Ecologist at the Community Planning Administration – Nature Conservation and Rural Development

Do you want to work with both nature conservation and a project assignment with concrete measures for a more vibrant countryside? Köping Municipality is now looking for an ecologist for the Community Planning Administration. As part of the role, you will also have a development assignment where you map vacant houses and empty residences – and work to get more houses inhabited again. The goal of the project assignment is a more vibrant countryside with more newcomers, more functioning village environments, and better use of existing resources.

Role and Project

The position is a parental leave substitute at 75% extending from October 2026 to February 2028. You will belong to the Community Planning Administration and be located at the Land Unit. As part of the substitute role, there is also a time-limited project assignment to map vacant houses and empty residences in Köping Municipality and contribute to getting more vacant houses inhabited again.

We offer a meaningful assignment with clear public benefit, where you have great opportunities to influence both the working methods and implementation. The role also gives you the chance to combine fieldwork, analysis, and collaboration in practice, with support from the municipality's operations and broad local engagement.

1 position.

Responsibilities

In your role as an ecologist, you will play an important part in creating structure, building relationships, and driving the work forward, contributing nature conservation expertise to ongoing cases and development work. The tasks may include, for example:

• Evaluations and groundwork related to nature values, maintenance, and nature conservation issues.
• Internal advice within the municipality on ecological matters and physical planning.
• Participation in collaboration with other actors (e.g., associations, landowners, and authorities).
• Other recurring tasks within the Land Unit's mandate.

In the project assignment, you will have a central role in driving a project regarding vacant houses in Köping Municipality. A key part will be monitoring how other municipalities and regions have handled the issue. You will then translate and adapt these lessons to Köping's conditions. Following the external analysis, you will conduct an inventory and mapping of vacant houses in the municipality and produce a clear status report describing the number, geographical spread, status, probable ownership conditions, and possible development potential.

Based on the analysis, you will propose safe and functional processes for dialogue with relevant parties, for example regarding future use, sale, rental, or other solutions. You will collaborate closely with relevant municipal functions such as land, planning/construction, environment, business, and rural development, and work together with village associations, civil society, and other local initiatives. An important part of the assignment is also to contribute proposals that can lower barriers for reuse, renovation, and moving in.

Qualifications

We are looking for you who have a relevant higher education or university degree, for example in biology/ecology, environmental science, nature conservation, or urban planning, or other education that the employer considers equivalent. You have experience of project management or coordination, or alternatively a clear ability to drive structured work in project form, and you express yourself fluently in spoken and written Swedish. You thrive in a role with many contact surfaces and can build trust in dialogue with property owners and other actors. We also see that you are structured and self-initiating, with experience in driving work all the way from idea to implementation.

It is meritorious if you have experience of ecological work in municipalities, consultancy, or authorities, and/or have worked with rural development, housing issues, property-related issues, place development, or similar. If you also have experience of dialogue processes, citizen dialogue, or facilitation, we see this as a plus, as well as experience working with GIS/map data, inventory methodology, or data collection. Knowledge of civil society and local networks is also meritorious.

To succeed in the role, we believe you are receptive and relationship-building, solution-oriented and pragmatic, and confident in handling complex issues where many perspectives need to be weighed together. You have a genuine interest in place development and are driven by creating concrete results.

A valid driver's license (Category B) is required.

Employment Information

• Employment type: Fixed-term employment (parental leave substitute).
• Duration: October 2026 – February 2028 (75%).

Our Municipality

Köping is located in Western Mälardalen between Örebro, Västerås, and Eskilstuna. With our 26,000 inhabitants, we are a medium-sized municipality where close collaborations are possible. Working in the municipality is significant and makes a direct difference in the daily lives of Köping residents.

Köping Municipality has made its choice of recruitment partner and declines all offers of advertising and recruitment assistance in connection with this advertisement.