Planning Support Manager

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is looking for an enthusiastic, practical, creative tactical planning support manager to join our West region to help manage a team of planning foresters, this role helps shape the future and direction of Scotland’s public forests and land in West region.
In West region we sustainably manage over 140,000 ha of forest and land to produce quality timber, we also restore peatlands, manage and re-establish ancient woodland habitats including important areas of Scotland’s Atlantic Rainforest, accommodate renewables projects and care for open habitats and a variety of recreation sites, including world class mountain biking facilities. As you can imagine it’s a busy place, we sustainably produce over a 650,000 cubic metres of timber from the region a year, replant over 1,500 ha for future generations use, build roads and bridges, support many varied renewable energy projects and create new woodland in line with Scottish Government objectives.
It’s a fantastic, diverse and hugely impressive area of land to be responsible for and we have a great team of people who make all these good things happen, on a daily basis.
The planning team work closely with other region teams and stakeholders to design economically sustainable UKFS compliant forests of the future, including adapting to climate change and enhancing our landscapes. The team you will manage prepare and facilitate resilient land management plans. These are key documents that map out the future felling, replanting, road building and other key activities in each forest area in details over the following 10 years and beyond., You will provide support and mentoring to the team of seven planning foresters on the development of Land Management Plans and analyse and understand the implications of proposals in these plans. You will be familiar with relevant legal and statutory issues, negotiate with stakeholders, and take decisions along with others in the team. This post will work across West region and the post holder will ideally be located at the Oban office, with an option to work out of Torlundy or Lochgilphead.
Main Duties
Regional Tactical Leadership team
+ As a member of the Regional leadership team, work closely with the Regional tactical leads to implement cost-effective and affordable work streams to meet the Region’s targets
Staff
+ Line manage a team of seven planning foresters, focussing on their development needs, core targets and responsibilities.
+ Work closely with the national team to mentor and provide support for new members of the planning team and assist with induction, training and consolidation in connection with systems and the preparation of LMP.
Land Management Planning
+ Oversee the LMP programme to ensure approval prior to expiry dates. Proactively plan ahead to resource the land management planning function including managing contracts and partnerships.
+ Keep up to date with the FLS, UKWAS and UKFS guidance relevant to land management planning and support the planning foresters in the interpretation of changes in the West Region context.
+ Guide and support the planning foresters in the development of holistic, well thought out and cost effective plans that support sustainable land management, secure the most effective solutions to complex management problems and minimise risk during delivery preparation
+ Support the planning foresters in engaging Regional and specialist colleagues early and throughout the development of the LMPs
+ Take ownership and find resolutions for significant issues escalated from the Forest Planners in relation to internal team engagement, stakeholders and regulators.
+ Advise on the revision or development of LMP as a consequence of interaction with national projects e.g. large scale renewable energy projects, grid connections.
+ Ensure that mid-term views are well consulted and undertaken thoroughly and agreed recommendations implemented
+ Build effective working relationships with key stakeholders
Projects
+ Work with colleagues to develop and coordinate other special projects, identifying the potential partners and attracting external funding to allow us to deliver them. Key projects are likely to be based around landscape scale habitat restoration and key actions to tackle both the climate and biodiversity crises.

+ Demonstrable experience of forest operations, forest management or land management.
+ Demonstrable experience of Forest Land Management Planning (or Programme Planning) to UKFS and Scottish Forestry standards.
+ Demonstrable experience of developing strong and effective working relationships with internal colleagues and a wide range of external stakeholders and regulators.
Desirable:
+ Experience of project management and understanding of project management principles.
+ Demonstrable experience of staff management, mentoring and development.
+ Demonstrable experience of fund raising and management of partnership projects
Technical
Essential:
+ Degree, HND or equivalent qualification in Forestry, Land Use Management, or a related subject.
+ Demonstrable experience of ArcGIS spatial analysis
Desirable:
+ Training or formal qualification in project management.
+ Demonstrable experience of Forester Web and Sub Compartment Database use and maintenance.
+ Membership of ICF or commitment to working towards technical/professional membership within 2 years., Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

+ Learning and development tailored to your role
+ An environment with flexible working options
+ A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
+ A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%