Incredible opportunity to work on Gough Island World Heritage Site

See also:

RSPB Advertises three Conservation Posts for Gough Island

These vacancies have now been filled.

Post 1: Senior Field Assistant

Reference number: A6290318

Location: Gough Island, Tristan da Cunha

One Senior Field Assistant will be recruited to carry out seabird monitoring and other field work on Gough Island, including the control of an invasive plant and support during the house mouse eradication operation. The post holder will work along side two Field Assistants. All three posts will be for a period of 16 months, consisting of pre-deployment training and around 13 months deployment on Gough.

Gough Island (6,500 ha) is located in the South Atlantic and is part of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. These posts are funded through the collaborative Gough Island Restoration Programme, which aims to eradicate house mice from Gough Island. The collaboration involves the RSPB, Tristan da Cunha Island Council and DEFRA.

The primary rationale for this position is to support the restoration of Gough Island.
See https://www.rspb.org.uk/goughisland for more information. We wish to attract committed candidates who will adapt to the requirements of this restoration programme and remain focused on the outputs needed to progress this globally important effort. This position will offer a unique opportunity for highly motivated and disciplined individuals with relevant fieldwork skills and a keen interest in wildlife, who will adapt well to small island living in a challenging sub-Antarctic environment.

Work in the wildlife breeding season at Gough Island is very intensive, with frequent long hours of fieldwork and data preparation, so it is important to be well organised. Data are collated using databases and by submitting reports, observing deadlines at frequent intervals. The results underpin efforts to restore the Gough Island World Heritage Site.

The candidates will be joining and living with the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP) over-wintering team of 6 people, bringing the total team size to 9 people. They will be required to work within the requirements of SANAP's over-wintering teams, including sharing cooking and cleaning duties on the base. It will be an asset if the post holders have prior experience of working with one or more other team members. During the eradication operation, the team on the island will increase substantially.

The learning curve is very steep and so all candidates must have previous experience of handling appropriate wild animals, but RSPB will provide a finishing school (at the Lodge and on Gough Island) to hone these skills. Two recent blogs provide excellent resources on what it is like to live and work on Gough Island:

Please review the candidate information pack for more information on this post.

The starting date for these positions can not be any later than the 30th of May 2018 due to the pre-deployment training requirements.

*We may close this advertising process early if we find suitable candidates. We, therefore, advise candidates to submit their application for this role as soon as possible.

This role is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. You will be asked to declare unspent convictions and cautions at offer of employment stage.

Salary starting at

£22,073 to £23,912 per annum pro-rata

Hours & contract information

Hours: Part time, 35 hours per week

Contract: 15 months

Closing date: 6 April 2018 - This post has now been filled.

Posts 2 and 3: Field Assistant - 2 roles

Reference number: A6300318

Location: Gough Island, Tristan da Cunha

Two Field Assistants will be recruited to carry out seabird monitoring and other field work on Gough Island, including supporting activities for the mouse eradication operation and control (using herbicide) of an invasive plant. The post holders will work along side a Senior Field Assistant. All three posts will be for a period of 16 months, consisting of pre-deployment training and around 13 months deployment on Gough.

Gough Island (6,500 ha) is located in the South Atlantic and is part of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. These posts are funded through the collaborative Gough Island Restoration Programme, which aims to eradicate house mice from Gough Island. The collaboration involves the RSPB, Tristan da Cunha Island Council and DEFRA.

The primary rationale for these positions is to support the restoration of Gough Island.

See https://www.rspb.org.uk/goughisland for more information. We wish to attract committed candidates who will adapt to the requirements of this restoration programme and remain focused on the outputs needed to progress this globally important effort. These positions will offer a unique opportunity for highly motivated and disciplined individuals with relevant fieldwork skills and akeen interest in wildlife, who will adapt well to small island living in a challenging sub-Antarctic environment.

Work in the wildlife breeding season at Gough Island is very intensive, with frequent long hours of fieldwork and data preparation, so it is important to be well organised. Data are collated using databases and by submitting reports, observing deadlines at frequent intervals. The results underpin efforts to restore the Gough Island World Heritage Site.

The candidates will be joining and living with the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP) over-wintering team of 6 people, bringing the total team size to 9 people. They will be required to work within the requirements of SANAP's over-wintering teams, including sharing cooking and cleaning duties on the base. It will be an asset if the post holders have prior experience of working with one or more other team members. During the eradication operation, the number of personnel on Gough will increase substantially.

The learning curve is very steep and so all candidates must have previous experience of handling appropriate wild animals, but RSPB will provide a finishing school (at the Lodge and on Gough Island) to hone these skills. Two recent blogs provide excellent resources on what it is like to live and work on Gough Island:

Please review the candidate information pack for more information on these posts.

There is little flexibility over the starting date for these positions due to the pre-deployment training requirements.

*We may close this advertising process early if we find suitable candidates. We, therefore, advise candidates to submit their application for this role as soon as possible.

This role is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. You will be asked to declare unspent convictions and cautions at offer of employment stage.

Salary starting at

£19,602 to £21,236 per annum pro-rata

Hours & contract information

Hours: Part time, 35 hours per week

Contract: 15 months

Closing date: 6 April 2018 - These posts have now been filled.

Note;

Role Profile, Job information pack and Application details are available to download from the RSPB Website:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/about-us/rspb-job-vacancies