Are you passionate about protecting and improving rivers?  

Mersey Rivers Trust is looking for a Senior Project & Partnerships Manager to lead environmental projects, drive partnerships, and manage a small team delivering real change across the Upper Mersey and Irwell river catchments in Greater Manchester. You'll work with key stakeholders, secure funding, oversee project delivery, and make a tangible impact on our rivers. 

If you have strong leadership, partnership and project management skills, we want to hear from you!

Location: Greater Manchester (Home-based with travel across Greater Manchester)

Salary: £37,000 - £39,000

Contract: Full-time, 37.5 hours per week

Closing date: 28th March 2025

Interviews: w/c 31st March 2025

Interested?  Please email your CV (no more than two sides of A4) and a covering letter (no more than two sides of A4), outlining how you meet the requirements of the person specification and job description to the Operations & Delivery Director, Paul Henbrey: paulh@merseyrivers.org

More information:

Your work will focus on the Upper Mersey and Irwell river catchments, where the rivers that form the Mersey have their source on the moorlands of the Peak District & Pennine hills, flowing through the towns of Greater Manchester to the cities of Manchester and Salford and into the Manchester Ship Canal.

Your role will be to develop projects designed to improve the health of watercourses in the Upper Mersey and Irwell catchments, contribute to reducing flood risk, and engage communities in caring for their local river. You will lead a team of two project managers, and work closely with a wide range of partners, stakeholders and communities (local authorities, other eNGOs, businesses, local community groups and volunteers) to deliver these projects. 

Much of our work is delivered in partnership with others; your relationships will be so close that it will often seem like you are colleagues in the same organisation.  You will host the Upper Mersey Catchment Partnership, bringing key partners together to plan and deliver improvements to the rivers across the catchment (Rivers Tame, Goyt, upper Mersey, Bollin). 

This is an exciting time for us with multiple projects underway or in development.  For example, we have just received a large donation to fund a 4-year project to transform the River Tame, from its source to Stockport, where it joins the River Goyt to form the River Mersey. Part of your role will be to use this donation as a basis to leverage further funding to expand our river improvement programme.

Key experience we are looking for you to bring to this role:

• Working collaboratively with a varied range of partners and stakeholders
• Leading and supporting a dedicated project team
• Designing and delivering projects
• Managing project budgets
• Writing funding bids

Key competencies:

• Clear and effective communication skills, orally and in writing
• Ability and willingness to listen, understand others’ perspectives and build consensus
• Ability to plan and organise a team’s activities to deliver successful outcomes
• Capacity to respond flexibly to changes in circumstances and adapt projects accordingly
• Understanding of environmental processes, ideally relating to the water environment, and the application of that understanding in project development and design

A full role profile is available on request or if you have any questions about the role, please email Paul Henbrey: paulh@merseyrivers.org