Senior Project Manager (WaterGrid - EU Horizon Project)

Westcountry Rivers Trust is recruiting a Senior Project Manager (WaterGrid – EU Horizon Project)

This is a permanent contract after a successful 6 month probation period.

The starting salary for this role is £40,000.00 - £45,000.00 per annum (dependent on experience)

Location: Westcountry Rivers Trust’s office is in Stoke Climsland and whilst we have adopted hybrid working there is an expectation to work from the office on a regular basis and to travel to sites across the delivery area.

Benefits while working for Westcountry Rivers Trust

• 25 days Annual Leave per annum, with a reward for long service - an additional 1 day per year for each year worked over 5 years, up to a maximum of 30 days for employees serving 10 years continuous service.
• Additional Leave covering the Christmas Closure period.
• 9% Employer Pension, plus Life Assurance cover
• Flexible & Hybrid working

Apply by 5pm on Tuesday 17th June 2025.

Interviews will be held in person at our offices in Stoke Climsland on Thursday 3rd July 2025.

About the Westcountry Rivers Trust

Formed in 1994, the Trust was established to restore Westcountry rivers. Measures to protect rivers can help to save money for farmers, lower costs for water companies, boost tourism, reduce the need to dredge estuaries and even benefit human health.

Today the charity works with a wide range of stakeholders from landowners to local communities, businesses, farmers and water companies to restore and protect the rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal areas for the benefit of people, wildlife and the local economy. There has never been a more important time to work on the rivers of the West Country as the impacts of climate emergency and the ecological crisis is forcing society to invest in building catchment resilience.

Spurred by a shared love of rivers, the Westcountry Rivers Trust is very much a grassroots organisation, brought into existence from the bottom up. In the early 90s, a group of individuals, passionate – but concerned – about the waterways around them, began to stitch together their ambitions for restoring Westcountry rivers, laying the foundations for the Trust we know today.

Everything the Trust does is informed by the best available science. Their work is driven by an ‘ecosystems approach,’ considering the function of the entire catchment, not just the rivers that flow within them.

It was this new perspective – not to mention the hands-on and tireless approach to river restoration – that grabbed the attention of so many supporters and funders, and which lies behind the flourishing rivers trust movement. Since then, the Trust now has circa 75 employees with an annual turnover of c£3m running multi-annual projects spread across a wide range of funders.

The Trust has three main delivery teams and a support services team. Our employees work on delivery sites, from home, and from the office.

About the Role

The Westcountry Rivers Trust is leading an exciting 4-year, €8m European Horizon project with a 22 partner consortium from 13 countries using Nature Based Solutions (NBS) to manage water resources, called WaterGrid (see single page summary). Whilst there is external professional project support through a technical consultant, the Trust is looking for an experienced project manager with excellent management and communication skills. The Senior Project Manager will contribute to the effective delivery of the project and will link across several other Trust projects to help embed the use of NBS with WRT Farm Advisors by taking the lead on a range of overarching drives (e.g. the use of ponds to create on farm water storage).

Responsibilities

• Work with the CEO as Project Director and the external professional project support to ensure the smooth running of the project and that all project deliverables and key performance indicators are being met. This includes project planning, project management and risk management
• Work with the Director of Operations to ensure articulation with other similar water resource management projects looking at pond creation and NBS implementation
• Report directly to the Head of Data and Evidence to ensure the projects internal Trust budgets, resources and deliverables are being met
• Lead project planning, reporting and management with the external support
• Build relationships with project partners and stakeholders, and maintain regular communication
• Work with the external support to ensure a project SharePoint site is well managed and that work package leads are supported to deliver project tasks and chart progress towards deliverables
• Arrange and attend with the external support monthly online executive board meetings and annual General Assembly face to face events across Europe
• Maintain and routinely update budget spreadsheets for the projects, based on the actual costs, invoices and Purchase Request Forms
• Organise project meetings and keep minutes
• Manage social media calendar to put out project social media posts and communications
• Act as point of contact for project enquiries
• Collate and provide statistics and evidence for internal and external reports
• The role may be asked to work on other duties or tasks which are believed to be commensurate with the level of the role
• Speak at conferences, meetings and events about the project

Person specification

Knowledge and Experience

• Experience of working in a project management role in a multi-task environment
• Demonstrable experience of working with MS Office suite (Word, Excel and PowerPoint)
• Demonstrable experience of creating and maintaining project management tools
• Experience of working in a large complex project management role (D)
• Experience of working on European projects (D)
• Experience of working with financial information (D)
• Experience or working knowledge in the farming or environmental sectors (D)
• Experience of working with Nature Based Solutions (D)
• Experience of bidding for and managing grant funding (D)

Skills and Competencies

• Outstanding project management skills with a desire to continually improve and streamline processes
• A proactive approach and evidence of using own initiative with effective problem-solving
• Ability to effectively communicate, foster and maintain successful working relationships, with colleagues and stakeholders
• Existing project management skills or a keen interest in developing them.
• A sound working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and Outlook and other MS office software and applications
• Ability to use information objectively and apply sound judgement in decision making
• Adaptable and organised in prioritising workload, timeliness, managing conflicting demands and working effectively to deadlines with minimum supervision
• Attention to detail and accuracy
• A professional and business orientated approach and attitude
• The ability to confidently present project outcomes to partners and wider audiences
• Ability to write project reports and communicate clearly in written formats
• Ability to use project management software (D)

Qualifications

• A degree (or equivalent qualification or experience) in ecology environmental science, agriculture, or a related discipline relevant to the role.
• A Masters (or PhD) qualification (D)
• Ability to travel both locally across the Westcountry but also Europe

 The above are Essential criteria unless indicated as Desirable.