The Botanic Garden Maintenance Specialist is responsible for the specialised maintenance, environmental management, and plant-health care of botanic collections, with particular focus on rare, delicate, and environmentally sensitive species. The role ensures that greenhouses, conservatories, specialised plant areas, and associated horticultural systems maintain optimal growing conditions through systematic monitoring, preventative maintenance, and effective environmental control.
Key Responsibilities
- Maintain optimal environmental conditions across greenhouses, conservatories, and specialised plant areas, including temperature, humidity, lighting, ventilation, and irrigation.
- Conduct regular plant-health inspections and identify signs of stress, pests, diseases, nutrient deficiencies, and environmental issues.
- Implement specialised care and maintenance protocols for rare, sensitive, and high-value plant collections.
- Operate, monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot irrigation, environmental control, lighting, sensors, and other horticultural systems.
- Manage irrigation and fertilisation programmes according to plant requirements, seasonal conditions, and water quality.
- Monitor soil, growing media, substrates, drainage, moisture, and root-zone conditions, and prepare or amend growing media as required.
- Implement greenhouse and conservatory cleaning, sanitation, sterilisation, and biosecurity procedures.
- Support Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and preventative plant-health programmes.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Horticulture, Botany, Plant Sciences, or a related discipline.
- Specialist certification or training in greenhouse management, controlled-environment horticulture, irrigation, plant health, or horticultural equipment maintenance is advantageous.
- Fluency in English and Arabic is required.
Experience
- Minimum 5 years of relevant professional experience in botanic garden maintenance, greenhouse operations, conservatories, specialist horticulture, or a comparable environment.
- Proven experience caring for rare, delicate, sensitive, or high-value plant collections.
- Hands-on experience with controlled-environment systems, irrigation, fertilisation, growing media, plant-health management, IPM, and greenhouse hygiene.
- Experience operating, troubleshooting, maintaining, and calibrating horticultural and environmental monitoring equipment.
- Experience implementing preventative and seasonal maintenance programmes and maintaining detailed technical and plant-health records.
- Experience working collaboratively with horticulture, facilities, engineering, contractors, and specialist technical teams.
- Previous experience in a botanic garden, conservatory, major public garden, research facility, or specialist horticulture environment is preferred.
Core Competencies
- Specialist knowledge of botanic garden and controlled-environment horticulture.
- Strong plant-health assessment and diagnostic skills.
- Knowledge of irrigation, plant nutrition, soil and substrate management, IPM, and biosecurity.
- Strong technical and preventative-maintenance skills.
- Ability to interpret environmental monitoring data and respond to changing plant and system conditions.
- High attention to detail when working with sensitive collections.
- Strong planning, record-keeping, problem-solving, and organisational skills.
- Effective written and verbal communication and teamwork.
- Commitment to plant conservation, sustainability, safety, and horticultural excellence.