Manager - Conservation Outreach & Citizen Science

The Manager – Conservation Outreach & Citizen Science leads and advances EN-WWF’s outreach, volunteer, citizen science and community engagement programmes, ensuring they are strategically aligned with the organisation’s conservation priorities and deliver measurable impact.

The role is responsible for elevating and strengthening existing programmes, improving their design, effectiveness, and reach. This includes developing inspirational, science-based and community-led initiatives, and adapting them for diverse audiences such as rural communities and youth. Programmes are expected to be tightly monitored, evidence-driven, and continuously refined to maximise conservation and behaviour-change outcomes.

The Manager provides strong project and operational leadership across complex initiatives, overseeing logistics, event planning, stakeholder engagement, community management, and coordination with communications and marketing teams. A key expectation of the role is to improve operational efficiency, streamline delivery models, and leverage economies of scale across programmes while maintaining quality and impact.

As a senior lead, the Manager leads and mentors multi-layered teams, including staff, interns, freelance instructors, consultants and volunteers, ensuring effective delivery, capacity building, and full compliance with organisational policies and procedures.
The role works closely with cross-functional teams (including Fundraising, Communications, Strategy & Growth and Programme Delivery) to enable integrated planning, smooth operations, and strategic alignment. The Manager may also hold responsibility for selected partner account management, ensuring strong relationships, clear deliverables, and high standards of stewardship.

Emirates Nature is a UAE environmental non-governmental charity, established in 2001 under the Honorary Founder and President H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan as a legacy of the late Sheikh Zayed’s vision for the United Arab Emirates. HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the Ruler’s representative in the Al Dhafra Region and Chairman of Environmental Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) Board of Directors.

We operate with offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Fujairah and are governed by a local board of directors.

Emirates Nature works in association with WWF, one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations. Emirates Nature-WWF has been active in the UAE for two decades and is renowned for its commitment to biodiversity conservation, habitat protection, sustainable development, and community engagement. Some of our flagship projects include marine conservation initiatives to protect coral reefs and marine species, wildlife conservation programs focusing on endangered species such as Arabian oryx and sea turtles, habitat restoration projects in critical ecosystems, and sustainable development initiatives aimed at mitigating climate change impacts and promoting eco-friendly practices across various sectors.

It is our organizational objective to ensure a high performing workforce within our offices with highly efficient, skilled members all of whom will be unilaterally focused on supporting and delivering conservation activities to our stakeholders within the UAE.

• Implement the vision for transformative community engagement for conservation impact and resilient communities.
• Manage the outreach project deliverables, calendar of events, manning, logistics, and budgets for the successful delivery of our strategies.
• Lead on the development of citizen science and volunteer workplans for the EN-WWF community (including youth and schools). Support with the development of detailed activity plans.
• Implement systems and frameworks that help the team to coordinate admin tasks, correspondence, field-work planning, equipment preparation and permit applications.
• Manage the capacity building process internally and externally, including citizen science, voluntourism, rural community engagement and soft skills. Ensure accurate data collection and adherence to protocol. Support with the compilation and analysis of citizen science and impact data.
• Participate in conservation portfolio activities to ensure immersion on projects and better understanding of project goals.
• Ensure that vendors and project teams are following strict Health and Safety standards and manage the risk and emergency response plans for these activities.
• Develop content and accompanying materials to support operations and the community in their journey.
• Contribute to impact reporting, storytelling and Monitoring & Evaluation.
• Support with the creation of toolkits and with the organisation of workshops, meetings, trainings and majlis'.
• Keep abreast of international best practices and regional activities to ensure that the solutions that EN-WWF offers are always relevant.
• Identify scope of work, create vendor proposals and engage with vendors for contract development and deliverables.
• Support with procurement, keep track of expenses and invoices, and support budget management.
• Effectively train, mentor and supervise team members, freelance instructors, consultants, interns, ambassadors, and volunteers to assist in advocacy and delivery of activities.
• Maintain an effective working relationship and foster collaboration with strategic partners and communities, ensuring effective coordination of all activities in support of joint objectives.
• Support the management of digital tools and their evolution. Work with the Communications and Digital teams to develop messaging and content for outreach initiatives.
• Ensure that the team delivers a seamless chain of communication and support with enquiry handling and communications with the community.
• Analyse and report on volunteer satisfaction and community insights as well as brand sentiment for adaptive management, and contribute to impact reporting and M&E for membership products.
• Represent EN-WWF in meetings and government-led workshops, to the extent possible.
• Identify strategic opportunities and support with fundraising.

• Experience and background in project management, event operations, environmental outreach, sustainability, ecology, nature conservation or similar.
• Interest and knowledge of local biodiversity and its conservation.
• At least 8 years of experience and a strong working background in project management, outreach activities, citizen science, field volunteering or similar.
• Data literate and reliable with accuracy of data.

Education:

• Degree in Environmental Science, Ecology or a relevant field.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English; Arabic is highly desirable.

• Ability to explain complex concepts in simple terms.
• Ability to think strategically and creatively, generating innovative ways to drive nature conservation.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills and ability to perform under pressure.
• Ability to influence, persuade and obtain consensus to achieve results.
• Energetic, creative, and confident public speaker.
• Proven stakeholder management and relationship-building skills.
• Demonstrable ability to work effectively in multi-disciplinary and multicultural teams.
• Proactive and proficient at multitasking and analytical skills.
• Produce high quality products/services with attention to detail.
• Supportive, constructive, and open to influence when dealing with others.
• Friendly, open, and sensitive to the satisfaction of others.
• Experience of multidisciplinary communications approaches.

Internal – Works closely with the Fundraising, Marketing & Engagement, Communications, Programme Delivery and Conservation units to ensure coordinated planning, efficient implementation and alignment with organisational priorities.

External – Works with community stakeholders, volunteers, consultants, suppliers, corporates, schools, academic institutions and relevant government entities to support programme delivery, partnerships and outreach objectives.

Emirates Nature-WWF is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome diversity in the workplace and offer a flexible and diverse place of employment.

Emirates Nature-WWF staff participate wholeheartedly in general activities and events that require the full support and participation of all staff members, whether the focus of any particular event or activity has any bearing on the job description and assigned project objectives and activities.

Please send your application consisting of a cover letter explaining why you are the right candidate to work with EN-WWF and your CV with the subject ‘Application: Manager – Conservation Outreach & Citizen Science’ to the attention of Ms Magdalena Tayoun on careers@enwwf.ae before 30th December 2025.

Emirates Nature reserves the right to appoint a candidate prior this date.