Executive Officer, Natural Cambridgeshire

Natural Cambridgeshire; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

Natural Cambridgeshire is seeking an Executive Officer in Cambridgeshire to support the Chair, Board and LNRS Project Manager. The role covers organisational, governance, financial and reporting duties across local nature recovery projects, budgets and communications.

The successful candidate will manage meetings, minutes, filing, and stakeholder engagement, contributing to the charity’s strategic delivery with a proactive, collaborative approach.

Qualifications

• Excellent interpersonal skills including relationship building, collaboration and diplomacy.
• Experience of MS Outlook, Word, Excel and Adobe.
• Experience of SharePoint or similar secure, cloud-based filing systems.
• Experience of general office and administrative processes.
• Experience of organisational / charity reporting and financial administration.
• Prioritisation and time management.
• Flexible and adaptable approach to work and workload.

Responsibilities

• Organisational support: organising meetings/events, filing systems, correspondence, stakeholder contacts, forward planning.
• Governance support: minuting, agendas, papers, calendars, venue logistics, attendance records.

Skills

MS Outlook

Word

Excel

Adobe

Tools

SharePoint

Job description

Salary£25-35k pro rata and dependent on experience

Who we are

Natural Cambridgeshire (NC) is the Local Nature Partnership for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. We bring together representatives from local government, conservation groups, communities, landowners, farmers and developers in a shared ambition to double the space for nature in the county. The team has taken on a number of exciting new projects and programmes, and we are now looking to recruit an Executive Officer to join the team.

Our Vision

In 2019 Natural Cambridgeshire launched its ambition to Double Nature across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to deliver a greatly enhanced environment where nature and people thrive and businesses prosper. Cambridgeshire has one of the smallest percentages of land managed for nature in the country (7%) and at a time of climate, nature and health and wellbeing crises we are determined to double that and put Local Nature Recovery at the heart of the County’s future. That ambition has now been adopted in a number of Local Plans, and is embedded in the county’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS). Natural Cambridgeshire are co-ordinating its delivery with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and all our local partners.

Our Strategic Priorities

Drawing on this growing, collective momentum, our priorities are:

• Fulfilling our ambition for doubling the quality and quantity of nature and wildlife across the county while improving people’s access to nature, especially creating those connections for communities who are currently least able to access nature.
• Collaborating to deliver the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough working with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, the County Council and Natural England and ensuring the voices of all stakeholders throughout the county are heard.
• Catalysing nature recovery and incentivising further investment through the development of collaborative landscape-scale projects with our £1m Fund for Nature.
• Enabling community-led activities and projects which benefit people and nature across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough through our £100k community Fund for Nature.

Our Governance

Natural Cambridgeshire is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Our Board of Trustees is the governing body of the CIO and currently includes the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, and nine Trustees. The trustees represent the diversity of interests within land and environmental management, including wildlife groups and charities, farmers and landowners, statutory bodies, councillors and community interests, academics and the built environment sector as well as a varied skill set to support a robust Board. They carry out lead roles to support the various projects and initiatives of the organisation, as well as leading Forums and projects that reach wider stakeholders with whom we engage.

Natural Cambridgeshire also has a Project Manager – Steve Gibson – who is overseeing the delivery of the LNRS. For a full list of all our people see the Natural Cambridgeshire website: www.naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk/people.

Role Summary

The successful applicant will play a crucial role in supporting the Chair, Board and LNRS Project Manager, providing business support across the breadth of Natural Cambridgeshire’s areas of influence. This will include :

