Are you an experienced ecologist looking for a way to work on your own terms, and select only the jobs that appeal to you from a wide range of opportunities? You could be freelance already, or perhaps work in a consulting, regulatory or conservation role, and want to boost your experience and income?
Unbelievably, in the last nine months alone, Arbtech has quoted on over 36,000 surveys and won more than 11,000 of them. For tree, ecology and BNG services, we truly are the UK’s most trusted consultant by the planning and development sector.
While the overwhelming majority of our work is undertaken by our 120-strong team of directly employed staff, we still rely upon a close-knit team of trusted Associates (sub-consultants), to help us cope with the demand for our services, so that our clients’ projects are kept moving (all year, not just seasonally).
Consequently, we’re inviting applications to join our Associates Programme from experienced ecologists anywhere in the UK!
Nota bene that we advertise for bat emergence survey freelancing separately. For more details on these and other seasonal roles in 2025, please visit the current vacancies section of our website.
Becoming an associate is a great way to earn generous survey payments on an ad-hoc basis, fitting surveys around your life and other work, as and when you choose. As an Arbtech Associate, you will get:
Arbtech undertakes all types of terrestrial and aquatic ecology work, around the UK, from which our Associates can pick and choose. Typically, our Associates can demonstrate competence* in one or more of the following types of ecological assessment. Of course, the more of these you can do, the more opportunities you’ll be able to choose from.
*We have several methods of determining competence depending upon the type of work you want to do, including but not limited to submitting examples of your recent work, joining us on-site for a survey, and of course, a technical interview. In some cases – such as freelance bat emergence surveying, we have developed online training materials and assessments to validate your competence in line with the CIEEM competency framework and other best practice publications.
Our Associates need to be able to perform ecology surveys competently and independently, without significant training. We’ll help you learn to use our report templates, and our internal systems and processes, but expect you already know how to do the fieldwork and author a report or licence. For surveys that require a protected species licence, you will need to hold that license yourself.
Beyond that, our Associates need to be reliable, proactive and self-organised and hold themselves to a high standard of fieldwork and report writing.
“I have been working as a sub-contractor with Arbtech for just over a year now. I find it fantastic working with Arbtech. All of the staff are extremely knowledgable, friendly, approachable and generally amazing to work with. Their working processes are extremely efficient, ensuring I am always kept in the loop and work is easy to keep on top of. Long may it continue.”
Gareth, Halifax
“Subcontracting for Arbtech has been fantastic. I have the complete freedom to pick work as and when I want it, in locations that suit me and at times of my choosing. The head office team are amazing and provide brilliant support. I have got to see a wide variety of interesting sites and I am extremely excited to carry on working with Arbtech in the future.”
Helen, Kent
Simply send us your CV, any recent examples of your work, your location and a list of the surveys you can do independently to [email protected].
Please use the following format in your email subject: “[NAME] – ARBTECH ASSOCIATE”
We’ll arrange a brief chat to make sure the Associates Programme is right for you, and then we’ll be able to onboard out to our system and offer you work.