Natural Areas Environment Officer

Why work with us?

At Council, we’re proud of our region. We collaborate with community to achieve truly sustainable outcomes, enhance our enviable lifestyle, and create award-winning places and spaces that are uniquely Sunshine Coast. So, if you love it here as much as we do, and you want to shape our region for the future – you’ll want to join our team!

With the vision to be Australia’s most sustainable region - Connected. Liveable. Thriving, our region is a model of sustainability, where caring for our environment, creating vibrant communities and growing our local economy is a way of life.

About the Role

Sunshine Coast council’s Vision is Australia’s most sustainable region. Our focus is to enable an outstanding quality of life for our residents with an accessible, well-built environment. This motivates us to think about the way we work and the impact our decisions have on our community and environment.  We’re in a very special part of the world and every day our people help shape it.

On the Sunshine Coast we are fortunate to enjoy many of nature’s diverse landscapes. Our Council is not only committed to maintaining and enhancing these natural assets, but liveability within the region. This is a pivotal position in helping us achieve just that, securing a sustainable future for our environment and community.

The Natural Areas Environment Officer is responsible for implementing flora and fauna offset projects, developing contract and technical documents to support offset projects, and monitoring existing offset projects for environmental compliance.

In this position you will:

• Support coordination and oversight of contractor delivery of works within the environment offsets program, using relevant systems and resources such as works plans, technical specifications and Bushland Operational Assessments.
• Prepare environmental offset plans for clients, including all aspects of contract management and corporate approvals associated with external third-party agreements.
• Undertake field inspections and data collection and analysis using Council’s geospatial software.
• Identify new opportunities to deliver ongoing environmental offsets onto appropriate Council managed lands.
• Scope out project parameters, obtain quotes through suppliers and negotiate outcomes on behalf of Council.

About you

Confident in your experience within natural resource management, you will be able to hit the ground running within the Natural Areas Management team. Your exposure to the field has equipped you with innovative approaches that you can professionally implement to deliver environmental offset projects that are practical, economical and sustainable.

As a requirement of this role, you’ll have:

• Tertiary qualifications in either Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management, Conservation Land Management or equivalent.
• Demonstrated skills in planning, coordination and delivery of bushland regeneration programs, plant and weed identification, habitat assessment and management of ecologically sensitive areas.
• Knowledge and experience with legislative and reporting requirements related to environmental offsets and management, and;
• General Safety Induction (Construction Industry) card.

In return, you’ll be working with a progressive organisation which strives to be our best and work as one team to deliver high standards of service excellence.

Plus you’ll enjoy all of the lifestyle benefits the Sunshine Coast has to offer.

Our Culture & Employee Benefits

Council is committed to creating an inclusive, culturally diverse, healthy, skilled and dedicated workplace culture. As an employee you will enjoy a range of benefits and working styles to suit you:

• Wellbeing: Your wellbeing is important to us therefore we offer a number of different initiatives such as discounted health related memberships, fitness passport, employee assistance program and development opportunities. 
• Flexibility: We know it is important to balance life and work, therefore we offer flexible working including a 9-day fortnight and a hybrid WFH model that help you be your best.
• Extras: Those extras make a difference therefore we offer salary packaging options on novated leases, superannuation, smartphones and devices.

How to apply

Your written application should include:

• A 1-2 page cover letter demonstrating your ability to fulfil the mandatory and desirable requirements on the Position Profile. Keep the key responsibilities in mind when addressing this criteria; and
• A current resume or curriculum vitae.

Once you have these two documents ready, click ‘Apply Now’ and follow the prompts to complete your application.

Further Information

Helpful information to assist you in completing your application is available on the Sunshine Coast Council website.

To learn more about Council’s vision and projects, you can view the Corporate Plan 2025-2030.

For specific enquiries contact Chris Steele during business hours on 0427 965 085.

We're working hard to create an inclusive workplace that reflects the diverse community we serve. If you require adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process, please reach out to the Recruitment Team [email protected].

At Sunshine Coast Council, we embrace differences in gender, age, ethnicity, race, cultural background including First Nations, disability, religion and sexual orientation. To deliver the best service to our region we want a workforce that reflects the diverse community that we serve. Sunshine Coast Council strongly encourages all suitable applicants to apply for this role.