Senior Media Manager

Full time (35 hours per week)  Permanent contract 

About Us

The Wildlife Trusts are a grassroots movement of people from a wide range of backgrounds and all walks of life, who believe that we need nature and nature needs us. We have more than 944,000 members, over 38,000 volunteers, 3,600 staff and 600 trustees. There are 46 individual Wildlife Trusts, each of which is a place-based independent charity with its own legal identity, formed by groups of people getting together and working with others to make a positive difference to wildlife and future generations, starting where they live and work.

Every Wildlife Trust is part of The Wildlife Trusts federation and a corporate member of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, a registered charity in its own right founded in 1912 and one of the founding members of IUCN – the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Taken together this federation of 47 charities is known as The Wildlife Trusts.

The next few years will be critical in determining what kind of world we all live in. We need to urgently reverse the loss of wildlife and put nature into recovery at scale if we are to prevent climate and ecological disaster. We recognise that this will require big, bold changes in the way The Wildlife Trusts work, not least in how we mobilise others and support them to organise within their own communities. 

About You

Can you use your expert media relations and proven line management skills to help put nature into recovery with one of the UK’s best-loved environmental charities?

The Wildlife Trusts’ small, but brilliant national media team creates billions of opportunities to ‘see’ our work in print, radio, online and on screen each year – from our commentary on Government policy to stories about our work on the ground. Our interviews, quotes, videos and press releases are used in national and international stories which are as varied as peatland recovery stories, climate resilience and red squirrel conservation to sea grass restoration and whale sightings. We regularly appear on BBC Countryfile, Springwatch, BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, and Channel 4 News as well as in the Guardian, tabloids and other national outlets. In 2024 alone, the team achieved c.36,000 mentions in the media with over 690 billion opportunities to be seen. This coverage ensured that we remain at the heart of the national conversation on why we need nature.

But we’re not standing still because the nature and climate crises demand greater and more urgent action. We’re therefore looking for a resourceful and strategic thinker who can exploit new opportunities for The Wildlife Trusts to continue to raise our profile and use our communications and media profile to drive greater awareness of and engagement with the things that need to happen to halt and reverse nature declines.

This is a senior role and we’re looking for an experienced media manager with an excellent track record in media relations for high profile nature organisations, who can confidently deal with high-profile reactive media as well as developing and delivering evidence-based creative, innovative media strategies. You will be leading a small media team, so line management experience is essential to ensure the consistent delivery of high-profile, high-impact media activity, supervising the team’s research, writing and editing. Working alongside the Head of Media you will build an environment where your team can continuously develop to be their best and have space to innovate and find new channels to reach broader audiences with our messages. In particular, we are keen to do more to highlight the role of people power (community organising) in nature’s recovery.

You will have significant previous experience of generating compelling news stories and features, and ideally you will have been involved in publicising policy and campaigns. There is never a dull moment at The Wildlife Trusts and you will need to thrive working in an extremely fast-paced environment where organisational skills, prioritisation and attention to detail are a must. 

The Wildlife Trusts value passion, respect, trust, integrity, pragmatic activism and strength in diversity. Whilst we are passionate in promoting our aims, we are not judgmental and are inclusive. We particularly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented within our sector, including people from minority backgrounds and people with disabilities. We are committed to creating a movement that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities.

RSWT take our Safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously. The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk. For applicable roles, applicants must be willing to undergo checks with past employers and Disclosure and Barring Service checks at the eligible level.

As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to offering an interview to anyone with a disability that meets all the essential criteria for the post. Please let us know if you require any adjustments to make our recruitment process more accessible.

RSWT are committed to increasing the diversity of its staff through its Levelling the Field recruitment pledge and will put any ethnic minority applicants that meet all the essential criteria for the post through to the next stage of recruitment.

Please be aware we may not accept applications if we have reason to believe they have been wholly produced using generative AI tools.

Closing date for applications: 26th October 2025
First interview: 3rd November 2025
Second interview: 5th November 2025