Vacancies

Thank you for your interest in working with BTO. Available jobs and volunteering opportunities, whether full, part-time or a temporary placement are advertised here. Check back regularly for new opportunities.

Breeding Bird Survey National Organiser 

We are looking for an enthusiastic National Organiser to be responsible for the successful running of the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey and Waterways Breeding Bird Survey, working in the Surveys team. They will deliver key outputs of these high-profile surveys, including summaries of results, the annual report and updating web pages. The work involves overseeing the BBS and WBBS volunteer network, liaising with the network of Regional Organisers, supervising the ongoing development of the survey, BBS Online, maintaining a series of volunteer, bird, mammal and habitat databases, and managing the BC/CEH/BTO/JNCC Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey on BBS squares. 

The successful candidate will be familiar with bird surveys, bird identification and distributions, well-organised, and competent in computing, particularly database management and Excel. They will have excellent communication skills as the post involves cross-team working at BTO, and working with a wide range of volunteers, funders, external organisations and the general public.

Location: This position is based at our HQ in Thetford, Norfolk, although you will be able to work from home part of the time on a hybrid working regime.

Hours: This is a full-time, permanent post. 

Salary: £27,291 rising to £30,324 over 2 years + 11% employer pension contribution

Benefits: Annual leave entitlement on starting is 25 days plus bank holidays. The post holder will qualify for life assurance (four times salary) and be automatically enrolled in the BTO group personal pension scheme, benefiting from an 11% employer contribution. Other benefits include Employee Assistance Programme. 

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More information on general opportunities

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Work experience

We provide up to 10 work experience placements per year for young people currently studying for their GCSEs or A-levels, aged 11 and up. If you are interested, download the
 for more information and to apply, or email youth [at] bto.org with any questions you might have. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer places to everyone who contacts us, but we will reply to all enquiries. 
Work Experience Application Pack



Volunteering

There are a number of ways you can get involved in the work of the BTO:

We occasionally have opportunities for volunteers to gain experience and use their skills, knowledge and experience to support our work in one of our offices.

If you would like to volunteer for the BTO, please send an email to us at recruitment [at] bto.org with some information about you, including:

  • What knowledge, skills and experience you have.
  • What areas you are interested in volunteering in.

We are keen to make volunteering for the BTO accessible, especially for people under-represented in the environment movement; and try to offer a variety of opportunities, days, hours, some remote working and travel expenses.

Unfortunately we are unable to offer placements to everyone; if we are not able to offer you something we would encourage you to speak with your Regional Rep about how you can get involved.

PhD and Masters

Staff from the BTO co-supervise PhD and Masters projects at a number of universities. BTO is a full member of the ARIES DTP and participates in several others. PhD opportunities will be advertised here, usually in the autumn.

If you have an idea for a project as part of your Masters that you would be interested in working with BTO staff on, then please refer to our staff bios and staff contacts by topic to identify the member of staff within your area of interest.

Equality and diversity

We are an equal opportunities employer and are especially keen to encourage applications from people currently under-represented in the environment movement.

If you have a disability or long-term illness that otherwise prevents you from meeting any of the essential criteria, please contact us to discuss whether a reasonable adjustment could be made.

As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy.

For more conservation jobs visit environmentjob.co.uk where BTO also advertise positions.

Please do not contact us if you are a recruitment agency.

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