The role will focus on the Shellfish Industry Advisory Group (SIAG); Finfish Industry Advisory Group (FIAG) and all associated sub-groups.
The role of Fisheries Project Officer will give you the opportunity to work on some of the knotty issues relating to the UKs most economically important shellfish and finfish fisheries, and to work in partnership with the seafood industry, government, and research community to contribute to the management of some of the UK’s most economically important fisheries.
The main dimensions of the role are:
- Providing secretariat support to Seafish-facilitated management groups including managing membership; organising meetings and workshops; helping draft and circulating meeting resources; and taking meeting minutes to produce accurate records of proceedings.
- Working closely with colleagues to support the delivery of key projects that will contribute to the delivery of the SIAG / FIAG work programme and contribute to the development of fisheries management plans.
- Assisting and facilitating professional and effective communication between different stakeholders across the UK seafood sector, ranging from individual seafood businesses to government, regulators, and research agencies.
- Promoting participation in co-management activities, helping raise awareness of outputs, and keeping group members / non-members abreast of key developments.
Key accountabilities will be:
Internal:
- Working closely with the Head of Fisheries Management and other colleagues to ensure work outputs are aligned with other activities on behalf of UK seafood stakeholders.
- Providing updates to the Director of Operations as required.
- Planning and prioritising own workload to deliver required work outputs.
External:
- For each group: managing membership, helping in ‘on-boarding’ new group members by providing historical resources and updates on previous meetings; supporting to produce draft agendas and circulate resources to members prior to meetings; and taking accurate meeting minutes to maintain a record of all stakeholder engagement activities.
- Contributing as required to Seafish work to develop fisheries management plans for key shellfish species and deliver on the plans’ objectives.
- Supporting delivery of annual plans for each co-management group which will set out work priorities.
- Representing Seafish at relevant UK stakeholder events if required, to keep academic peers, NGOs, fishery managers and government / regulator representatives updated on developments.
Your responsibilities will be to:
- Organising group meetings in liaison with the respective Chair / membership.
- Producing project reports, post-meeting minutes, and briefing papers on fisheries management and research issues as required.
- Planning and prioritising own workload based on required project-specific and annual outputs, ensuring alignment to the successful delivery of the overall Annual Plan’s work programme.
- Utilising project management recording systems in-line with Seafish policies, procedures and guidelines.
- Effective use of decision making and judgement skills in the development and delivery of all work activities relating to the Seafish-facilitated fisheries co-management groups
- Ensuring Seafish and the national fisheries co-management groups are always represented in a highly professional manner.
- Exercising professional judgement and decision making to plan and manage all group work programme responsibilities.
Your essential working relationships will include:
- Chair / membership of the fisheries management groups and all associated sub-groups.
- Seafish Director of Operations and Head of Fisheries Management.
- Heads of Seafish Teams and key Seafish colleagues including communications.
- Colleagues across Defra (Marine & Fisheries Team), Marine Scotland, Welsh Government, DAERA, IFCAs, MMO and CEFAS.
To be a suitable candidate for this role you should be/have:
- Degree qualified; preferably (although not essential) in a related discipline such as fisheries management or marine science.
- One year’s post-graduate experience working on fisheries issues (fisheries management, fisheries policy, fisheries science and research, industry engagement) would be very beneficial.
- Experience of policy/regulation development and implementation would be very beneficial.
- Excellent organisational and project management skills, and proven ability to prioritise and deliver discrete tasks across multiple different workstreams against tight deadlines and with minimal supervision.
- A seasoned communicator, in person and in writing, and skilled at building and managing influential multi-stakeholder networks and associated relationships.
- Experience in producing succinct, accessible, and informative meeting notes / reports and ability to communicate complex information in a user-friendly way.
- Intermediate-level ‘IT skills’ and strong working knowledge of relevant Microsoft Office packages (e.g. Outlook, Word and Excel).
Every role is Seafish is linked to our bespoke competency framework. The competency levels for this role are:
- Growing Expertise – Seeks out opportunities to develop and expand knowledge base
- Embracing Change – Responds positively to change
- Building Relationships – Builds links with others in order to develop and deliver the best solutions
- Achieving Results – Overcomes challenging circumstances to achieve high-quality results
- Influencing with Impact – Calculates personal impact and adapts communication
All roles within Seafish are graded and have defined salary bands. This role is a grade 3 post and the starting salary for this post is £27,736 per annum. A new member’s appointment on the pay spine is dependent on the experience they bring to the role when they start. New members normally start at the lower end of the range unless they can demonstrate considerable experience in the requirements of the role.
Additional benefits include:
- 25 days annual leave on top of Bank Holidays and Christmas office closure, and 5 days per year paid volunteering leave for an activity of your choice.
- Flexible working – with ROWE you get all of your work done to the expected standard in a way that suits you.
- A generous employer pension scheme – Seafish will double your contribution, up to a maximum employer contribution of 10%.
- A range of health and wellbeing benefits including the Cycle to Work scheme, Tech Scheme, private medical insurance, gym discounts and free eye tests.
- Our unlimited employee assistance scheme is a support service available 24/7 – it offers confidential, impartial advice on anything you need such as work, family, finance support or anything else personal to you.
- We have a professional development culture with plenty of learning opportunities.
- We also have a high performing culture and we reward those that do well each year.
To apply for the post you should email your application to recruitment@seafish.co.uk. Please include ‘Fisheries Project Officer’ in the subject line of your email.
Your application should include:
- A covering letter or a short video explaining why you are a suitable candidate.
- A recent copy of your CV so we can find out more about your skills and experience.
- A completed copy of our recruitment consent form.
Candidates invited to interview will be given at least one weeks’ notice of proposed interview date to allow you to prepare. At this stage you may be asked to complete a short task in advance of interview and then answer some competency-based questions during interview.
For any queries about the job description or the salary and benefits on offer, please email recruitment@seafish.co.uk.