Senior Officer Strategic Solutions (for Development and Nature) - ( Ref : 6412 ) in London

This position is based nationally.

Natural England are yet to finalise the details of the 2025 Pay Review. This will be backdated to July 2025, and this could involve a review of our current terms and conditions alongside increases to the advertised pay ranges. If there are any changes to what has been advertised the vacancy manager will be able to provide further details ahead of any offers being accepted.

Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.

Natural England is the Government's adviser for the natural environment and the nature regulator, with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes:

• Recovering Nature – Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places – Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing – Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature – Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

The role is based nationally. Some travel may be required. This role sits at the forefront of Natural England's shift toward nature recovery at scale. Working with our national leads and Area Teams, you will help shape the next generation of housing and infrastructure delivery—supporting new settlements, accelerating large-scale developments, and ensuring nature is designed into places from the outset.

This role offers a unique opportunity to influence how major development ambitions are delivered nationally, resolving complex issues through strategic, landscape-scale solutions that achieve win-wins for nature, communities and the economy.

We are seeking an ambitious individual with great communication and organisational skills to join our highly performing, supportive and friendly teams across Natural England's Sustainable Development work.

Working nationally, you will have a strategic national coordination role, supporting Natural England's Principal Officers for the New Towns and New Homes Accelerator Programmes to coordinate strategic approaches that unblock and accelerate housing and infrastructure development while maximising outcomes for nature recovery.

You will work closely with Area Teams, developers, planning authorities and technical specialists to identify cross-cutting environmental barriers affecting large development sites, and develop proactive, strategic solutions that enable sustainable growth.

You will champion early engagement with Natural England, promote nature-positive approaches to planned growth, and help ensure strategic mitigation and investment is targeted where it delivers the greatest benefit for people and nature.

The focus will be on the impact types which present most risk to development and delivery of economic growth because they are difficult to resolve at site scale. These include cumulative, indirect impacts such as air pollution, water pollution, water shortage, habitat fragmentation, disturbance of sensitive species, and obstruction of natural coastal change.

Your Role Will Be To:

• Work closely with Natural England's national and area team leads for the New Towns and New Homes Accelerator Programmes to identify and address thematic environmental issues causing delays to large housing and infrastructure projects.
• Provide proactive advice and support to developers, planning authorities and stakeholders to help unblock major development proposals while securing nature-positive outcomes.
• Coordinate with Area Teams to ensure consistent, aligned strategic approaches across the country, sharing insights, best practice and technical expertise.
• Identify opportunities for strategic solutions that address cumulative and cross-boundary impacts such as air quality, water quality, hydrology, fragmentation or coastal change, and support their development, design and delivery.
• Build effective partnerships with key stakeholders including local authorities, statutory agencies, developers, infrastructure bodies and environmental partners, helping resolve complex issues affecting major housing proposals.
• Convene partnerships and collaborate with experts to ensure that solutions are deliverable and achieve real benefits.
• Help target large-scale investment to mitigation measures which will make the most difference to nature's recovery.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities:

• Support national coordination and maintain strategic oversight of emerging environmental barriers associated with housing development pipelines, cross‑cutting risks, ensuring Area Teams have clarity on priorities and pressures.
• Develop, refine and embed national tools, processes and approaches for strategic environmental solutions, supporting consistent decision‑making and efficient use of specialist expertise across regions.
• Work closely with the Principal Officer(s) to support the deployment of specialist input, ensuring the right expertise is aligned to the right challenges at the right time to unblock large housing and infrastructure schemes.
• Provide leadership across Area Teams to build shared understanding of risks, best practice, and solution pathways, driving a coherent national offer for strategic development solutions.
• Support national reporting, tracking and assurance activity on strategic solution deployment and outcomes, ensuring senior leaders have clear insight into progress, risks and opportunities.
• Identify, develop and maintain positive and influential relationships with stakeholders – internally and externally - to help Natural England develop, implement, and deliver key areas of strategy and policy.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across Natural England and local partners. Share best practice, raise awareness and provide advice, training, guidance and support to build capability across Natural England.

Experience providing national or cross‑organisational coordination, including tracking and supporting delivery across multiple delivery teams.

Strong working knowledge of environmental considerations within the planning system, including environmental assessment, ecological assessment, local and national planning policy, and relevant regulations (e.g., Habitats Regulations, BNG).

Ability to analyse complex environmental and planning information and translate it into practical, proportionate advice.

Strong understanding of ecological principles and their application in identifying strategic-level impacts and solutions.

Experience representing an organisation at a senior level and working collaboratively with developers, planning authorities and other partners to resolve complex issues.

Good knowledge of the breadth of Natural England's role and delivery responsibilities; and of the key issues in environmental policy.

Experience of collaborating with a range of stakeholders to achieve pragmatic outcomes.

Ability to use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques to disseminate complex technical advice.

Knowledge of how to handle data responsibly, understand your role in good governance, and comply with delegations, policies, and procedures.

Experience of delivering work against agreed targets and deadlines in line with relevant project/programme management structures.

At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements. We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.

You will receive a generous leave allowance of 33 days per year (pro rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.

We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

Natural England has adopted hybrid working – which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.

Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.

If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.

This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We will assess you against the competencies below during the selection process:

• Technical Skills and Knowledge Competency
• Work Delivery
• Personal Effectiveness
• Putting People at the Heart of the Environment

When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your Action.

Please note that STAR format is not required when answering a Technical Skills & Knowledge competency. Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all competencies as set out in the Job Description.

Please note: Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application. However, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.