Vacancies

Full-time (35 hours), permanent, based in Edinburgh

Salary: £31,080 plus civil service pension, generous holiday entitlement and other benefits

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a world-leading botanical institute and international visitor attraction located in the centre of Edinburgh. Our work builds on our long history as a scientific botanic garden and centre of education with internationally important botanical collections and a commitment to the study and conservation of plants. Situated in the heart of Edinburgh, the garden is a sanctuary for a wide range of plant species, attracting visitors from all corners of the globe.

We are seeking a passionate and experienced Senior Horticulturist to join our Herbaceous team. The successful candidate will help us achieve our vision to provide a positive future for plants, people, and the planet by exploring, conserving, and explaining the world of plants for a better future.

Key responsibilities include:

• Work in key areas of the garden, maintaining the high horticultural standards seen across the garden.
• Propose and implement ideas to improve plantings and standards of presentation.
• Organise work plans and complete daily maintenance tasks.
• Supervise students and volunteers, ensuring their safety and the quality of their work.
• Maintain plant records and horticultural equipment.
• Manage the garden to deliver a world-class visitor experience while also developing and conserving the living collection.

You should have extensive experience in horticulture, particularly in herbaceous plant cultivation and garden management, a strong knowledge of plant identification, propagation techniques, and pest/disease management, excellent organisational and communication skills, be able to work independently and as part of a team and have a passion for plants and a commitment to conservation and sustainability.

To apply please email recruitment@rbge.org.uk with:

• your CV
• a covering letter outlining the skills, knowledge and experience you’d bring to the post
• a completed equal opportunities questionnaire: EOQ form

Closing date:                              Monday, 21 April 2025 (midnight)

Interview date:                           Tuesday, 29 April 2025  

Recruitment Information:         Job description and person specification

If you have not heard from us within 2 weeks of the closing date, please assume that your application has not been shortlisted. No recruitment agencies please.

Full-time (35 hours), permanent, based in Edinburgh
Salary: £25,424 plus civil service pension, generous holiday entitlement and other benefits

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is one of the world’s leading scientific botanic gardens, holding knowledge gained over centuries that the world needs today. All known life depends on plants and fungi, and it is our mission to explore, conserve, and explain the world of plants for a better future. Our four Scottish gardens – Benmore, Dawyck, Logan, and ‘The Botanics’ in Edinburgh – attract over a million visitors every year. Together, these gardens comprise one of the richest plant collections on earth.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Horticulturist to join our Alpine, Rock and Woodland team on a permanent basis. Based primarily in the Rock and Woodland gardens, you will be responsible for general horticultural activities including weeding, watering, planting, propagation, grass cutting, and helping to develop garden areas. You will also maintain plant records and work on projects within the alpine, rock, and woodland areas. You will develop your knowledge of RBGE to benefit visitors, staff, and students and will actively support our volunteers.

You should be an experienced Horticulturist with a practical horticultural qualification at SVQ level 2 or equivalent or have relevant practical work experience. You will have an interest in alpine, rock, and woodland plants, have experience in garden maintenance and propagation techniques, be a positive team player with the ability to work independently, have good attention to detail and comfortable with taking instruction and working to deadlines.

To apply please email recruitment@rbge.org.uk with:
•    your CV
•    a covering letter outlining the skills, knowledge and experience you’d bring to the post
•    a completed equal opportunities questionnaire: EOQ form

Closing date:                           Monday, 21 April 2025 (midnight)
Interview date:                        Thursday, 1 May 2025    
Recruitment Information:    Job description and person specification

If you have not heard from us within 2 weeks of the closing date, please assume that your application has not been shortlisted. No recruitment agencies please.

Part Time (14 hours), fixed term (6 months), based in Edinburgh

Salary: £25,424 pro rata, plus civil service pension, generous holiday entitlement and other benefits

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a world-leading botanical institute and international visitor attraction located in the centre of Edinburgh. Our work builds on our long history as a scientific botanic garden and centre of education with internationally important botanical collections and a commitment to the study and conservation of plants. Situated in the heart of Edinburgh, the garden is a sanctuary for a wide range of plant species, attracting visitors from all corners of the globe.

We are seeking a passionate and experienced Horticulturist to join our Herbaceous team two days a week. The successful candidate will help us achieve our vision to provide a positive future for plants, people, and the planet by exploring, conserving, and explaining the world of plants for a better future.

Key responsibilities include:

•    Work in key areas of the garden, maintaining the high horticultural standards.
•    Propose and implement ideas to improve plantings and standards of presentation.
•    Help supervise students and volunteers, ensuring their safety and the quality of their work.
•    Maintain horticultural equipment.
•    Deliver a world-class visitor experience while also helping to develop and conserve the living collection.

You should have experience in horticulture, particularly in plant cultivation, a good plant identification skills, and excellent organisational and communication skills, be able to work independently and as part of a team and have a passion for plants and a commitment to conservation and sustainability.

The successful candidate would ideally work on a Wednesday and Thursday.

To apply please email recruitment@rbge.org.uk with:
•    your CV
•    a covering letter outlining the skills, knowledge and experience you’d bring to the post
•    a completed equal opportunities questionnaire: EOQ form

Closing date:                           Monday, 21 April 2025 (midnight)
Interview date:                        Tuesday 29th April 2025
Recruitment Information:    Job description and person specification

If you have not heard from us within 2 weeks of the closing date, please assume that your application has not been shortlisted. No recruitment agencies please.

Full-time, fixed term (6 month maternity cover) post, based in Edinburgh
Salary £47,998 (pay award pending) plus generous holiday entitlement, Civil Service pension and other benefits.

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) are looking for a Bioinformatician to provide fixed term maternity cover for six months.  

We are seeking to recruit someone educated to PhD level with a strong focus on genomics, statistics, or computational science. 

You will provide data analysis support across our research projects which will include genome assembly, population genomics and phylogenomics in a wide range of plants.   You will maintain RBGE pipelines and workflows for handling high throughput sequence data and support students and staff, helping to develop and apply computational and statistical methods to plant biodiversity genomics science.  You will manage access to external server facilities such as the CropDiversity server. Working closely with RBGE's Technology team, you will optimise and manage RBGEs internal server facilities. 

You should have experience of genomics informatics including WGS, transcriptomics, genome assembly, or phylogenomics.  You will be proficient in scripting in bash, R and Python for writing and troubleshooting custom NGS pipelines.  Ideally, you will have some experience in managing servers and working with HPC and virtual machines.  You will have experience in teaching and communication of bioinformatics.  Experience working with non-model plant sequence data and a wide-ranging knowledge of NGS wet lab work, and biodiversity genetics/genomics are also desirable. 

To apply please email recruitment@rbge.org.uk with:
•    Your CV
•    A covering letter outlining the skills, knowledge and experience you’d bring to the post
•    A completed equal opportunities questionnaire: EOQ Form 

Closing date:                         Wednesday 30 April 2025 (midnight)
Interview date:                      Mid May 2025
Recruitment information:   Job Description and Person Specification

If you have not heard from us within 2 weeks of the closing date, please assume that your application has not been shortlisted. No recruitment agencies please.