Café Shift Leader

Salary: £13,760 (pro rata) per annum (£24,697 FTE), £13.57 per hour

Contract: Permanent 

Hours: 19.5 hours per week, according to rota. Alternate weekend working and occasional bank holidays and evenings.

Based: College Lake Nature Reserve, Tring

The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust has a vision for “more nature everywhere, for everyone”. We’re working hard to create an inclusive culture, where everyone feels they belong. This includes you being comfortable bringing your whole self to work, and us co-working with the diverse communities we serve to ensure we are meeting everyone’s needs. 

The Café Shift Leader will help nature recover by delivering an excellent guest experience at our busy café located in College Lake nature reserve, Tring. 

What you’ll be doing

• Food and drink preparation, including cooking a basic menu and baking.
• Supervising the daily operation of our busy café to deliver a positive guest experience and maximise income opportunities.
• Carrying out the daily opening and closing procedures for the café including food safety and hygiene checks.
• Assist the Café Supervisor with ordering the ordering of stock and developing a vibrant seasonal menu for the café and events hosted at the reserve.

What we’re looking for

• Café or similar customer focused hospitality environment skills
• Baking, cooking, or other food preparation skills
• Food Hygiene Level 2 qualification with ability to attain Food Hygiene Level 3
• A calm and welcoming approach in dealing with the public and colleagues
• Ability to coordinate a team and resources to adapt to changing demands in the café  

For all your hard work you can expect a great rewards package in return. In addition to being part of a friendly, skilled and knowledgeable team, passionate about making a difference, when you work for us, you’ll also receive

• Generous annual leave entitlement with paid birthday leave, balance days, urgent personal business leave and generous occupational sick pay
• Enhanced maternity, paternity, and family-friendly policies
• Flexible working to achieve work-life balance
• Salary exchange pension with generous employer contribution
• Learning & Development Programme for all
• Wellbeing initiatives including qualified Mental Health First Aiders, YuLife benefit package - access to immediate and confidential help for any work, health, or life matters; 3x life assurance, online GP access, discounts and trade YuCoin points for gift cards
• Salary sacrifice Cycle scheme & Electric Vehicle scheme
• Membership to BBOWT’s, and The Wildlife Trusts’, Staff Network Groups for social interaction, peer support, mentoring and personal development

How to apply 

For full details, please read the job description and T&Cs below. To apply, please follow the application link.

This role is accepting applications on a rolling basis and the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy once a suitable applicant is found.

The first round of interviews are likely to take place face to face at College Lake on 17^th and 18^th December 2025, and on a rolling basis, thereafter, if we are unsuccessful in appointing on these dates.

BBOWT values diversity and inclusion and the benefits this brings. We want every candidate to have the best chance of success as part of this process. In order to do this, we know that some candidates will need reasonable adjustments. Contact us on recruitment@bbowt.org.uk if there are any reasonable adjustments we can provide during the recruitment process, including completing your application. 

When applying for the role you can expect to answer a few questions online relating to the skills required and what you would be doing in the role. Your responses will be anonymised, randomised, and scored by a panel of reviewers. 

We don't use an application form, or CVs - your answers to our situational based questions will be scored against a review guide and scores from these will decide which candidates go through to the interview stage.  See here to find out why we do this.

Whilst we appreciate ChatGPT and other AI platforms can answer these questions, we know what they have to say (and generally the answer they generate isn't great). We want to hear your perspective written in your own words. If it is clear that any of your answers are not your own work, we reserve the right to reject your application on that basis. 

You’ll also be asked for information about your background, anything you feel comfortable sharing will be anonymised and will not be shared as part of the selection process, it will only be used to help us understand how we are performing against our equal opportunities metrics. All candidates will receive feedback on their application. 

We want our people to be as diverse as nature, so we particularly encourage applications from people who are underserved within the communities in which we operate. This includes people from visible ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities (including those who are neurodivergent), the LGBTQ+ community, those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and younger people. We are committed to creating an organisation that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities. 

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, The Lodge, 1 Armstrong Road, Littlemore, Oxford Oxon OX4 4XT 

Registered Charity No. 204330 www.bbowt.org.uk