Senior Gardener

Hours / Weeks: 40 hours per week

Benefits: You will receive excellent benefits including a generous holiday allowance of 38 days including Bank Holidays, a generous pension scheme (OSPS), free lunch when working and discounted bus travel, amongst other benefits.

About the College:

Worcester College is one of the 39 constituent Colleges of the University of Oxford and is home to a vibrant academic community of around 75 Fellows, a lively and varied student body of around 400 undergraduates and 200 graduates, and a dedicated expert team of 150 professional staff, all representing a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. The College strategy is to be a forward-looking college (https://www.worc.ox.ac.uk/news-events/news/introducing-our-five-year-college-strategy). Our values are excellence, inspiration, community, inclusivity and trustworthiness. The College is situated at the heart of Oxford in a beautiful environment that the whole community enjoys.

Job Responsibilities:

The purpose of the role is to create and maintain the gardens at Worcester College. The work involves plant cultivation and care, planting, soft landscaping, path maintenance, hedge and shrub trimming, pruning, mowing, watering, mulching, weeding and chemical weed control, and pest and disease control.

Key responsibilities for this role include:

• Providing specialist expertise in planting and pruning, including glasshouse work.
• Supporting with process improvement through keeping up to date with industry practices.
• Visiting other gardens to generate ideas for Worcester College grounds.
• Responsibility for health and safety requirements including writing risk assessments, and keeping up to date with knowledge in this area.
• Checking of all Gardens machinery, including maintaining service records.
• Supervising more junior members of the team.
• Engaging with visitors, including Old Members / Alumni to provide high quality, knowledgeable, professional tours of the Grounds.
• Assisting with procurement and record keeping.
• Supporting the Head of Grounds in any garden-related projects.
• Seeking out professional development opportunities. 

Person Specification Summary: 

The successful candidate will hold a Horticulture qualification (at least Level 2) and have experience of working in gardens, glasshouse work and higher plant / pruning knowledge and an awareness of biodiversity, as well as being up to date with industry practices. You will also be aware of Health and Safety requirements and computer literate.

Closing date: Thursday 3^rd July 2025

If you are offered the post, the offer will be subject to standard pre-employment checks including Right to Work, proof of identity and two references (including your most recent employer

Worcester College is equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified candidates from all backgrounds. Worcester College actively welcomes diversity amongst its staff and students. As a Disability Confident employer, all reasonable adjustments will be made to the recruitment process, working arrangements and/or environment to accommodate applicants with any form of disability.

Please note If you do not hear from us within a week after the deadline, please note that we will not be taking your application further.

Please note that we hold the right to close this vacancy prior to the end date if a suitable candidate is found.  

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