Marine Management Support Officer
Reference: APR20219899
Location: Tristan da Cunha
Salary: £27,574.00 - £30,590.00 Per Annum
Benefits: Accommodation (valued at £12,000 per annum), plus reasonable relocation and travel costs
Duration: 3 years

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to support the world’s most remote island community at a pivotal moment as they establish the fourth largest marine reserve on the planet.

Tristan da Cunha is a UK Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic; an archipelago located 2,400km from the nearest land and one of the most geographically isolated island groups in the world. As well as around 250 islanders, this mountainous island group is home to tens of millions of seabirds including albatross and penguins, plus whales, sharks, dolphins and seals.

A Marine Protection Zone (MPZ) – almost three times the size of the UK, and the largest in the Atlantic – will be designated in 2021 and safeguard one of the world's most pristine marine environments and the wealth of wildlife that lives there. The charity and all involved got here through the tenacity and vision of Tristan, the support of seven international partners, and 20 years of working together.

Atlantic Guardians is the next step in this journey. A 3.5-year project supporting and enabling the Tristanian community as protectors of their rich waters. It will guide the MPZ through its infancy to create a long-lasting source of Tristanian pride and a global beacon of good practice celebrated for its thriving marine environment. This particular contract will run from July 2021 to June 2024.

What’s the role about?

As the MMSO, you will live on Tristan for three years, and support the delivery of the Atlantic Guardians project on-island alongside a part-time Tristanian MPZ Coordinator. You will be the go-to person on island for the project, assisting Tristanian delivery across all aspects of this multi-disciplinary project. This could mean one day helping count penguins and ensuring appropriate data storage, and another helping schoolchildren record the oral histories of the island’s elders. You will be supported by an expert off-island team including a Project Manager and Communications Officer. This organisation is looking for someone who can dive into life on Tristan, has excellent community and relationship building skills, and who understands the marine environment.

Key Tasks:

• Building trust and relationships with the Tristan community, and key project stakeholders
• Developing and supporting the capacity of the Tristan community for the effective long-term management of the MPZ
• Delivering activities against the Atlantic Guardians project plan and supporting MPZ management plan implementation
• Coordinating and delivering all field-based activities, events and research/education trips on Tristan, including conducting health and safety risk assessments
• Contributing to the development of project communication materials, primarily website, social media and on-island communications
• Assisting the Project Manager in keeping the on-island project activities on track
• Supporting Tristan grant reporting and financial administration
• Whilst these are the core responsibilities, the project and life on Tristan calls for someone who can get stuck in. More information is available in the attached FAQs and 'Tristan Tips for the Traveller' documents.

What they need from you:

Essential skills, knowledge and experience:

• Significant experience of delivering activities in multi-disciplinary programmes; ideally with a focus on marine- and/or community-focused (e.g. conservation, community engagement, capacity building, communications, research, education, heritage, arts)
• Knowledge and understanding of the marine environment, and its management (e.g. marine management plans or managing Marine Protected Areas)
• Tested project management skills, including some experience of monitoring and evaluation, grant reporting and financial administration
• Experience of coordinating and delivering field, research and/or education activities/trips and community events, including assessing health and safety aspects
• Extensive experience of working collaboratively with small communities, preferable in a remote island context
• Experience of working in a highly dispersed team and with multiple project partners
• Outstanding verbal communication skills with the ability to inspire, build confidence and navigate challenging situations
• A deep commitment to enabling, developing and supporting community capacity and leadership
• Ability to use own initiative and operate in a remote context without oversight
• A highly adaptable, dynamic, down-to-earth and resilient person

Desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Experience of working in the marine environment (e.g. snorkelling, fishing, tested sea-legs)
• Experience in delivering youth engagement and citizen science activities, with safeguarding expertise and an equality and diversity approach
• Experience of working with schools, preferably in an outdoor education context
• Experience of producing creative, high-quality community conservation/scientific research communications and media content (e.g. social media, news articles, photography, video editing, interpretation boards, website design)
• Proven capability in project fundraising
• Reasonable marine identification skills and a willingness to learn (e.g. sharks, cetaceans, common South Atlantic fish species, seabirds)
• Demonstrable experience of building a conservation project’s profile, developing new partnerships and establishing brand identity
• Experience of operating equipment, ability to manage resulting data and communicate it to a wide audience (e.g. pelagic cameras, acoustic monitoring equipment, satellite tags)
• Technical field skills (e.g. shark tagging, seabird surveys, data collection, bird ringing and tagging)
• An understanding of Tristan’s natural and cultural heritage

Closing date: 23:59, 09 May 2021

Interested?
Please click 'Apply’ - you will be prompted to complete a short CHM Recruit form before being redirected to complete your application.

No agencies please.