Collection Manager

WWT Washington
North-East England

Closing date for applications is: 17th Feb 2026.

Contact:
Recruitment Team () | Sector:
Conservation | Type:
Paid | Contract type:
Full-time | Salary: £27,847 per annum

WWT Washington is an urban oasis on the banks of the River Wear. A mosaic of man-made wetlands and supporting habitats, our living collection serves to connect visitors with the wonder of wetlands.

This is an opportunity to lead our collection team in telling our stories, bringing people nose to beak with our birds and falling in love with our otters. Providing our animals with the very best care, managing a diverse team of staff and volunteers and maintaining and developing our exhibits and care facilities, you’ll work alongside our central animal care team to embed systems of work and ensure compliance.

This is an annualised hours contract based on an average of 37.5 hours per week. Salary will be paid in equal monthly amounts.

Our ideal candidate will have:

• Degree or Diploma in relevant subject
• Full current driving licence
• Demonstrable experience in a similar role within a large estate, park, zoo or other visitor based animal attraction
• Experience in animal management, including aviculture, incubation and biosecurity
• Experienced in value driven leadership, demonstrating good management, organisation and development of full-time keepers and volunteers
• Operation of grounds maintenance machinery & equipment
• Use of MS Office software (e.g. Outlook, Word, Excel)

You’ll form part of the leadership team here, championing our values and behaviours framework to create a welcoming, engaging, inclusive space, whilst driving our culture of continuous improvement and development of both our offer and our people.

Cross-departmental working is at the heart of our operation here, providing great opportunities to develop your knowledge and experience of all aspects of our nature reserve and operation as a leading local visitor attraction, alongside leading the collection team in their core duties.

We reserve the right to close the advert early if we receive a sufficient number of applications from candidates who meet the required skills and experience. We therefore encourage early applications.

• Wake up every day knowing your work is helping to restore wetlands, and our world
• Be surrounded and inspired by our team of passionate, dedicated people
• 33 days annual leave (which goes up to 38 days after 5 years of service) – this includes bank holidays and you have flexibility to take those days whenever you want
• Free entry to all our wetland centres, including your family
• Free car parking and secure bike storage areas
• Colleague discount on shopping and memberships
• Cycle to work scheme
• Contributory pension scheme
• Life Assurance of three times your salary
• Independent personal, workplace and financial advice from our Employee Assistance Programme

WWT is an equal opportunities employer and all applications will be considered solely on merit.

Registered Charity Number England & Wales, no 1030884 and Scotland, no SC039410

For more information, and to apply for the role, please follow the link: