JOB VACANCY
HEAD OF NATURAL CAPITAL (Full-time)
About Real Wild Estates
Real Wild Estates (RWE) is a unique land management company focused on large scale nature restoration and biodiversity recovery in the UK. Equity-backed by a multi-billion-pound global corporation, RWE is seeking to work with UK landholders, communities and natural capital investors to restore nature and bio-abundance and reintroduce native species, in order to recover lost ecosystems and restore the UK’s degraded ecosystem services.
To help deliver on our nature restoration ambitions the business is recruiting a Head of Natural Capital as part of this pioneering team. This is a unique opportunity to join one of the most exciting and pioneering UK businesses within this nascent nature-based solutions sectors. The successful candidate will play a crucial role in leading the company’s engagement with the UK’s cutting edge Natural Capital markets, thereby creating viable and diverse revenue streams to underpin the company’s expansive landscape restoration vision going forward.
Job Description & responsibilities:
Technical knowledge and market/policy information
- Detailed knowledge of the payments for ecosystem services (PES) market in England and Scotland (knowledge of rest of UK a bonus but not required), spanning both voluntary (e.g. WCC) and compliance (e.g. BNG) markets and both private (e.g. corporate) and public buyers (e.g. government) – detailed knowledge required across entire lifecycle of schemes, including approvals and application, funding streams, contracts and covenants, project set up and maintenance/management, sales and brokerage, reporting and stakeholder management etc.
These include:
- Woodland carbon – WCC, CSX, Treeconomy, EWCO, Scottish Forestry Grant Scheme, Validation and Verification Bodies (VVBs)
- Peatland carbon – Peatland Code, Terramotion, Peatland ACTION, Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme, Validation and Verification Bodies (VVBs)
- Carbon Markets – (developments within) broader voluntary carbon markets (e.g. CORSIA, Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, market challenges and integrity issues) and compliance markets (e.g. UK ETS and EU’s Carbon Removal Certification Framework)
- Biodiversity Net Gain – DEFRA Metric 3.1, Environment Bank, understanding of prospects for BNG in Scotland
- Voluntary Biodiversity Credits – PV Nature (Plan Vivo standard), Verra Nature Crediting Framework
- Integrated Credits – CreditNATURE (Ecosulis), Wilder Carbon
- Soil Carbon – Sward, Agreena, Agricarbon, Loamin, minimum requirements around UK soil carbon standards
- Net nutrient neutrality – Phosphate and Nitrate credit development and trading
- Nascent/Future schemes – Salt Marsh Carbon Code, NEIRF codes (e.g. Hedgerow Code), Blue Carbon
- Agri-environment schemes – CS and ELMs, AECS and BPS
- Sound understanding of corporate and international sustainability policy landscape – (SBTi) Net Zero, SBTN and Nature Positive, COP (UNFCCC and CBD), TNFD and TCFD, ESG
- Sound understanding of ecological principles underpinning nature restoration and rewilding blueprints
Communication, presentation, and relationship-building
- Ability to identify, develop and maintain successful and longstanding working relationships with specialist service providers and 3rd parties working with RWE to restore and manage landscapes of their clients (e.g. peatland restoration experts, ecological baseline providers, forestry companies, BNG specialists, land agents etc)
- Familiarity with latest discourses and policy discussions around politically sensitive topics such as natural capital and profitable nature restoration, private vs community ownership (especially in Scotland), right to roam and land access, the Just Transition etc.
- Presentation, interview, and public speaking skills – the successful candidate will be required to speak as panellist at industry conferences, events and webinars, podcast guest, media interviewee etc.
- Successful candidate will also demo RWE’s natural capital forecasting model to prospective clients and a wide range of interested parties and stakeholders (e.g. NGOs, policymakers, investor community etc.) – either independently or in tandem with RWE’s modelling consultant
Technical
- Working expertise with MS Excel is required
- Familiarity with Arixcel – or other Excel review technology to aid understanding of RWE’s natural capital forecasting model – a bonus but not required
- Familiarity with MS Power BI or Tableau (or equivalent Business Intelligence and Analytics software) in order to present data and forecasts provided by RWE’s natural capital model in a visually accessible and engaging/powerful way is valuable
Sales and deal-making
- Experience in natural capital deal-making with landholders, land agents, brokers and potential investor community spanning involving the full range of natural capital opportunities from City boardrooms to rural estates
- Familiarity with rural-based land acquisition an advantage
Desired education, skills, experience and outlook
- From 7 years’ experience in rural land management/ecological land management with natural capital expertise
- Proficient writing skills, with proven expertise in creating and reviewing high-quality written reports, documents and presentations; specifically an ability to develop cogent stories/messaging
- Advanced stakeholder and client management skills
- Exceptional relationship building, interpersonal and communication skills
- Diligent, reliable, driven and proactive
- Ability to work independently or collaboratively with teams
- Comfortable operating in a small, unstructured, non-hierarchical, fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment to tight deadlines
- Excellent prioritisation and time management skills
- Relevant degree in land management, ecology, natural capital, economics or equivalent
CONTRACT & PAY
- Salary: Competitive salary package, based on experience. Potential for discretionary transaction bonus
- Start Date: ASAP
- Contract Type: This is a full time position.
- Location: Southern England. Remote working principally, with some co-working days in Somerset region (Bath) and London. Travel required to London and across the UK as needed.
NEXT STEPS
Please send us a full cover letter and CV, including references or testimonials, to julian@realwildestates.com
Candidates will be shortlisted as soon as the review process is complete, leading to a two-part interview process.
If you are interested to be kept informed of vacancies for the future please email us here