Senior Instructor - Essex Outdoors Mersea and Essex Outdoors Harlow

Permanent, Full Time

£26,840 to £31,576 per annum

Location: East Mersea and Harlow

Join Essex Outdoors and help inspire the next generation through adventure, learning and the outdoors.

Essex Outdoors is a leading provider of outdoor education and residential experiences for schools across the East of England. With ambitious plans to grow our reach nationally, our vision is to establish Essex Outdoors as the UK's leading provider of outdoor residential experiences through innovation, quality and exceptional customer service.

We are looking for experienced and enthusiastic Senior Instructors to join our teams in Harlow and East Mersea and play a key role in delivering outstanding outdoor education programmes.

Our Centres

Mersea – A large centre in a wonderful coastal setting with views across the Blackwater Estuary. Mersea offers a vast selection of both land and water-based activities.

Harlow – A specialist climbing and paddle-sport centre, our Harlow site is also home to ‘The Lock’ – one of the largest indoor climbing walls in the Southeast.

For more information about the activities we offer, visit: Essex Outdoors

The Opportunity

Working closely with the Centre Manager and Assistant Manager, you will lead the development and delivery of high-quality outdoor education and National Governing Body (NGB) programmes. You will take a lead role in maintaining high standards of health and safety across all activity areas, ensuring equipment, facilities and resources are safe, compliant and well maintained.

This is a varied and rewarding position where you will supervise and support young people and adults both on and off-site, contribute to the delivery of residential programmes, and act as a positive role model. You will also play an important role in the training, development and assessment of staff, helping to maintain the excellent standards of delivery for which Essex Outdoors is known.

Key Responsibilities

Lead the development and delivery of high-quality outdoor education programmes.
Provide supervision, pastoral care and support for young people and adults participating in residential experiences.
Lead and contribute to staff training, development and assessment activities.
Coordinate health and safety across activity areas, ensuring compliance with Essex County Council requirements.
Monitor and evaluate programme effectiveness to drive continuous improvement.
Organise repairs, renewals and maintenance of activity equipment, buildings and grounds.
Support the allocation of resources and development of programmes to meet customer needs.
Deliver outdoor education programmes in the UK and overseas where required.
Recruit to and deliver NGB courses for staff and customers (Harlow Centre).

About You

We're looking for someone who is passionate about outdoor learning and committed to creating safe, engaging and memorable experiences for participants.

You will have:

At least two National Governing Body qualifications at coach level (three preferred), such as:

Paddle UK Core Coach / Paddle Leader
Rock Climbing Instructor (RCI)
Climbing Wall Instructor (CWI)
Mountain Leader (Summer)
ERCA qualifications

Significant experience delivering outdoor education and environmental programmes.
Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to motivate and engage both young people and adults.
Experience of maintaining safe activity environments and promoting best practice.
The ability to plan, develop, monitor and evaluate educational programmes.
Evidence of continuing professional development within the outdoor education sector.
A D1/D1E driving licence category is desirable.

Interviews

The selection process for this role will consist of two stages.

Stage 1 will involve an interview with the Centre Managers, during which you will be required to deliver a prepared presentation.
Stage 2 will include a tour of the centre, an opportunity to meet the team, and the delivery of a training session for the instructor team.

Stage 1 interviews will take place on Tuesday 29th September and Wednesday 30th September at Essex Outdoors Danbury.

If you're an experienced outdoor professional looking to take the next step in your career and help shape exceptional outdoor learning experiences, we'd love to hear from you.

Please note that visa sponsorship is not available for this role. Applicants must have a current, unrestricted right to work in the UK.

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

In March 2026, the Government announced that councils in Greater Essex will be reorganised into five new unitary authorities from April 2028. In addition to this, Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk

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