Ornithologist – Airport Safeguarding

Office Base:                            Home working with opportunities for field work

Working Location:                   UK (potential international opportunities)

Working Hours:                       37.5 hours per week. Monday to Friday. One year contract with possibility of permanency. Part time working will be considered.

Start:                                       Immediate.

Salary:                                     Competitive.

Background

An exciting opportunity exists to join our expanding team at Birdstrike Management Ltd. BML provide a global bird and wildlife consultancy service to assist the aviation industry with reducing the risks of birdstrikes. We are currently seeking an individual with good ornithological/ecological skills to support with the airport safeguarding and bird monitoring side of our business. The main focus on the role would be assessing planning applications that could increase the risk of birdstrikes at aerodromes and writing customer reports and bird management plans to ensure the airports are appropriately safeguarded. This role would be home based.

In addition, there may be opportunities to:

• Conduct ornithological field surveys and counts of birds that could be hazardous to aviation in the vicinity of UK aerodromes.
• Identifying bird remains and assisting with data analysis.
• Writing ornithological summary reports for customers based on field work and airport wildlife data.

You will be working in a small team and reporting to a Safeguarding Manager.

Requirements

BML will be pleased to consider applications from people able to demonstrate the right capabilities. Applicants should send a CV to andy.jowett@birdstrike.co.uk and should be able to demonstrate the following:

Your ability to:

• Accurately identify common British bird species.
• Carry out Ornithological fieldwork
• Understand bird ecology and habitat use in a range of environments and how planning proposals may affect this.
• Accurately record and store data.
• Use Microsoft Office including Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint for communications, basic word processing and data logging.
• Write customer reports in line with BML policy.
• Liaise effectively with colleagues, clients, and members of the public.
• Evidence an ability to self-manage time to complete a work program.
• Travel to different UK locations and have / or be able to use suitable transport to undertake site visits and surveys in isolated locations if necessary.

Training will be provided to the successful applicant. Please do provide us with any additional information relating to experience/knowledge of the following areas.

• Presentation skills and experience of using (for example) PowerPoint.
• An understanding of bird behaviours.
• Assessing planning applications for the effects on wildlife presence.
• Any aerodrome bird hazard management experience.

• An understanding of aviation bird/wildlife strike risk issues.
• An understanding of UK wildlife licensing.
• Experience with QGIS or similar mapping software.

You will also be required to confirm that you have a passport or other suitable form of identification that can be used to enable access on to aerodromes.

A full UK driving licence is essential if carrying out Ornithological fieldwork. MOD security clearance will need to be applied for once employed. BML will cover any costs towards this.

If carrying out fieldwork, you will need to be able to work away from home for up to five working days at a time as much of the work will be based around UK aerodromes.

The successful applicant will join, and be supported by, a friendly team of expert staff and will have the opportunity to develop a career in this unique field of employment. Staff members receive a generous annual leave allowance, will be enrolled into a company pension scheme and may have the opportunity to visit sites around the globe as part of their development.

Closing date

The closing date for applications is the 2nd March 2026.

Response

We will aim to review all applications within two weeks of the closing date and will inform candidates if we wish to take up references and invite you for interview.

Successful applicants will then be invited for formal interview that may include a check of your ornithological skills and a request to provide a short presentation to the interview panel.

Contact information

Andy Jowett