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Hays has been exclusively appointed to recruit on behalf of the Forestry Commission for an Area Director: Southeast & London.

Forest Services as part of Forestry Commission are the Government’s forestry experts. They advise nationally and locally on how to unlock the full potential of woodlands and support land managers to protect, improve and expand England’s valuable woodland assets, ensuring that they continue to provide benefits to people, the environment and the economy.

Their staff engagement levels are consistently well above average, and staff turnover is well below, for the Civil Service. They value their people, look after them, and they will look after you.

This Area Director role will lead the South East and London Area team within Forest Services Delivery.

You will be overseeing the operational delivery of grants and regulations, achieving woodland outcomes through partnership working and acting as a regional leader advocating sustainable and resilient stewardship of the growing tree and woodland resources.

You will lead and champion the work of a team of passionate, committed and expert colleagues to deliver their aims for woodland expansion, protection and more woodlands into management. Your team’s work will also help connect more people to the vision in the Forestry Commission’s strategy: Helping to tackle some of society's biggest challenges with thriving trees, woods and forests. You will also make your mark through your senior leadership contribution across the Forestry Commission, working alongside colleagues in Forestry England, Forest Research and FC Commissioners Office.

If you strongly believe in the role that forestry and woodlands have in creating a better, more resilient future for England, and you want to play a key part in leading and realising our ambitions for the South East region, we want to hear from you. They hope you will join them for the challenge.

The Area Director’s overall purpose is to lead and inspire the South East and London Area team to be part of an outstanding organisation, working as one Forest Services with a dynamic, high-performing and inclusive workforce. As an operational delivery leader, you will be passionate about enabling and supporting the forestry sector to expand, protect and improve the woodland resource and its resilience. You will also be leading the team in connecting people with trees and woodlands as well as supporting the green economy. You will focus on providing a clear sense of purpose and direction for the team, managing change implementation and ensuring the full range of expertise in the Area team delivers effectively.

Area Director led teams are successfully delivering many of the benefits of the long-term plans for environmental improvement and nature restoration, including helping create a successful timber and ecosystem services market. In leading a large team that is tasked to deliver these programmes you will direct our delivery focus and tools: our expertise and professional advice, partnerships, incentives and regulations, all underpinned by the UK Forestry Standard, the Tree Health Resilience Strategy, and training and development for our staff.

Our values set out how we deliver: through teamwork, professionalism, respect, communication, learning and creativity. We have a strong network of partners and stakeholders helping us to develop innovative and practical solutions.

The key work areas of the job are:

Background information on the Area and its People is available in addition to this job description, upon request.