• Organisational support including the organisation of Natural Cambridgeshire’s Partnership Forum, Policy Forum and Developing with Nature Forum, supporting the logistics of venues, agendas, catering, speakers and recording/reporting, working with the Forum chairs. Supporting other project workstream meetings and events supporting the Local Nature Recovery Strategy delivery, and dealing with day to day correspondence from partners, stakeholders and the public.
• Governance support including supporting the Trustee meetings with minutes, action tracking and logistics, with the opportunity to take on some company secretary responsibilities for the right candidate.
• Financial Administrative Support: supporting financial management of the CIO, including processing invoices and payments and supporting the lead Trustees with budget reporting and forecasting.
• Supporting the team with monitoring and reporting for the funds and projects Natural Cambridgeshire administers.
• Communications support, working with the team and our agency on coordinating press releases, website updates, e-newsletters, working within the wider comms strategy.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced self-starter, in a role where you can really make a difference for nature and our County.

a)Organisational Support

Natural Cambridgeshire is a small and diverse team, representing the many networks and stakeholders the Partnership covers. This role will be responsible for supporting them through:

• Assistingwith organising and delivering meetings and events;
• Supporting the new shared filing system for staff and trustees to access papers, minutes and other key documents;
• Dealing with day to day correspondence from partners, stakeholders and the public;
• Managing and updating stakeholder contacts;
• Supporting a forward planner of meetings, forums, events and delivery programmes.

b)Governance Support

Be responsible for the logistics and administration of Board and Board subcommittee meetings. This includes:

• Supporting the minuting and action summaries / progress of meetings;
• Supporting the circulation of timely agendas and papers;
• Updating shared filing with latest documents and establishing effective archive system;
• Sending Outlook calendar invitations for Board meetings, subcommittee and other key meetings to relevant trustees and invited speakers and keeping a register of attendance;
• Booking venues and setting up rooms and/or Zoom links for Board meetings, Forums and other key meetings, with catering or additional logistics as required;
• monitoring the Finance Inbox on a regular basis and ensuring appropriate record keeping: including monies in/monies out, payments due/anticipated and a reconciliation of accounts at the end of each month.
• Supporting the Executive Team with business planning and financial reporting, and ensuring a timely completion and submission of expense claims by staff and trustees.

c)Monitoring and Reporting

Natural Cambridgeshire is a registered Charity, and we manage a range of local funding programmes, which need administration, monitoring and reporting. Much of this work will be led by the Trustees and the LNRS Project Manager, with support from this role, including:

• Organisational Registers: working with the team to ensure annual review of Organisational Risk Register, and Conflict of Interest Register, undertaking follow-up as required.
• Charity Commission reporting: to support annual returns to the Charity Commission and support for the preparation and publication of the organisation's Annual Report and Accounts.
• Grants & Contracts: maintaining an up to date list of grants and contracts held, with reporting and drawdown dates, to be provided in team updates and at Natural Cambridgeshire’s Operations and Finance subcommittee. Following up any additional reporting requirements with the organisations supported by funding.

d)Communications Support

Support Lead Trustees and the LNRS Project Manager in keeping communications platforms up to date including:

• Uploading and updating news, reports and updates on the NC website
• Supporting the team to forward plan content and delivery of communications including forward PR planner, social media content planning, newsletter and e-news updates.
• Supporting regular compilation and distribution of our news digest and e-newsletter, using the Brevo platform, and managing the databases connected with this.

Person Specification

Essential skills and experience:

• Excellent interpersonal skills including relationship building, collaboration and diplomacy
• Experience of working with MS Outlook, Word, Excel and Adobe
• Experience of SharePoint or similar secure, cloud-based filing systems
• Experience of general office and administrative processes
• Experience of organisational / charity reporting and financial administration
• Prioritisation and time management
• Flexible and adaptable approach to work and workload
• Self-starter with initiative and drive
• Experience of working within local government or environmental groups
• Experience of working with parish or town councils or community groups
• Experience with WordPress, Brevo or other data platforms
• A passion for nature and the work of the partners

Timings

• Interview dates: week commencing 7 December 2026

Candidates should note that any offer of employment made by Natural Cambridgeshire will be subject to satisfactory written references. You must also be able to demonstrate that you have the right to work in the UK and that you have the qualifications listed in your application.