About us
Evenlode Landscape Recovery (ELR) is delivering one of Defra’s ambitious 25-year Landscape Recovery programmes across the North East Cotswolds. Spanning approximately 3,031 hectares and around 50 farm holdings in the Dorn, Glyme and Evenlode river catchments, the programme brings together farmers, landowners and partners to restore rivers and habitats, improve water quality, reduce flood risk and create lasting environmental and economic value.
ELR works hand in hand with the North East Cotswold Farmer Cluster CIC, a farmer-led community interest company committed to nature-friendly farming at a landscape scale. Together we combine ambitious environmental delivery with a genuinely collaborative, farmer-first approach. As we move into an exciting delivery phase, we are building a talented team to help us realise our long-term vision.
The role
The Contracts & Site Supervisor is the link between our delivery contracts and the works on the ground. Combining hands-on site supervision with contract administration, you’ll make sure woodland, habitat, river and natural flood management works across the programme are delivered safely, to specification, on programme and to a high standard of quality — protecting both the environmental outcomes and the interests of the farmers and landowners we work with.
The job is roughly two-thirds on site and one-third at a desk, and both halves matter. Works on a publicly funded 25-year programme have to be evidenced as well as delivered. Every certified invoice, agreed variation, insurance renewal and completion record has to stand up to Natural England, to external audit and to our investors, sometimes years after the diggers have left.
You pick each contract up at a formal handover from the procurement team and own it from that point. You have the authority to stop work on site immediately where you see a health and safety risk, an environmental risk, or a departure from specification — you do not need to ask first, and we will back you. You agree and record variations that do not change the contract value. Anything that changes the money goes back through the approval route in our Delegated Authority and Procurement Matrix: you prepare it and route it, and someone else signs it off.
Key responsibilities
Site supervision
- Supervise contractors and delivery works on site across the programme’s holdings, carrying out regular site visits, inspections and progress monitoring
- Act as the day-to-day point of contact for contractors, holding works to specification, programme and budget
- Carry out quality assurance and snagging of completed works, so that outcomes meet design intent and programme standards
- Stop works where you need to, and escalate quickly with a practical recommendation attached
Health, safety and environment
- Set clear health, safety and environmental expectations with contractors on site, and hold them to those expectations
- Review risk assessments and method statements (RAMS), and ensure duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) are properly discharged across works
- Work safely alone in remote locations under our Lone Working Policy, and make sure contractors are doing the same
Contract administration
- Take contracts at formal handover from the Procurement Co-ordinator, countersigning the handover pack and attending the kick-off meeting with the contractor and the relevant workstream lead
- Administer works and design-services contracts through their lifecycle — mobilisation, progress certification, variations, snagging and completion
- Administer post-completion obligations as well: establishment, aftercare, maintenance and monitoring periods under habitat management and monitoring plans, so that commitments running for years after practical completion stay tracked and enforced rather than quietly forgotten
- Certify contractor invoices and applications for payment against the purchase order and the contract terms before they reach Finance
- Route value-changing variations for approval before instruction, and keep cumulative variations visible against original contract value so nothing creeps past a threshold unnoticed
- Monitor contractor insurance renewals against recorded expiry dates, and suspend work where cover has lapsed
- Work closely with the Procurement Co-ordinator and the Permits, Licences & Consents Administrator to ensure works are properly contracted, consented and sequenced
Farmers and landowners
- Build and maintain trusted relationships with participating farmers and landowners. Alongside our Farm Liaison team, you’ll be the person they know and can raise a problem with
- Co-ordinate site access, timings and reinstatement with farm businesses, minimising disruption to farming operations
- Handle it well where a member of the farmer cluster is themselves delivering a contract, keeping the contractual relationship clean and the personal one intact
Records, reporting and escalation
- Maintain accurate site records, progress reports and photographic evidence, in the format needed to support grant claims, checkpoint reporting and audit
- Keep contract register entries current — value, cumulative variations, insurance expiries, completion dates and status
- Work confidently in our systems: Xero for purchase orders and invoice certification, ArcGIS Online and AirTable for spatial and site data, and our shared document and reporting tools
- Complete a supplier performance note at closeout covering quality, programme, commercial conduct and health and safety, which feeds directly into future procurement decisions
- Identify and escalate risks, delays and issues promptly, with a practical recommendation attached
Person specification
Essential
- Demonstrable experience of both supervising contractors on site and administering works contracts.
- That experience might have come from construction, civil engineering, utilities, forestry, land-based work or environmental delivery. We are interested in the transferable skill rather than the sector: works delivered on someone else’s land, to a specification and a programme, with someone answerable for the quality of the result
- Sound understanding of health and safety on site, including CDM duties, RAMS and safe systems of work
- Accurate and disciplined record-keeping, with an understanding of why an audit trail matters when public money is involved and the habit of keeping one without being chased
- Confident with digital tools for site records, photographs and reporting
- Strong organisational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple sites and priorities at once
- A confident communicator, able to build rapport with contractors, farmers and colleagues alike
- Based within reasonable daily travel of the North East Cotswolds (Oxfordshire / Gloucestershire)
- Full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle for regular travel across the programme area
- Comfortable working outdoors in all weathers and across varied rural terrain
Desirable
- Valid CSCS card
- First Aid at Work qualification
- Experience of forms of contract
- Experience of contract administration in a grant-funded, publicly funded or otherwise audited environment
- Knowledge of natural flood management, river restoration or habitat creation works
- Familiarity with environmental land management schemes (ELMs), agri-environment delivery or the agricultural sector
- Experience of working in a start-up, small charity, NGO or other community-focused organisation or a clear appetite for the particular challenges of a farmer-led, community-rooted programme
Attitude
- Takes pride in work finished properly, with snagging closed out rather than left open
- Calm and fair under pressure, with contractors and farmers alike
- Willing to make a call on site and stand behind it
- Comfortable in an organisation smaller and less resourced than a main contractor
- Genuinely cares about the countryside this programme is restoring, and about the farm businesses it depends on
How we work
- We’re a small team delivering a scheme at a serious scale, which means the process is still being built as we go. You’ll help shape how delivery works on the ground, and your remit will be wider than your job title suggests
- We move quickly and fix things as we learn, rather than waiting for the perfect process before we start
- You’ll be trusted with real responsibility early, including the authority to stop works on site
- We’re a close team. You’ll work directly with the people making the decisions
- Field-based first: most of your week will be out on farms across the programme area, with home working for the admin
What you’ll get
- Real ownership from the start, in a delivery function that’s being built rather than maintained
- Genuine variety: river restoration, natural flood management and habitat creation across around 50 farm holdings
- A written procurement and contract handover procedure to work to, so you know where your authority starts and where it stops
- Support to develop professionally, including relevant site-safety qualifications
- Flexible working, a workplace pension and a generous annual leave entitlement
- The chance to play a meaningful part in a flagship, long-term environmental programme
Pay: £30,000.00-£34,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company pension
- Flexitime
- Sick pay
- Work from home
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Oxford (Oxfordshire)
