Project Officer

ORCA
ORCA

Henfield, UK

Posted on Nov 11, 2026

The role

This is an entry-level Project Officer role offering broad, hands-on experience across the Trust’s projects and investigations. We welcome applications from people starting or changing careers, as well as those with relevant experience. Working across our Rivers, and Data and Evidence, teams, you will help develop and deliver river restoration projects, collect and analyse data, and coordinate volunteers.

You will contribute to a varied programme of work, including river habitat enhancements, improving in-channel and landscape connectivity, wetland creation and natural flood management. You will also be involved in groundwater investigations and our expanding Citizen Science programme.

Working with experienced colleagues, landowners, contractors and partners, you will play an active part in projects from investigation and planning through to practical delivery and monitoring. You will help ensure that our work is informed by sound evidence, delivers value for funders and improves river and catchment health. Along the way, you will build skills in project coordination, river restoration, ecology, volunteer management and data analysis.

This is a two-year fixed-term contract. There may be an opportunity to extend it, subject to funding, the Trust’s future workload and satisfactory performance.

Key Responsibilities

Support projects from planning to delivery

  • Help project leads plan activities, attend site visits, keep project trackers up to date and gather information for reports.
  • Support practical river, wetland and catchment work, including hedge and tree planting, habitat creation, installing leaky dams and other natural flood management measures.
  • Work with colleagues, contractors and partners, taking on clearly defined tasks and asking for help when needed.

Work with volunteers and communities

  • Help organise and lead welcoming, safe and enjoyable volunteer and citizen science activities.
  • Contact volunteers, manage bookings and attendance, prepare equipment and support briefings on the day.
  • Encourage and support people with different backgrounds and levels of experience to get involved
  • Contribute short updates, photos and stories for newsletters, social media and project communications.

Collect and look after evidence

  • Support field surveys and monitoring, which may include water quality sampling, habitat assessments, groundwater investigations and fixed-point photography.
  • Enter, check and organise data using spreadsheets, online forms, and shared project systems.
  • Help turn monitoring results into simple summaries and information for non-technical audiences.
  • Follow agreed methods so that records are accurate, consistent and useful.
See more open positions at ORCA